This article was originally published on WHerMoments
The early days of parenthood are filled with sleepless nights, tons of dirty diapers, and tears — from both baby and parents! Needless to say, new moms and dads can almost always use all the help they can get. But help can come in many forms, and when one new mom was comforted by the kind words of an unlikely person, she knew she had to tell the world and repay his kindness.
The long recovery ahead
There was a stork on the Kitchels’ front lawn. Not a real stork, mind you, but a decorative one with a light-blue bundle swinging from its beak. It was a sure sign to passersby that something wonderful had happened to the family inside the house. But still, not that many people knocked on the door to offer their congratulations.
In November 2021 Jessica Kitchel gave birth to her second child, a boy named Chancy. The welcomed addition was exciting for the growing Kitchel family, but the birth hadn’t been easy for Jessica. After bringing Chancy into the world via C-section, Jessica had a long road of healing ahead of her.
Thanks to the stork...
Jessica already had one daughter, and adding a newborn to the mix was both exciting and overwhelming. “The last 48 hours have gone from a whirlwind to the sweetest, quietest moments,” she wrote on Instagram after her son’s birth. Healing from childbirth and raising a newborn are hard to do at the same time!
So even though Jessica and her husband were overjoyed about Chancy’s arrival, they knew times ahead wouldn't be easy. The stork was a happy reminder that the sleepless nights and painful recovery would be worth it. And if they hadn’t put the stork sign up, there’s a chance that the Kitchels never would’ve met Dallen Harrell.
A new parent's perspective
One day, not long after Chancy had been born, a UPS driver named Dallen Harrell drove up to the house. He noticed the stork on the lawn. It was hard to miss! And it didn’t take long for the 24-year-old to put two and two together about the new baby, especially when he saw the parcel that he was dropping off.
It was a new box of baby formula. The stork, the formula; these weren’t just objects to Dallen. In fact, Dallen had his own connection to the baby supplies. He and his fiancée, Taqueria Robinson-Davidson, had actually been blessed with their own baby boy back in the September.
Not for the faint of heart
So, when Dallen saw the baby formula and the stork, the UPS driver felt compelled to leave the Kitchel family a message. After all, even though parenthood is unique to every family, there are definitely some common struggles in the early days. Dallen knew all too well what the Kitchels were facing.
Newborn babies require near-constant attention from their parents. Even seasoned pros can agree that the endless diapers, late-night feedings, and round-the-clock crying can make for exhausted and irritated parents. And for families with older kids, there’s an even greater hurdle to overcome in those early days.
Compelled to help
The addition of a new life into the home can be overwhelming not just for the parents, but for the other children as well. Suddenly, they’re no longer the only apple of their parents’ eyes, which can be destabilizing, to say the least. With their older daughter, Charlie, at home, the Kitchels were in the midst of this period of adjustment.
Needless to say, the last thing that the Kitchels expected when their much-needed baby formula was delivered was a message from the UPS guy. But sure enough, Dallen just knew he had to give the family some encouragement — even if he couldn’t exactly do it in person.
Dallen's words of encouragement
Dallen put down the package of formula, bent towards the Kitchels’ Nest camera, and started to speak. “If this is the ‘It’s A Boy’ house, I hope all is going well with your newborn,” Dallen began, referring to the stork. “I had a child at around the same time you guys did, and I just hope everything is going good.”
Dallen closed out his message with, “God bless and happy holidays.” With that, the UPS driver walked back to his truck and drove away, leaving his seemingly simple words of kindness behind. But what Dallen may have thought of as a “simple” message ended up being anything but. When Jessica heard the message, she was floored.
Jessica had to respond
“I was just so blown away by the fact that… he took the time to stop and do it,” Jessica told The Washington Post. When she posted the Nest footage to Instagram, it got thousands and thousands of views. It seemed other people were just as delighted by Dallen’s kind words, and Jessica was quick to extend her gratitude to the UPS driver.
“It is really easy to focus on what isn’t going right right now,” Jessica wrote on Instagram in response to the message. “It was good to be reminded that there are still great people working hard every day for us!” Jessica was so moved by Dallen’s words that she just knew she had to respond.
The search continued
The problem was that all she knew about Dallen at that point was that he worked for UPS. She didn’t even know his name! “I really wish I knew his name, but I hope he comes back,” she wrote on Instagram. Yet there was no telling when, or indeed if, Dallen would ever drive down her street again. Thankfully, a UPS representative helped Jessica with the search.
It wasn’t long before Jessica finally learned that the kind stranger’s name was Dallen Harrell and that he was only working for UPS during the holiday season. She wanted to thank Dallen for his kind message, so she left her details with the contact at UPS, hoping that they would eventually land in Dallen’s hands.
Dallen's kind heart
And sure enough, the day came when Jessica’s phone rang, and it was Dallen on the other end! The two connected over their shared experiences as new parents, and Dallen was able to explain why he’d decided to leave the message on the Kitchels’ Nest camera.
“I just went from my heart,” he told The Washington Post. But it’s not often that complete strangers do things out of the kindness of their hearts, and as it turns out, Dallen’s motivation behind his message wasn’t only his compassion for new parents. In fact, Dallen’s kind words actually came from his tough childhood.
