Sadly diagnosed with dementia around five years ago, Jessie Bell, a grandmother, was moved into a nursing home this year as her condition worsened, for her own safety and wellbeing.

At a ripe old age of 94 she had done ok in life, but is now having a hard time in enjoying what’s left in life for her, Jessie’s daughter, Sandra, now 57 years old, described her mother as hardly ever smiling anymore.

Sandra Said:

“She started doing the oddest things like going into the garden in the middle of the night to move around garden furniture or she’d try to cook her chips in washing-up liquid”

“It got to the point where my sister was going down there seven days a week and mom had carers too.

“She’d be getting up in the middle of the night and playing up so in the end we had no choice but to put her in a home.”

As her mother’s condition progressed it was inevitable that Jessie’s condition would become worse to the point that she couldn’t remember anymore that Sandra and Carol were her daughters.

One year Carol, Sandra’s sister bought a doll for Jessie for their mother from a charity store, they desperately wanted their mother to feel happy again. Jessie, when she saw the doll thought it was a real baby, the doll made real baby noises too, it was quite convincing if your sight wasn’t too great!

For the first time in a long time she started smiling again, she found some happiness!

Jessie called the doll ‘Gizzy’, which also was her dog’s name!

Sandra said:

“My mom will look into the doll’s face and say to me ‘isn’t she lovely? Look at her smile’ …then mom will smile too, she rarely smiles at anyone else”

Sandra after some refmection then said:

“She’s gone really downhill in the last few months and she can’t walk at all, but the baby is always with her”

“Every time we go in and see her the baby is always by her side,” she said. “When I visited last night, she was cuddling it in her arms.”

“She’ll feed it and if she’s eating something then the baby will have to eat too. She doesn’t change the baby’s nappy or clothes herself though because she kept pulling its arm out of the socket.”

Many of the residents at the nursing home took to the doll too, some of them, also with dementia will ask Sandra how the baby is doing when she comes to visit her mother.

Sandra said:

“There’s a few other residents in the home that like to take her doll when she’s not looking”

“They get a lot of comfort from holding the baby.”

Some of the residents who are ‘sound of mind’, as Sandra said, ask Jessie regularly how the baby is doing, these are some of the few interactions Jessie is able to understand.

Would you believe it, but there is definitely something there, “doll therapy” is a controversial but growing thing; It’s been found to calm people with dementia and be a bright spot in their lives, but some people are not comfortable with it.

Sandra and Carol get some comfort in knowing their mom’s mind will be occupied while she is playing with the baby and she will feel a sense of happiness.

“I think the dementia has been harder for us than it has been for mom, but now when we leave her the doll gives her comfort”

While this story might be heartbreaking it is also a little ray of light for sons, mothers, and daughters in these positions, and it gives happiness and comfort to someone who otherwise would live every day in confusion and despair.

The baby may not feel, look, or be real to us, but it is to Jessie! It brings peace to chaos, harmony to despair and confusion, and in the end, the result for Jessie is the most important thing of all!

So often in life its every man or woman for himself or herself and especially in this hard and difficult world, there are many people who don’t or won’t make the time to help others. It feels like we could be destined for a future where less and less people care, well this story will restore your faith just a little…

I wonder if that is the reason why the 2013 Super Bowl commercial for Ram Trucks is still strongly felt by many, many across American soil. The advert featured clips from decades old speeches that were recorded by renowned radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.

The original speech that Harvey gave was in 1978, it was at the Future Farmers Of America Convention and very aptly entitled “So God Made a Farmer.”

It all happened to start like just like this:

“And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer.”

Many were, perhaps not familiar at all with this speech, but it was somewhat possible that Van Brownlee’s neighbors, that reside in the rural parts of Saint Charles over in Iowa, could be a little vague but familiar with this speech…

Even though that was the case, it really didn’t stop them from living out the words, from Harvey, in real life. Coming from all the local townships, Truro, Saint Charles and Peru… just to take care of everything!

Sadly, back in May and not long after the farmer had planted all his crop, Brownlee, aged 58 years, died.
Lisa Brownlee, woke up one morning to a big surprise, there was a huge convoy of trucks, grain carts and combines spread across the family’s land.

It happens that the community had resolved themselves to harvest her husband’s final crop before they had even dealt with their own crops in their own fields!

