Perfectly Practical #182 - Small but Mighty Gifts

Time is, and will always be, the best gift one can give.

It's versatile and flexible and well received.

Two instances where the gift of time is most precious even though the recipients aren't really aware, are babies and dementia sufferers/Alzheimer's patients.

My sweet friend Operina, in all her many visits to the Pediatric ICU with her son, has seen cases where babies were born and due to the overwhelming responsibility of the babies' health conditions, the parents have left them in the hospital - abandoned.  And although the nurses do a great job of trying to make as much time for the orphaned babies as possible, their job requires that their attention is elsewhere. 

Here's where the gift of time comes in:  volunteers donate their time (and cuddles and love) to come in and hold the babies.  We've all read the studies on how important touch is to the development of babies and without these volunteers, these babies would be stunted.  

The volunteers won't get thank you notes or flowers or praise for loving on those babies, instead they get the honor of standing in the gap for those sweet little ones.

My dear Maw-maw had dementia in her last years and it was hard for our family to watch her relive the same moments over and over.  It is easy to become impatient with a dementia sufferer but giving isn't about what is easy.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are full of people, who, like those babies, have been abandoned because of the weight of responsibility of their care.  

If you are looking for ways to give during this beautiful season of being thankful for what we are given like family & health, please consider spending time in a NICU, Ped's ICU, or a nursing home. 

This is part of WfMW.