Frosty's for Three

Daelyn decided that he wanted to have his birthday dinner at Wendy's, which delighted me - no clean-up, no preparations ... He asked for a Spiderman cake so I decided we'd have cake and ice cream and open presents at home as a family after dinner. I made him a double layer round white cake with white frosting. Then I decorated it with black icing to look like a huge spider web. Next I took some Spiderman decorations I bought at Wal-Mart and placed them in the web. Although it wasn't perfect, it did look pretty cool, and Daelyn loved it. Dane said I should make spider web cakes for Kroger.

We headed out for dinner with Daelyn in his Superman costume that Grandma and Grandpa gave him. We were standing in line at Wendy's waiting for Don to make up his mind when two older gentlemen walked in. I encouraged them to go ahead of us since Don was having trouble making up his mind - Wendy's doesn't serve too much Atkins-friendly food.

The children had gotten a table in the middle of the restaurant that seated 6. I went and sat down with them after placing their order while Don waited for the food. Daelyn was quite interesting in his costume. I noticed the younger of the men, who were sitting at the table behind ours, watching him.

"It's his 4th birthday today," I explained. "Guess what he got for his birthday?"

He laughed, told Daelyn happy birthday, and we smiled at each other. Then Don arrived with our food. After I set everybody's food up in front of them, Don asked Daelyn to say the blessing. We all joined hands. I squinted my eyes, a habit I developed after having children, so I could keep watch on the boys, who think prayertime is a wonderful opportunity to pull each other's hair or kick a sibling under the table or, just in general, to be silly.

"Lord Jesus, thank you for this food and my wonderful family that loves me so much," Daelyn said. Dane suddenly leaned over and kissed Daelyn's arm and added, "And thank you for this wonderful baby brother you've given us." As he kissed his little brothers arm, the younger of the men, the one who had spoken to us, jerked his head up and watched us.

While we were eating, the men got up from the table and threw their trash out. I thought they had walked out the door but, just as we were finishing up our meal, the younger man appeared at my elbow and put three Frosty's down on the table next to us.

"I wanted the children to have these for dessert," he said. I stammered, "Thank you," but couldn't seem to say much else. He went on. "I thought it would be nice if the children had something special to celebrate the little guy's birthday."

I finally found my voice. "Thank you," I blurted. "That's very kind of you. Thank you so much."

As he walked away, he stopped and turned back to look at us.

"And that blessing you said was really special," he added, then walked out the door.

The entire family sat in silence and watched him and his friend drive away. After they were gone, Deanna said, "Mama, why did that man buy Frosty's for us?"

"I don't know for sure, honey, but I think it's because the blessing we said blessed him and he wanted to bless us back in return."

"Hmh," Deanna said, thoughtfully.

"I think he gave us those Frosty's because the Lord wanted to give Daelyn a special blessing on his birthday," Dane said.

I think you're right, Dane. I just hope those men didn't give the kids Frosty's thinking there would be no birthday cake and that was Daelyn's only birthday dessert. In any case, it was a very kind gesture.