Conceiving Piper: 52 Acts of Random Kindness, Week 4

What he said!

For this weeks random act of kindness, I chose to send a gift to a stranger from their baby registry at Babies R' Us. Luckily you can search registries at their site by last name, for that is how I picked the recipient. But how did I ultimately choose who to send the gift to? Well that is the fun part.

For any of you that follow me on Facebook, you are probably aware that last night I asked for you to throw out a random last name via a comment. I had earlier in the week tried picking one myself, but I felt that wasn't random enough for some reason. I went with the first last name thrown out there which was Nielsen, which was provided by Kristen Tucker. Once I had the last name, I went over to the Babies 'R' Us baby registry page and searched using that last name. Altogether, there were 0 registries with Nielsen, however there were 51 registries with Nielson that popped up. I always like the universe to play some role in the random acts, so I went with the alternate spelling for I took it as a sign.

My first task was to scroll through the list of names to see who was a good candidate, mind you not all registries are current so it was imperative to find a woman whose baby due date had yet to arrive. Another criteria I was looking to cover was that the recipient be another single mom, or at least had no spouse listed as a co-registrant. I know not having a spouse listed doesn't necessarily mean the future mom from the registry would be single like me, but it was the best indicator I could use. Well low and behold, I found not only a soon-to-be mom that seemed to be single, but also had her own name listed as the co-registrant, which I considered even more of a sign of possible singlehood. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't want anyone to think I was discriminating against couples, lol. I chose to go the single mom route solely on the fact that I was also a single mom, and single moms often have less of a support network than having someone there who is your partner in crime. Anyway, I'm sure you all get what I'm trying to say, so I won't try to hash out all my reasonings.

Once I had the possibly single mom whose due date had not yet arrived picked out, another sign flew at me fromt the universe...this mom was having a little boy whose due date was on my birthday, which is this coming Tuesday on the 27th of August! How coincidental is that? And I love the idea that my gift would possibly arrive around the same time as her little boy, how cool!

The next part in my little fun adventure was picking out the gift. The woman I chose didn't have a ton of items on her registry, but my goal was to not go overboard, just a simple gift, and one that I could purchase using the gift card I received from buying diapers at Babies 'R' Us this past week. That narrowed my max spending limit to $10 before shipping and tax. I know there's not a whole lot of baby things one can get for $10, but she had registered for a boys cap and sock set which was $9.99. Since none had been purchased yet, the item was the perfect pick!

I thought these were too cute!

As you can see, the items is adorable and a simple little gift that fit my budgetary needs. Yes, I'm trying to keep my acts of kindness on a reasonable budget. Last week was a bit on the pricier side, but I knew it would be. However, once my wheels were spinning, I couldn't make them stop! So this week I knew I had to stick to my guns, for kindness shouldn't cost a fortune, if anything at all. So far all my acts have contained a slight monetary side, but that's not the intention. I just have yet to come up with creative free ways of performing these acts. I thought about baking cookies for people, but we're no longer in the 1950s and unfortunately people get suspicious of homemade edible goods. I'm working on coming up with freebies-to-me ideas, I have 48 weeks left to do so, so surely my brain will come up with something in that time. I do have some ideas along those lines, but with balancing work and a new baby, time constraints also come into play. Right now I've been taking the easy route, but I'll make myself step up my game before it's all said and done. Man, I'm getting off track, lol, back to the point!

With my gift I also added the free gift note. I was limited to a small number of characters, so I simply let A. Nielson know that I was doing these random acts, that she had been chosen this week, and gave her my blog address in case she wanted to know more about how and why she was chosen. I hope she doesn't think it is all creepy and freak out. I really would hate anyone taking such a nice thing and being wary about it. The fact I worry about this is pretty sad. People don't trust people the way they used to, and it's a shame. If she does jump on here and read this, I'd like to say the following to her:

Although I cannot use your first name because I respect your privacy, congratulations A. Nielson on your new little boy! I'm not a creepy baby registry stalker, just a woman who is trying to pay forward a random kindness that was done for me. I also hope my new daughter, when she is old enough to read her life story through this blog mostly dedicated to her, will see these posts and it will somehow encourage her to be a better person, to decide to always be nice to people (even strangers), and to do her part to make the world a better place, even if it is something small that is on the individual level rather than on a global scale. If everyone would work on making the world a better place on the individual level, then the world would be a better place. Yes, a Utopian idea but still a nice thought that doesn't hurt to be thunk (I just love that wrong word so much!). And Ms. Nielson, I do not expect you or anyone else to turn around and pay this act forward. I'm not expecting a thanks, a mention, praise, recognition, or anything of that nature. What I hope is that it made your day a little brighter and put a smile on your face. Smiles are contagious, so if anything pass that along. I hope your little boy is the light of your life as my little girl is the light of mine. Enjoy him and your time together, and tell him you love him every day. Sincerely, Ashley.

Yes, I'm the sappy kind!

So there you all have it, random act week 4 accomplished! Now on to contemplate what I'm going to do next. It really does come as a surprise to me every week, too. By the way, if anyone has any suggestions for ideas, or has performed acts of kindness of their own, I would love to hear about them. Feel free to leave them in a comment or come visit my Facebook page and tell me all about them there. Or drop me an email at ashley@singlemodernmom.com. It really has been an enjoyable process so far. Although I will admit I go through a bit of a panic stage every week thinking I won't come up with anything new to do. I know, only week 4 and I'm already overthinking it! Got to love that personality trait of mine! On that note, I'm going to quit over thinking how to wrap this entry up and just move ahead with my usual ending about Top Baby Blogs and my social sites info. I'm holding steady at #29 on Top Baby Blogs thanks to all your votes! Don't forget you can vote every 24 hours, so if you have voted before, go vote again! I'm so excited for the day when I will break into the top 25. I know it will happen, and I'm proud that I've made it as far up as I have on the list. Help me to continue to move up by clicking the button below! Then come join me on my other sites, especially my Facebook where all the daily action occurs!