The harvest was a huge 165 acres of soybeans and 235 acres of corn too, the news said that Brownlee had practiced something called “no-till farming” to minimize soil erosion, he was, of course, concerned about the crazy amount of chemicals used today.

Neighbors unite to harvest farmer’s final crops – Van Brownlee died shortly after planting crops in the spring…. https://t.co/UuDPlOJ7NF

— Bob Kurtz (@dotnethed) October 31, 2017

Very active in the cattlemen and pork producers groups of Madison County, he had not only been on the Interstate 35 School Board, but he had sat on local cooperative farming boards.

Everyone has passed the word around, and very fast, many of the neighbors had taken note of the harvest plan, good old word of mouth! Not a single person could believe the extent of the turnout.

Steve Downs who organized all of the harvest, had known Brownlee since his junior high school, and he said that if Brownlee himself would do exactly the same for others, without a second thought.

Steve also said that it wasn’t that long ago that Brownlee helped bring in a neighbors hay crop for a farmer that had been sadly killed in a farming accident.

Other friends revered Brownlee as a guy committed to the land and real farming. He loved every single second that he got to be there, raising livestock and planting crops.

Steve said his friend is someone who:

“…always had a chew in and a hat on.”

This really does restore your faith in not just humankind but just goes to show how the hardworking farming community really do support each other, and have a true love of the work!

In life, there are many strange things that happen every day, to all sort of people, but for a teacher, in Seattle, he had a shock when he was put on paid leave, from the high school he worked at, for dressing up as Michael Jordan on Halloween.

The teacher concerned, Peter Colino, was wearing a costume which had a rubber mask and a jersey with number 23 embossed on it, with black gloves, just like a full body head to toe, Michael Jordan copy outfit!

Peter had worn the costume before, in fact, for the last 18 years, every single Halloween. He used it to encourage his students in the class, he thought it was a great thing…

In his usual routine, and in his yearly excitement, he had told the class that Jordan was coming to visit the school to visit, on the very next day, in costume, he walked in, he also played a video of Jordan’s wonderful career.

Peter said:

“He is, to me, the greatest, I’m going to say, athlete of all time and my whole deal is to honor Michael Jordan”

One of the parents made a formal complaint after a video was passed around the students at the school, the video featured Peter Colino. One mother who wanted to remain anonymous received the picture, screen-shotted image from the video, from her son at school.

The woman said:

“He’s never texted me while he was at school, he sent me the picture and I was just floored,”

“I couldn’t even believe the lapse of judgment.”

The result was that the principal emailed the teacher to tell him to remove the mask for the remainder of the day.

Many of the students couldn’t see a problem with the costume their teacher was wearing, it seemed innocent and harmless to them.

Dillon Mahone, KIRO, said:

“I laughed. It was funny. I didn’t mind it, seemed cool to me”

Peter felt very bad, his unfortunate incident sparked something he didn’t intend it to spark, so the very next day, after much thought he apologized to all the classes, then he discussed with them issues of race.

This is what he said also:

“The difficult part for me is I’ve always done well with trying to bring people together. I teach kids of all backgrounds and I’ve been respected and liked as a teacher”

A letter was sent out to all parents, the principal had said quite descriptively, that how he acted is:

“…in opposition to Ingraham’s values of racial diversity and inclusivity and have impacted our students negatively.”

Peter also arranged to meet with the Black Students’ Union where he apologized profusely.

Vice president, Eden Gevremariam, of the Union said:

“We are all able to learn from this and now people know this kind of thing shouldn’t happen. I’m hoping it won’t happen again in the future”

Well, his intentions were perhaps thought out, but his delivery definitely offended some people and sparked a lot of anger.  Should he have been treated this way when he meant no harm? Is the world going crazy? Or, should he feel the severe weight of his actions firmly fall on him?

Sometimes children are children, but rules are also rules, so when this one mom found her son using his phone after bedtime, even though he knew it was again the rules. He then had to ‘earn points’ to end his punishment… 500 points!

He was allowed to choose how to earn points, and his mom came up with an ingenious mix of household jobs for him to do it, each different job with a different amount of points.

This is what she wrote:

Congratulations! – You got grounded!!!

To get rid of your penalty, you must earn _500_ points.

