Yes, I was six months pregnant, alone, and ugly-crying in the middle of the mall the Saturday before school started. You can imagine the looks I received… I’m sure people thought my baby daddy had just abandoned me… Or maybe they actually thought I was an over-hormonal and emotional pregnant lady crying over something trivial… The reason may or may not really be the latter.

Anyways, it was the weekend a local radio station had set up in the center of the mall to hand out school supplies to students in need. I did not know this prior to going, but when I showed up and there were lines of people from the center of the mall clear to the end of one wing, I became a little curious as to what was going on. So I continued my walk to the maternity store, did my shopping, went to get a pretzel, and in all of this time, the lines were still just as long. They were never ending.

So I sat. I looked at the innocent faces of the children in line as I snacked on my pretzel, and I began to cry. Not just one or two tears. I mean I bawled. Because here I was buying myself new pants and eating a pretzel, while these innocent children waited hours for a pack of pencils and paper.

I wept for those kids who have needs that I will never know. I wept for the parents who can’t provide their families. I wept for the families who may not have food to eat or warm places to sleep. I wept for all of the needs I will never know. Then I wept for my own kids and how much they already have and how, hopefully, they will never experience these needs. I wept for all of the kids who have never felt loved. And I wept for my kids who only know love.

Each year my church shows a video of them handing out hundreds and hundreds of backpacks to the kids in our area, and each year I cry watching that video. But seeing it in person was such a humbling experience.  I think about how much I take for granted. How often I forget to be thankful. How the small things to me are big things to others…

So, yes, I was the pregnant lady ugly-crying at the mall on one of its busiest days of the year…