Kindness

The kids are in Soccer camp this week. I drop them off at Greenlake from 9am till noon. It's a great break for me as I walk Tank around for 1/2 hour and then go to the gym for the rest of the time.
This will be Hazel's first year doing this camp. August and I talked her through what the day would look like and I felt confident that she would do just great. The way this camp works is that the parents drop the kids kids off at the athletic field and listen to the coach explain what they will all be doing for the next few hours. Once all the info is given out they then split the kids into age groups. Hazel went with the 5 year olds and August went with the 8 year olds. Hazel noticed that there was a little boy who was VERY upset so I bent down to her ear and whispered, "It would be very kind if you tried to help that boy feel more comfortable." Hazel looked at me and nodded her head and I took my leave.
It poured the entire 3 hours while the kids were kicking the ball around. The coach informed us all that the camp would continue outside unless it starts to thunder (it never thunders here!) so when I picked the kids up they both were SOAKED to the bone. I joined the crowd of parents, coaches and kids in the middle of the field while the head coach went through all the things they learned today and what they should all practice for tomorrow and then he dismissed the kids. I stood there in the middle of the crowd and started to whistle. My kids and I can always find each other through this whistle. It's something I learned from my parents...helps us find family members in stores without sounding like crazy people yelling out random names. So I stood in one place and whistled and turned and whistled and turned and whistled until I saw August's smiling (and awfully wet) face. The two of us then stood in one place and whistled and turned for a while until I started to feel the dreaded panic rise within my chest. My eyes darted from one blond child to the next and didn't recognize any of them. I whistled as my heart began to race. This is a public park with at least 100 kids kicking balls around. I continued to whistle when someones voice started coming to my attention calling my name. I turned with wet eyes and looked at a parent I knew from August's school. I'm pretty sure she recognized the panic on my face because she immediately pointed to another mother from school. I followed her hand and saw my girl standing under an umbrella. I quickly thanked them both and chatted for a few minutes before we had to roam the field to find the water bottles, lunch boxes and random layers of clothing before we left.
On our ride home, after discussing how quickly they were going to take their clothes off and take warm baths we started talking about how they were going to end the camp tomorrow. August said he would find Hazel when they join up together for the end talk. Hazel said she'd look for August. After a few minutes Hazel mentioned that she did talk to the boy in her group and helped him juggle the ball and that in the end she was sure he had a good time. I told her how kind I thought she was for looking out for that boy and she told me that she thought Amy and Melissa (the parents who let her stand under the umbrella) were super kind as well. I agreed whole heartedly.