Offense: _ Playing on the mobile phone after bedtime _

Write a nice letter to a family member = 10 points

Prepare and cook dinner = 50 points

1 load of laundry (get started, hang up, fold) = 100 points

Clean and organize a kitchen cupboard = 50 points per shelf

Empty the dishwasher = 25 points

Load the dishwasher = 25 points

Clean and wash off counters = 25 points

Clean out microwave = 40 points

Clean and vacuum the living room = 30 points

Sweep and mop kitchen = 30 points

Wash windows = 10 points per window

Water houseplants = 10 points

Dust living room = 25 points

Clean bathroom (sink, toilet and floor) = 50 points

Take out trash (and rebag) = 10 points per garbage bag

Clean the litter box = 10 points

There is one absolute certainty here, the house is going to be very, very clean, by the time he earns enough points!

What do think about this kind of punishment, I know I’ve done this before with my kids and it’s a great way to teach responsibility for actions!

Share this if you agree that mom’s clever way to teach her son a lesson was great!

School for many children is a scary affair, there are tests in school, bullies at play time and simply fitting in is a challenge in itself. All in all it’s a lot of anxiety!

A particular student, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who is only 8 years old, had a recent fear come true. ON 23rd October he was left at school until the end of the day.

That in in itself wasn’t to bad, but there was more, it was the boy’s birthday.

He only had one patent recorded on his file, and that parent was in jail., the school didn’t even have someone listed as an emergency contact for him.

The boys position was an awful and seemingly impossible combination of family circumstances.

The Staff at the school did the only thing they could and called the police department.

Right at that moment the story could have ended in tears, but thankfully and thanks to the officer who arrived, it didn’t. Darryl Robinson the officer there knew just what to do, and soon the situation turned around.

He realized that the young man had no-one to celebrate his birthday with, so having put the boy into his cruiser, he headed for the nearest Golden Arches.

Robinson explained:

“We did have a phone number for his grandfather”

“I asked his grandfather if it was okay to take him to McDonald’s before bringing him home. He said, ‘Yes.’”

The Police department said on it’s Facebook page;

“Thanks to the owners of our local McDonald’s, we were given free cheeseburger coupons to hand out in certain situations. Officer Robinson took the child for a meal at McDonald’s and a ride around in the police car for his birthday. Family was eventually located and the child was dropped off.”

The actions of the officer, Robinson, had greatly impressed the boy and the community!

One citizen commented on Facebook, he said:
“Thank you Officer Robinson for treating that young boy like a human being even though his parents are having a hard time right now.”

Claribel really has the look of being the absolute height of fashion, like she is from Hollywood, however, her boyfriend Brandon look about as casual you can get. The couple were really soul-mates, destined to be with each other, but at the same time, seemingly opposites.

The couple grew up together so know each other really well, their fashion, well, they accept each other the way they are. As their relationship matures a little, it’s time for a change-up!

Brandon wanted a look that was a little more professional and trendy, a really laid back kind of style; He would like to get his hair fashionably short and ultra professional.

Brandon is about to get a new look and Claribel really is looking forward to finding out what her ‘new guy’ is going to look like, she is excited about a drastic change!

Gretta Monahan, a makeup artist, share the secret plans for them with the audience:

“I just want to warn you all that your jaws are gonna drop”

“I have something in store for him that you’re not going to believe!”

Brandon goes backstage for his transformation, Claribel’s anticipates impatiently the result of his big makeover. When Brandon come back out the audience erupts with his amazing look!

The smart gent comes onto the stage, with his fashionably short hair and professional looking suit and shirt with a tie he looks like a start from Hollywood. But no one knew that he had a secret of his own too! He is going to reveal it after his beautiful girlfriend sees his new look.

When Claribel walks on stage, he can’t wait any longer! He gets down on one knee, in front of shocked Claribel, who is now overwhelmed by her amazing boyfriend, it’s the surprise of her life!

Nobody could hardly believe Brandon’s new look, and the icing on the cake was what he did after that, what an awesome way to remember not only his makeover but the start of forever together!

Have a look at the video, his unveiling plus his special request of Claribel has gone viral with in excess of three million views:

Rory Feek’s wife sadly passed away when she lost her struggle with cancer, at that time her fans were completely dismayed and saddened, everyone wondered what would happen about their favorite duo, the next couple superstars.

A full year and a half after this, Rory didn’t feel the same without his one and only and had found it so difficult to perform again. ‘This Life I Live’, his website, has kept his fans busy though!

