Gift 9 ~ Thanks, Mama, Thanks / Job Seeker Assistance

With Gift 9 on March 27, Cami is putting together a gift package for her mom for flying out on short notice to help with her medical detox. As she writes her mother's address, she starts thinking about her hometown in western Nebraska (both the good and the bad) and about how mom who has always been the most patient and giving woman she knows. Cami also starts thinking about the possibilities for the giving movement she wants to start and settles on the 29-Day Giving Challenge. She makes sure to clear all this with Mbali before moving forward and explains to Mbali that the purpose is to revive the giving spirit among people. Mbali likes it and provides her blessing. After a nap, an idea sparks and Cami decides to walk one lap around the block. If tired, she'll come home. If not, she'll keep walking laps around the block. Amazingly she walks five blocks without falling!

My gift for the day is to spend about an hour providing assistance and advice to one of the job seekers I talked to yesterday. This one has been out of work for almost a year, and he immediately takes me up on my offer to review his resume and do a practice interview. We meet at the local McDonald's and after getting our drinks (sweet tea for him, coffee for me:), we settle into a booth in the corner and start talking through his resume. I take notes regarding the suggestions I had to offer, and in our extended discussions beyond the resume there are a few other thoughts, ideas and suggestions offered and captured as well. Afterwards I attend a FIAT planning meeting at the church, and I admit by the time I got home this evening I am a bit weary and tired (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the 3-mile run I did yesterday or the fact that I was up til 1am....). Luckily the guys aren't too demanding, and I had done the cooking and cleaning (most of it anyway!) before I left. As I gather my thoughts, my computer, and the 29 Gifts book, my youngest son Aaron calls me in to the kitchen to help him with something. As it turns out, he is making up a handmade package of some of his Yu-Gi-Oh cards to give to his friend Alison at school. Now I'm not even sure that Aaron knows that I am doing the 29-Gift Giving Challenge; but it was very gratifying to me to see him giving gifts and actually "getting it"! Way to go Aaron!