Dear stranger,

To the kind lady at Target who bent down to tie my shoe because you understood too, how hard Motherhood is. You saw me balancing a baby on one hip, all while trying to checkout and make sure my autistic two year old didn’t take off in the opposite direction ( as he so often does.)

You didn’t watch me struggle and pass me by, you didn’t ask if I needed help, you just gave it. Humbling yourself enough in front of all those people to reach down and tie my shoe. What’s ironic though, is that it humbled me. It sent me to the car in tears reminded that there are kind and authentic and genuine people in this world still.

What you saw was an exhausted and struggling Mother trying her best.
But what you didn’t see was how alone and isolated I feel most days. You didn’t see how forgotten about I so often feel in this journey of Motherhood. You couldn’t see that I was healing from childhood trauma and picking up the pieces of a little girl that never had an example of what a nurturing, protective and kind Mother looks like; and yet is trying desperately to be one herself.

You didn’t see any of those things, and yet you didn’t have to. When you bent down to tie my shoe you saw ME. You reached the part of me that has felt so dang invisible, misunderstood and forgotten about. In that small moment you SAW me, you understood and you just knew that was what I needed.

Maybe it was because you yourself were a mother and you had been there yourself before, or maybe you heard the still, small voice from God Himself whisper in your heart. Who knows, but in that moment, on the cold Target floors, under the fluorescent lights and many confused,judgmental stares, You did way more than tie my shoe, you validated me as a person, as a woman, as a mother. You made me feel seen and worth noticing and that my efforts aren’t in vain. You saw the struggle and weren’t another face in the crowd to just walk by.

So if you ever read this, please know you did so much more than tie my shoe that day.

Thank you.