Rory blogs as if he is writing an open diary, recounting his life after the terrible loss after Joey’s death. There are good reasons why the fans keep coming back, one is Rory’s daughter Indiana.

Three years old and with special needs she is full of energy and smiles and keeps Rory grounded and happy when he needs it most. Just to show how much show is his latest blog post, he surprises his fans by telling us how deeply his love is for his daughter and her mom.

At school, there is an awesome team of people, teachers and therapists right by Indiana’s since the first day she started to help her learn everything that other children the same age do. However, Rory thinks this isn’t what Joey would have desired…

Rory said:

“If Joey were here … she would be homeschooling Indy … she would be way more interested in Indiana learning to be a good person than being a good reader. To love God and the life that He’s given her, more than what a lot of the world is telling us to love. And in her mind, home is the best place to learn those things.”

Rory really wanted to fulfil Joey’s dream, so much so that he deiced he was going to build a school on his farm, and give Indiana the best of both! He used an old schoolhouse built around 1892 in Kentucky as his inspiration, Rory has started constructing his one-room schoolhouse, right there on his land!

Rory said:

“Fifty or more people… descended on our parking lot at 7 am this past Saturday morning with hammers and saws, hamburgers and hotdogs and hearts full of love. They were here to help build something big for someone little.”

The school when finished will have the room for about twelve children and as well as teaching the kids to read, write and mathematics, rural skills will be a big part of the curriculum.

Rory said:

“… the kids will have a playground and their own garden … a hen-house/barn with chickens and other animals to raise and woods to build a birdwatching hut and make trails that the teachers can take them for walks in. And across the pasture, we have horses that they can care for and learn to ride and a concert hall where they can learn about music and put productions on the stage.”

This will definitely be great for three year old Indiana, just look how the community comes together to realize Joey’s dream and see it materialize!

It doesn’t take much in todays world to discourage some people, just a good look at the news of the day is usually enough to make most people feel down.

Somebody was held at gunpoint, an elderly person was conned out of money, thugs broke into the family home…

Most news sources use shocking events that occur in everyday life to catch the attention of their readers and to keep them interested, but more rarely are their reports of nice things that less people want to ready about.

Though, with all these negative vibes we are surrounded with, there are many acts of kindness that we do not hear about. Whether the media decides not to report them or not, we must think to ourselves that there are more good people than bad.

Beau Collins, an Australian resident, had not long ago had his faith in humanity restored, it was a complete surprise to him.

Just think about how it feels in the grocery store, the cashier totals up your full shopping cart and you see the amount in the display as you reach for you wallet.

Now picture that feeling of all the blood suddenly draining from your face, we all know that feeling!

Your wallet that you thought was safely in your pocket, or purse in your handbag is nowhere to be found. Standing there you can feel yourself turning white, then red, no way to pay your bill and frozen in a stupor how to deal with this situation.

Collins had assumed that his daughter had played a joke on him and hidden his wallet, but actually he had misplaced it. In the US over 1000 purses or wallets are stolen every two minutes, but Collins didn’t want to think about it.

He now accepted that he would have to get a replacement drivers license and credit cards, any cash he would just consider lost!

Collins had not been expecting a package, but one arrived at his house…

He opened the package, but was shocked by the contents, his wallet!

Everything that was in his wallet was still in there, safe and sound, nothing missing at all.There was only a note in the package, unsigned…

He didn’t know who to thank for the safe return of his wallet, and their honesty, so he went to Facebook to find the person that had so thoughtfully returned his wallet to him, but so far he has had no luck finding them.

It looks like the anonymous person that returned his wallet was going to stay anonymous!

Its a great thought to know that despite everything we hear in the news, that this story of kindness, although little hear, is here to inspires us all! Let’s share this amazing story and hope it inspires us all a little more!

All children have heroes they look up to and admire, fictional or depicted by an actor, in sports, possibly a prominent political figure, film actors and many others, in essence, somebody to look up to, even perhaps a cool relative of a friend of the family.

Role models like these are so essential for reinforcing good values in the young minds of children and young people, who of course copy their every move. Children want to be just like their heroes as they grow up and copy what their heroes do, of course, they can do no wrong!

One of the greatest of these role models, at least in boys is his older brother, who holds, in most cases admiration and a sense they the younger of the two want to do as they do, especially when the older brother in a little more advanced in years.

