the generosity of those around me....

ok, so my girls take dance with miss maria at 10th street. it is a pto-organized program. in spite of my insane poverty, maria allows my girls to dance. she does not demand payment...but accepts what i can give. what a generous person.

wait, it gets better.... i got emails last week from various dance moms, prodding us to pay for the costumes. each email (the girls are in 5 classes between the 3 of them, so i got many emails) implored us to get with miss maria to get this money in!!! my repeated attempts to find out just what i owed were thwarted by replies of, "you will have to get with miss maria."

finally, last wednesday, i stopped in to ask. here was the conversation. imagine me walking up to her, at the end of dance class... little 8 year olds giggling and bounding around in their tutus and leotards. before i could even get out a word, maria grabbed my arm, "HOW ARE YOU???"

(i should mention i was in the hospital for a week before christmas and she has not seen me since then)

"i'm much better, thank you."

"we have been so worried about you! what happened??"

so i went on to explain that i had diverticulitis, brought on my a parasite. she was sooo sweet and supportive and caring. time to ask the question...

"so what do i owe for all of the girls' costumes"

her reply, "Oh, Kath. You know I will take a look at it and see. I'm not worried about it. You can pay what you can."

trying not to cry from relief, i thanked her and gathered up louisa.

yes, i am blessed....but that's not all....

so the next night, louisa had a basketball game. one of the mom's, kelly, had gotten hoodies for the girls and had asked for $10 for each person. so i ran into kelly and told her i had my checkbook, if i could go ahead and pay her. her reply? "oh, miss maria 'found' $10 to pay for mia's hoodie. don't worry about it."

ok.... i realize that we are all struggling and that this might irriate some people that i am being so very blessed. i hope they can see that this is the kind of thing that keeps me going. and the next time someone looks at me, the girls and my life and says, "Kath, I don't know how you do it!" i will reply, "the generosity of those around me" and think of miss maria!