Life According to Kiera: Pay It Forward

Friday, I followed Kiera and her class to Abilene.  They were visiting a museum and then if the parents that were in attendance wanted, they were able to sign their child out. Since Aaron and I have been working a lot lately, I decided to go, sign her out and have a Mommy/Daughter day.

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After a great time at the museum, Kiera and I began to discuss what we were going to eat for lunch. “How about pizza?” I asked.

“Yes!” She excitedly exclaimed from the back seat.

“Pizza it is.” I responded as I added the location on the GPS and set out.

We pulled into the parking lot at Brick Oven Pizza Co. and made our way inside. “You can sit anywhere you would like.” A server said as she greeted us at the door.

“How about we sit up at the bar?” I asked Kiera as I pointed to the tall chairs. I figured she would love to sit there so we could watch as they made the pizzas.

Kiera and I beelined over to the chairs and I asked the server behind the counter if we could sit there.

“Absolutely!” She said as she passed a menu to us.

It didn’t take us long to make a decision and our server, Brianne, helped us decide on a yummy appetizer.

I watched as the cook opened the stove to slide a pizza in. “What do you think he is cooking?” I asked Kiera. My plan was to make a game out of what kind of pizza he put in the oven. Kiera nixed that really quickly with her answer.

“Uh… he’s making a pizza.” She stated with sarcasm and humor mixed in her voice. “What did you think he was making?”

I couldn’t help but bust into laughter at her wit.

We laughed a lot, visited with Brianne and ate amazing pizza.

Deciding it was tine to head to our next destination, I pulled out my wallet to settle our bill. 

“Your bill has already been taken care of. “ Brianne said with a smile. “Someone saw that y’all were out spending the day together and wanted to do something nice.”

My jaw dropped and I teared up slightly. “Really?” I asked, still holding my wallet.

Kiera began to look around. “But, who do we say thank you to?” She asked.

Brianne continued to smile as she said,  “They’ve already left but they wanted to do something nice.”

“Wow.” I was still slightly shocked. I turned to Kiera who was still completely puzzled and confused. “We can’t tell the person thank you, but we can pay it forward by doing something nice for someone else.” I explained.

With a final “thank you” and a wave good-by to Brianne, Kiera and I headed off to do a little shopping. Our first shopping stop, involved buying shoes for my ever-growing child.

Being the princess she is, she quickly found a pair of silver, sparkly, glittery low heels. “These are amazing!” She squealed as the store manager slid them on her feet.

I didn’t even argue since she needed dress shoes. From there, we ventured into Old Navy.

“I’m going to ask the manager if they have any glittery dresses to go with my new silver high tops.” She stated confidently as we began to make our way around the store.

“I don’t know that they have any glittery dresses, baby.” I said trying to lay the groundwork for possible disappointment.

“I’ll just find the manager and ask.” She responded.

We stopped by the dressing room and Kiera approached three store associates. They smiled down at her before one asked, “Can I help you?”

“Yes. I wondered if you had any dresses to go with my new silver high tops.” Kiera said.

One of the associates, Gabby, glanced to me as I quickly amended Kiera’s statement. “High heels. Not high tops.”

Gabby beamed at Kiera as if she was royalty. “I bet we can find something for you.” She said as she steered us out of the dressing room area and towards the dresses. “Let’s go see what we can find.”

In all reality, I was prepared for the associates to point us in the direction of the dresses and send us on our way, but that’s not what happened. I listened in awe as Gabby spoke to Kiera as if she was picking out her prom dress.

“What kind of dress did you have in mind? Do you want a long dress or a shorter dress?” She asked. “Do you want sleeveless or do you want it to cover your arms?”

They discussed colors and sizes and Gabby began to pull different dresses off the racks, holding them out for Kiera to inspect. A few moments later, we were headed to the dressing room. Gabby smiled at the two associates folding clothes. “I am helping a VIP.”

Kiera walked into the dressing room assigned to her and I started to follow. “No, Mom.” She said, turning to face me. “Stay out here. I can do this.”

A few moments later, Kiera came out modeling her first dress. Not only did I get to see it, but she made sure to walk down and let the other two associates manning the dressing room give their opinion as well. They were amazing.

They complimented her choices, while also gently telling her if an outfit was too large. Finally, we settled on a dress. By that time, Gabby had made her way back to the dressing room. It was perfect timing as Kiera had her choice dress on.

Kiera sashayed over to Gabby, who gushed over her choice.

“Thank you.” I said to Gabby, tearing up for the second time that day. “That was wonderful. You made her day.”

“My pleasure!” Gabby replied. “I have a daughter and I hope that someone would do something like that for her.”

Kiera and I were exhausted when we finally pulled into our driveway later that evening. We were exhausted but, oh, so blessed. It really brought to light that there are so many ways to pay it forward.

Whether it is by paying for someone’s meal, or just by taking that extra few minutes to make someone feel special. Both instances made an impact on Kiera and I.

I want to say thank you to all those who made our Mommy/Daughter day so special. And while you are going about your day, take a moment and make someone’s day special, whether it is by buying them a drink, letting them cut in front of you at the grocery store or just by paying them a compliment. Pay it forward.

Thank you for sharing in our weekly journeys. If you have missed any of our past stories, check out our new blog page at www.lifea2k.net or drop us a line at lifea2k@yahoo.com.