An 11 year old from Carnegie Elementary School, in Tulsa, called Damon Chiodo had not seen his bigger brother Devin Tomei, 25 years old, for more than a few days since March 2015. His brother was an Army Specialist in Basic Training and Damon holds his brother in such high regard.

Devin completed his basic training then after this was deployed in Germany, he worked on the CH-47 Chinook helicopters there. The brothers kept in touch with Skype and of course Xbox! They really didn’t get to see each other though…

At school, Damon was asked to write an essay about his hero, so of course, he decided to write, without a second thought, about his brother!

Damon didn’t have a clue that the assignment was not a real one… It was planned by his teacher and the school principal very cunningly…

Devin realized that he was coming home, the Army was sending him stateside to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, his mom set a plan in place and Devin was in on it!

Daemon stood on stage, he began reading his essay, if only he knew what was coming, his older brother was hiding just the other side of the curtain…

Devin stood there listening to his little brother read his essay for at least 15 minutes, who read:

“Hundreds of Army missions depend on these helicopters, and my brother must make sure that all of them are safe and ready to fly.”

Then when he finished his speech Daemon turned round to find his brother there, in the flesh, the hero he had just told his class about. He was completely stunned at first for a second, but then leapt into Devin’s arms.

Devin was trying his best not to cry in from of the room full of sixth graders, he said:

“He was begging me to come home most of the time, telling me about all the stuff he’s doing”

When Daemon finished reading the essay he was allowed to leave school for the day so he could spend time with his brother. Devin will be stationed over in Kentucky, which is still a fair distance away, however, he can now get home more often.

Daemon sent a recent post to a television show, Ellen, DeGeneres, he said:

“Hey, Ellen I was wondering if you knew me. I’m Damon Chiodo from the national news and I was wondering if I could show them what happened and have a conversation.”

“I have always wanted to meet you and I think I can show you some things me and my brother like to do and show everyone the resemblance cause everyone always said that if I was born with Devin we would be twins but I think it would be a surprise for Devin to be able to see you because of him surprising me I want to surprise him.”

What an awesome display of brotherly love, I think they will have definitely made their parents proud!

Do you remember going to school? Sitting in class through lunchtime breaks and Physical Education and all the different events through the year, perhaps talent shows too. Simply the idea of being on stage was intimidating!

OK, so talent shows consist of either singing, dancing or playing an instrument and that pretty much covers it, but apart from showcasing talent the shows were a great way to show off to your schoolmates, the attention you got was pretty good too!

I really do think that these 10 year old boys that come from New Braunfels Christian Academy really did just that, they entertained, they impressed all their schoolmates, they, all in all, put on a great show in their school’s annual talent show.

These four boys had put a lot of time and effort too into their preparations for the amazing performance together and were really excited to see if their schoolmates would love it as much as they loved performing it.

The performance starts mysteriously with just a very big black sheet, everybody in the audience it quiet!

Then the sheet is pulled away, then there is nobody that is not laughing.

The boys didn’t go for the traditional talent show kind of thing, by singing or having an instrument, they thought up an original and incredibly funny performance, as babies in onesies and bibs, looking a little like puppets!

As soon as the music started it will crack you up, they are awesome!

The way they perform, right to the props and the choreography is just great, you will remember it for sure!

Have a look at their performances and you will see exactly, 1:50 will have you rolling on the floor!

As parents, we often take actions to prevent harm to our children, sometimes without thought to ourselves of the repercussions! This is just one of those times as this 56 year old mother jumped in with a knife in her hand to fend off three men gang raping her daughter.

One of the men died and subsequently the woman was arrested, however, the courts have now decided that she will not receive any time for the murder!

A South African woman was told by a friend of the terrible thing that was happening to her daughter, being gang-raped by three men, inside an empty house in part of a village called Qumbu.

The woman, 56, whose daughter was suffering the attack searched the house frantically only to find the three men and her distressed daughter. Without a thought, she quickly grabbed a knife and stabbed the three men to get them away from her daughter, one of the rapists died after the incident.

The mother was arrested and faced charges of murder and attempted murder for the part she played in the ordeal.

In South Africa, the case received a lot of attention, as well as international media too! The brave mother was nicknamed “Lion Mama”.

There were a lot of people who sympathized with the mother and there was a crowdfunding campaign set up to show their support and to pay her legal costs of around USD $ 10,000.

