Today, I'm grateful for the kindness of strangers.
This is not to say that the kindness of friends and family is not greatly appreciated. My mom took a couple of hours out of her vacation week to take care of the girls and Jaxon on Tuesday so Tom and I could make a quick trip to the DMV to get our Ohio drivers' licenses and our license plates.
And this is where the kindness of strangers comes in.
At the DMV, the state police office overseeing the office where the written tests are given (which we had to take in order to obtain an Ohio license since we moved here from Indiana) took our documents and, upon seeing that our birth certificates didn't have gender on them, informed us that he could use these documents and let us take the test the ladies in the DMV wouldn't be able to use the birth certificates and we'd have 60 days to get new ones with gender indicated and then come back to get our licenses.
Sigh.
Okay, we decided since we were there and Tom had stayed up most of the night reading the book to study up for the test, we'd just take the test and go from there.
We both passed but I have to admit to a bit of glee at the fact that I only missed 5 while Tom missed 7. Heeee!! On these tests, you have to get 30 out of the 40 questions correct.
On to the DMV where, even though we couldn't get our licenses, we'd get our plates.
Once there, the lady who worked with us was so, so nice. She said that because we weren't using our birth certificates as official identification, but rather as proof of U.S. citizenship, she could us them. We could get our licenses!! Wheeee.....
We filled out papers, we proved our residency (thanks to a bank statement I just happened to have in my purse with both our names on it) we proved that we're married, we went to the office next door and had the titles changed for both our vehicles, we went back to the DMV where we had our pictures taken and then, voila, we left the office with new licenses, new plates and a sense of actually belonging where we are.
And it all only took two hours!
How lucky were we to get to work with she manager of the office who understood the rules completely? We were SO lucky that she was so kind and patient.
It feels good to park in our driveway with plates representing the appropriate state now.
The way that nice woman treated us that day makes me want to go out and be kind to strangers today, just to pay it forward.
A mom, a dad and two daughters. We're living ordinary lives with a twist of 5p- (Cri du Chat) for spice. But we're about so much more than our younger daughter's genetic diagnosis.
4 comments:
I love this kind of stuff. When we first moved, we were so surprised at how nice everyone was. Every where we went people were super friendly, and now we try to be that way too. It is definitely contagious:)
Nice! I didn't know there were nice people at the DMV! ;)
And kindness at the DMV... I mean that is like icing on a cake on a cake!
I love that!!! It really makes a difference in your day. I love random acts of kindness. I need to do it more often. And I agree with Brittany people in her town are soooooooooooooooooo amazing! Every time I am there I think to myself "why isn't the rest of the world like this?" And it is contagious. Thanks for sharing.
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