Like Daughter Like Mother

The older my daughter gets, the more outgoing she is and the more outgoing I am becoming.
Last week we flew to Texas to finalize her adoption. Liliana was in heaven at the St. Louis airport East Terminal. She had this wide open space and so Chris and I took turns walking up and down the terminal with her to let her get her energies out before boarding the plane. She made tons of friends along the way. We passed by a sports bar and there was an older man who was in his own world drinking his whiskey. Liliana walked right up to him and smiled. He immediately put down his glass to engage in conversation with her. After that she found a big tough guy that looked like he was meeting up with his gangster buddies. Same thing.. sure enough Mr Gangster himself was flashing his teeth trying to get Liliana to smile more. I love it that she picks the most random people to socialize with. It seriously has made me more aware of people when I go out and I feel like I am on a mission now to encourage strangers.

A few weeks ago the lady at the deli counter was pouring out her heart to me about her family problems and at the end of our time slipped me some extra turkey that I didn't have to pay for. I think she just appreciated someone to take time to listen to her.
We often go for family treats to Culvers. There's a lady that cleans the dining room named Mary. She is an older lady with no kids or husband and you can tell she also is lonely. So now every time we go in we make sure to talk to Mary and give her space to just share what is going on with her life. It's only a few minutes of our time, but I think it really encourages Mary.

Just random people.. I am so thankful that Liliana is teaching me to notice them, to read their name tags at work and call them by name, to ask them questions about their lives and hopefully to speak encouraging words to them. It makes ordinary tasks like running errands so much richer when I am thinking, "How can I encourage the check out clerk at Walmart?"