The mother’s lawyer said:

“She still needs to go for trauma counselling for her and her daughter. We have transferred the money that was paid to us to her for her wellbeing”

The Magistrates Court, Lady Frere, made an announcement that the woman was not going to be charged with the murder of the rapist and the other two men were arrested and await prosecution.

Talking publically to hundreds of her supporters outside the courthouse the mother said that she was completely touched by the public’s reaction and support.

She said:

“I felt like an old baboon that has no friends, but today you showed me I have people and that I was not alone. Thank you”

You can certainly say that this mother needed to save her daughter from the violence and stepped in without a thought for herself.

What would you do? Should she be locked up for the murder, share and support her!

Homeless people do have a way of drawing in those who want to genuinely help. Many of us only look at how they look outwardly but some of us make assumptions about them form how we think they ended up in the streets.

Nevertheless, even considering how that homeless person might have ended up on the streets, we find the love in our heart to give to them selflessly. On this note, there was one Facebooker who realized how important it is to do this!

A realtor in Jacksonville, North Carolina, called ShelbyLynn Henry Alexander went into detail about what exactly happened to her in January. She saw, while sat waiting at some traffic lights, a raggedy man standing with little clothes and it was only 30 degrees outside!

He had handwritten in big letters on a cardboard sign:

“Need a little help. Will pay it forward.”

Alexander went over to the guy, he had a dog that he wrapped in a blanket and decided to give him some money. She wrapped three bills around her real estate business card, and then for the times to come, maybe he would be in a better position and need a home.

Alexander drove off and as she did she said a prayer for him, she said about him:

“I never caught his name, but I remembered his face.”

Looking forward eight months and Alexander saw how much a simple prayer could change things, sure enough, she received a call one night from a client, at her office.

When Alexander arrived at the meeting with the client she noticed a dog poking his head out of the client’s truck. As the guy opened the truck door she noticed that is was the same guy she gave the money to earlier on that year.

This time around the guy was clean and dressed nicely, Alexander had a fearful thought that maybe it was a scam from the beginning, but then the guy, with tears in his eyes handed her back her card wrapped in three bills!

She was left completely speechless, she learned that he was homeless following a bad divorce. Present day he has a new job as an engineer, his life was back on track!

That day Alexander really learned to not judge anyone without knowing all about them and their circumstances, just pray and let God decide!

Do you remember the last time you left something important at home and had to turn back to get it? It’s completely maddening when this happens don’t you think?

There are some people that believe in fate and that there are no such things as coincidences, then there are some that things happen for a reason, like a grand ordained plan. Earl Melchert, whatever he believed before the September the 5th he now won’t ever grumble about such a mistake again.

Earl returned to his house in Barett, Minnesota at lunch to pick up diesel, in the distance he saw what looked like it could be a deer, but as he got closer he realized it was a person!

That deer that was a person was really a scared 15 year old girl called Jasmine Block, soaking wet and very nervous to take refuge inside Earl’s truck.

Earl recognised the girl straight away, he had seen her picture on the television news, flyers and all across the internet, missing from her home Alexandria, Minnesota since August 9th.

Jasmine said that the father, who was 32 years old, came to her housemate at night looking for her help with his son. Jasmine got inside the truck he was driving and went with him to his house in Carlos, Minnesota.

Jasmine was tied with zip ties one she got there! For a whole 29 days she was sexually assaulted by Baker and his two friends Michael Samuel Powers and Jason Lee Holby, 21 and 31 years old respectively. She was moved to many different locations regularly.

Jasmine feared for her life all the time she was kept there and told investigators that Baker tried to Kill her three times, once in a bathtub, but he was not strong enough with his cerebral palsy. The 5th of September the two men transported Jasmine in a duffel bag in a pickup truck…

Completely scared, Jasmine found her chance to make a run for it when the two men went inside a store, so when she was unsuccessful in getting help in nearby houses she swam across a lake to get to land near Earl’s home…

Her captors were looking for her, desperately, and she knew it, she was desperate to get inside Earl’s Truck, she pointed the men out to Earl and he called 911, when the police came, ultimately leading to the arrest of the three captors.

Powers came out and said that he had spent two weeks at baker’s house and been involved in sex with a child. Baker only admits to heavy alcohol and drug use but denies accusations of knowing Jasmine, and even denies picking her up or holding her against her will.

For Earl, and his part in helping the girl and calling the police he received $7,000 from Alexandria Police Dept which he immediately gave to Jasmine’s family as an anonymous donor!

