You will be seeing two Letters to Our Children in March since we missed February. We have a small group of amazing moms and photographers who write letters each month to our children. Click through the circle to read the letters and see their beautiful images. Start with Brennan Lanter.

Dear girls,

This past weekend I flew to San Diego to speak at a conference. I don’t fly by myself often and I must admit it was kind of nice sitting on a plane quietly reading a book by myself. Once I landed, I quickly went to the baggage claim to get my suitcase. As I was waiting, I looked over and saw a pregnant woman with a young child sleeping in a stroller. She also had a large suitcase and a carseat in a carrier. I noticed that she had more items than she could carry. I had flashes back to flying with Kate and Emma to and from Japan by myself and how it is a daunting task to figure out how I would do it all by myself. I watched for about 10 seconds before I realized she needed help. I walked over and offered to help. She was very sweet and accepted my help. She continued to thank me but I told her I had been helped so much it was the least I could do.

After I helped her to where her shuttle would pick her up, I went back in the airport to get my suitcase. On my way out I saw another mother struggling. Her suitcases had fallen off the push cart and her two children in the stroller were tired. Again, I stopped to help her and lend a hand to get her to where she needed to go.

I tell you these stories not to say that I’m awesome (which if you ever wonder the answer is always yes, your mom is awesome) but to show you that you need to be helpful to strangers, especially women and moms.

The airport was crowded and there were plenty of people there. I could have said, I’m tired, someone else will help them. But the thing was, no one else WAS helping them. People were walking by continuing on with their lives. They were probably thinking, someone else will help them.

Be that someone else. Be the person who walks up and says “Can I help you?”.

Don’t be afraid to offer to help.

Don’t think you are too busy to offer to help.

Don’t think you are too good to offer to help.

There is so much kindness in the world and it warms my heart when a stranger helps me. We all have busy lives. But it takes only a few seconds to help someone out. You never know what they are going through or how much they will appreciate your help.

I have had strangers help me and it has almost brought me to tears.

There is a story of a man walking on the beach. He sees a boy throwing starfish that has been washed up on the shore after a storm back into the water. The man asks what he is doing. He replies that he is putting the starfish back into the water so that the sun does not dry them out. The man looks at the hundreds of starfish washed up on shore and says he doesn’t think he will make much of a difference. The boy picks up a starfish, throws it in the water, and says “I made a difference to that one.”

You may not be able to help everyone but you will make a difference to the people you do help.

I love you,
Mommy