Page 121 - USA BOOK FINAL PDF---08-09-2020web-1_Neat-final

God for answers and to help my kid eat something. After 9 weeks of suffering with lots
of physical and emotional ups and downs, the doctors finally decided it was a fever of
unknown origin. At the end, my boy ended up in a coma and was in ICU for 3 days, before
coming back home without a fever. Even now if I remember those dark days I get goose
bumps and tears in my eyes.

On one of those dark days, my friend came with her 5-year-old who brought a get-well
card and gave it to my son. Seeing that beautiful card and the fun message inside, “Eat
more Chicken” brought a big smile and happy tears to my 16-year-old. While having a
fun conversation with the family he finished his food too. I was just watching that little

act of love and caring and was amazed by how much that 5-year-old’s sweet gesture had
impacted my son and me. I realized that no matter what we have in life, when we are
going through hard times, this kind of love and caring is most important.

The saying, “Do good to others, and it will come back to you in unexpected ways” is
so true. During those 4 months, my refrigerator was loaded with food and my house was
filled with people’s love. I was so blessed to be surrounded by a lot of caring and loving
friends and family. Today, my son is alive because of all their love and prayers.

That journey was eye-opening in many ways for my whole family. From that incident,
I learned that if simple acts of kindness bring happiness to people of any age, then
why don’t I spread that cheer with simple hand-made cards? I saw the impact that a

single card had on my son, and I wanted to bring that joy to others around me. In 2016,
I started to host card-making events. Once a year, I invite all my friends and children
to this beautiful event to make happy, cheerful cards, that we send out to children’s’
hospitals, to families who need prayers, or to military service members. Through this
experience, I have opened up more to doing small things for others, because it is the
little things in life that often bring the most joy.

Learning from my son’s journey, in 2014 on my 40 birthday, I decided to starta small
th
charity to support my childhood friend, who is my age and has been bedridden for 18
years because of medical issues. I was supporting and helping her whenever I visited my

grandmother’s place, but then she reached the stage where without someone’s help,
she couldn’t even move, and depended on her mom 24/7. Except for her head, none of
her body parts have sensation or movement. Every second she begs for her death and
lives with pain.

When I came to know that she needed more financial support to take care of her
medical expenses, I had a strong urge to help her. I didn’t know how I was going to do
it, so I shared my thoughts with my friends and then on my 40 birthday I asked my
th
friends to donate cash to the good cause of helping my friend instead of bringing me
gifts. I told them that it didn’t matter how much because every dollar counts. I received
phenomenal support from my best friends and collected over $1,000 on my 40 birthday.
th
All the money went to my friend in a happy, selfless way, and I have continued to support
54 117