Earl had retired the wekk beofre really surprised everyone when he just smiled and handed his cheque to Jasmine and gave her a huge heartfelt hug.

He said:

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,”

“What a retirement present, to hand over some money to people that really need it.”

If Earl had not left something at home and hadn’t had to return, then he would not have been able to save Jasmine’s life, The next time you double back just think, maybe it’s fate or part of a bigger picture!

Briana a soon to be a mother will have these four words, her mother in law said, imprinted in her thoughts forever “Austin had an accident”.

Brianna took the two hour journey to the hospital by car, her emotions were running high as she drove, without a single clue what was wrong with her husband. The baby she was carrying inside her was due in a few short weeks, they had excitedly anticipated the birth and new baby.

Squarely between life and death in an awkward balancing act, his brain had bled, the doctors were not sure why though at first.

Many tests later the doctors had eliminated drugs as the cause but they were able to give Austin’s family the reason why his brain had started to bleed like it did.

In order to push himself further and work more hours, especially with a daily commute, her husband had slipped into an energy drink addiction. Austin now faced a less than certain future, with many brain surgeries ahead of him, with the possibility of seizures and strokes.

Brianna wrote:

“But while everyone was focused on the almost unrecognizable face hooked up to all sorts of machines and tubes, all I could see was his parents”

Brianna’s heart couldn’t emotionally stand up to the gravity of the situation watching the grief on her in-law’s faces as they realized what was in store for him.

She went on to write:

“I saw the light leave his mother’s eyes as she saw her motionless son laying in that hospital bed”

“I saw his father break down crying as he held onto his wife.”

After two weeks her due date approached and he still had not woken up, she had to give birth without him there.

When her newborn baby looked up at her she wept with a bittersweet feeling, on one hand, the joy of the birth, but then the sadness of her husband too.

Brianna went on even more:

“But a beautiful miracle happened as I delivered our son, Austin woke up”

Months onward, eight to be more precise and Brianna finds herself caring for her baby and her husband, her husband is now a completely different man than she married, nevertheless, she falls more in love with him every day.

Brianna shared her final thoughts:

“Love is knowing you would sacrifice things that you didn’t even know you could sacrifice”

“Love is selfless.”

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We often don’t take the time to think about where all the food came from, especially when we sit down to eat it! Fresh vegetables and fruits are delicious, but we pay the price for them, the largest is to the farmer’s families!

To the farmer’s families, the sacrifice is great, that of a father working long hours and sacrificing his family time, either not realized or soon forgotten as we eat our food.

That is just the reason that the wife of one farmer decides to share the truth about her husband’s work on the farm after her difficult night trying to get the kids ready for bedtime.

Katie Spence Pugh, the Farmer’s wife was completely drained after a long hard day working, followed by an evening of looking after the kids, again without her husband’s help! Eugene her husband was, as is always, working his usual long hours in the fields and although his wife was frustrated she had a light bulb moment.

Katie went on to Facebook to let out her thoughts about the whole situation:

“I snapped this picture the other night at the end of a long day.

I was tired. I was irritated.

I had sent my husband a text telling him that I knew it wouldn’t make a difference, but I wanted him to know that I was feeling fed up with how much he works and with all that I have to do every day by myself.

The full-time job, cooking dinner, bathing kids, weekend trips without him, keeping up a home – you name it, I was resenting it. I have to have these little moments once (okay, several times) throughout planting and harvest season.

Then this happened.”

For Eugene, it really was the hardest time of year, with all the work he needs to do, but he had to keep on going for his family and the business.

Eugene wasn’t at all angry with his wife’s text, but simply sat down calmly to eat, for a little quiet time after a long difficult and wearing day doing all the farm jobs.

“He came in, fixed his plate and sat down to eat all alone. He was tired. He was hot. He was exhausted.

Rather than complain, he said he was sorry I was tired and felt that way.

Charlotte joined him and talked his head off and even ate most of his dinner. He didn’t complain. He shared, and it hit me. Do I wish that we saw him more than an hour or so a day? Yes. But, the love he has for his craft is something to envy.

Farmers work in a thankless profession. It’s always non-GMO this and organic that, and let’s not even talk about the stress from Mother Nature.

This is a man who is working to uphold four generations of blood, sweat and tears and showing his children the value of hard work and discipline. So while I felt frustrated, I really should have felt thankful.”
“I got to sit down to dinner and hear all the stories from the day with the kids. I got to give them a bath and hear their squeals and giggles. I got to snuggle and love on them for three hours more than he did. He is the one sacrificing, not me.

We will keep on keeping on until the next rainy day when we get a few extra hours with our hard worker. In the meantime, the next time you slip into that comfy cotton shirt or eat delicious farm fresh food, thank a farmer.

Where would we be without them?”

WIthout families like the Pughs then we wouldn’t have the fresh farm produce that we eat every day!

Even if things get difficult for them, Katie and Eugene will have each other to lean on for support – there will be no more frustration in their home.

Samoan Hotshot fire crew are completely accustomed to marching through the forest, most people don’t even give it a second thought. Their absolute favorite thing that they do was caught on camera and now it’s going viral!

These brave firefighters not only save people’s lives every day, putting themselves in harm’s way to save others, nut they are really talented singers too! They often project their powerful Samoan hymns as they are on the move….

A classic Samoan hymn that is popular with Samoan people is “Fa’afetai i le Atua”, which sounds a little bit like “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” it is all about saying praise to God for what he has given and its translated to something like:

“Thank God, that we grow, when he was free, to all of us”

This is the song in the video below starts by saying thanks to the son of God for coming from the heavens and to his soul for bringing success to their lives.

The forest fighters, who are incredibly brave and bold, they know how perilous their work is, saving others lives but too they also know that they have God to thank for protecting them in times of need.

Of course it makes perfect sense that they sing to the heavens to praise the Lord while on their merry way to the next place, it’s not only gracious but it’s magical echoing through the forest.

To gladly run into dangerous situations every day to help others takes amazing people, who are selfless and have God to help them out in times of need. Strong individuals with strong souls and their voices really are heavenly!

Four weeks of training is how long it takes before they are permitted to march through the forest together, with a more than significant bond they have developed, each depending on the other for their lives.

Have a look at them in their full mountainside sing song in the video below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De9hDyIN6JY

Getting up each morning, most of us think that the day is going to go just as planned, usually if we have a plan that is. Work, maybe for some of us, school, routine jobs, and other things. Now and again though something happens that we were not expecting and an ordinary day will become life changing.

One day when A son and his mother were going through the drive through at a fast food place, they hoped to have a delicious lunch, but instead and to their amazement, they left the restaurant with a lot more!

Landon and his mother Tara Routzong were in the drive through and saw something that drew their attention to the licence plate in front of them. As they patiently waited in the line at the ‘Chik-fil-A’ Tara and her son noticed something on the licence plate directly in front of them, something which drove them straight to take action!

The licence plate displayed the word ‘Florida’, but what was the reason that it was so interesting, after all we pass many licence plates every day, but Tara and Landon were feeling very downtrodden when they had the realization where the guy came from!

The sad news about the Hurricane Irma on television has touched us all, such a destructive storm as it passed through the Caribbean and finally landed on Florida, tearing up homes, lives and while communities too. So when Son and mother noticed the Florida plates right in front of them, they decided almost immediately and together to do a good deed.

Tara said on Facebook:

“Went to Chick Fil A for lunch today because yum. Landon saw the car in front of us was from Florida (we have been talking about Irma today) and he declared we were paying for their meal and I agreed.”

Then she said:

“But how do you pay for the car in front of you?? You run toward their window with a debit card in hand and scare the mess out of them lol”

The Florida guy felt very deeply moved by this gesture, so unexpected and beautiful was this act of kindness! The Floridian guy in the ‘Chick-fil-A’ drive-thru was actually fleeing the path of this crazy and terrifying hurricane…

“Landon and I both had tears in our eyes from how appreciative he was.”

Tara said, in her Facebook post:

“The man has left his home in Miami and was passing through to go stay with family in Birmingham. I told him we hoped he returned to his house untouched and that we’d keep him in our thoughts.”

The awesome kindness of his mother and son wasn’t expensive, but the gesture really made a difference!

The tragic events of the hurricane has really brought out the best in most of us, as humans, looking after other humans. People from all over the world and many different states are joining together to donate their time, help, personal things and belongings, and hard earned cash to help rebuild the lives of those suffering because of the hurricane.

Tara said:

“I often feel like I’m failing because I can’t do it all, all the time and then things like this happen and remind me that I don’t have to. My most important job is going just fine.”