Always be kind!
According to The Washington Post, Dallen was just 13 years old when he had to have open-heart surgery. To make matters worse, Dallen’s father passed away just five years after. Through all the tough times, though, Dallen’s mother equipped him with key life lessons that stuck with him into adulthood.
That’s right: Dallen’s mother instructed him to project confidence with people by shaking their hands, to show respect by making eye contact, and most importantly, to be kind to people — even random strangers. Or in this case, new parents in need of a pick-me-up. And Jessica was adamant that Dallen’s kind gesture wouldn’t go unnoticed.
Finally meeting in real life
A few days after Dallen had left the first message, the Kitchels’ address popped up on his delivery round once again. This time, though, Dallen didn’t have to leave a message through the Nest camera. There was a surprise waiting for him at the front door!
“There’s all this anticipation of just waiting to get to see him in person, thank him in person, and give him a hug,” Jessica told The Washington Post. And when Dallen dropped off the package, that’s exactly what she did! The front door opened, and Jessica and baby Chancy gave Dallen a big hug.
Jessica's request
And this time, Dallen wasn’t the only one with a parcel to give. Jessica had assembled an adorable care package for Dallen, containing diapers, baby wipes, and a stuffed animal! “Your message touched me so much so I shared it online, and it blessed a lot of people… 20,000 to be exact,” Jessica wrote in her very own message to Dallen, which she attached to the boxes.
Jessica wrote, “We all want to bless you and your new baby in return. How does that sound?” Judging by the smiles on their faces, it sounded like a good plan to everyone involved! But that still wasn’t the end of Jessica and Dallen’s story. Jessica once again shared their tale on Instagram, and this time she had a request for all of her followers.
Outpouring of love
“I know so many people were as blessed as I was by [Dallen’s] message,” she wrote. “I have posted his baby registry links in my stories as well as saved them to my highlights. Please help me give this incredible angel a Christmas him and his family won’t forget!”
As motivated as Jessica was to pay Dallen’s kindness forward, no one could have expected the outpouring of love that followed her Instagram post. In an ironic twist, Dallen started receiving package after package in the mail from Internet strangers, all of whom took Jessica’s request to heart. “They just have been coming in abundance — mostly from strangers,” Dallen said.
The unexpected friendship
Each package contained something from Dallen and his fiance’s baby registries at Target and Buy Buy Baby, plus words of encouragement from those who had been as moved by his kind gesture as Jessica. And Jessica and Dallen even did an Instagram Live together where they showed off the dad’s huge “wall of diapers,” most of which had come from those kind Internet strangers.
According to The Washington Post, Dallen and Jessica had penciled in a get-together with their sons once the festivities had passed. And to think this unexpected friendship never would’ve happened if Dallen hadn’t spoken those kind words into the Nest camera that day! “I’d give someone the shirt off my back, and the last change in my cup holder,” Dallen said.
Lost and found
Though they came from different walks of life, Jessica and Dallen found common ground in their shared experiences. But you never know when a stranger will show their true colors, and a woman named Roberta could only hope that her brush with a stranger would also end with a friendship...
When Roberta Hoskie unknowingly dropped her $10,000 check, she couldn’t have felt that she deserved the good fortune that was about to come her way. She received a phone call saying someone had picked up her check – only she hadn’t even known that she’d lost it. And when she learned that the finder was homeless like Harris, she knew she had to thank him properly.
Working little by little
Hoskie’s own past might just have been the inspiration for the way she reacted to Elmer Alvarez’s act of kindness. Although she had since found success as a real estate broker, her early years in New Haven, Connecticut, had been difficult. She grew up with her single mother and three brothers and sisters, and the family was anything but wealthy.
Hoskie had experienced not having a roof over her head, and she had relied on welfare services to get her through a teenage pregnancy. But she wouldn’t remain in a state of need for long; at 20, she started working at Yale University, which afforded her the means to buy a home.
Paying it forward
Four years on, Hoskie’s investment had quadrupled in value, and selling it gave her the funds she needed to start a business, Outreach Property Management. She has since used her success to give back to the community via affordable housing initiatives, economic development, and business and real estate training courses.
In November 2017, a new chapter began in her pay-it-forwards good karma story. Hoskie took to Facebook Live after she received an unexpected phone call: someone had found a $10,000 check made out to her and wanted to hand it over.
"I'm going to meet him"
“I dropped my check and he called,” Hoskie said in her video. “I didn’t even know I dropped this check.” She later explained to the daily newspaper the New Haven Register, “I thought I had it with my stuff in my car. I must have had it and it slipped.”
So, with her Facebook video rolling, Hoskie headed down the street to find the person who had her check. “I’m going to meet him, I don’t even know who he is,” she said while walking. The man she’d eventually find, Elmer Alvarez, had quite a story of his own to tell.
There it is
Alvarez stood on the sidewalk with his friend, who spoke to Hoskie on his behalf as he handed over the check. The friend gave Hoskie some background about Alvarez, saying, “He’s out here homeless.” It was a revelation that left Hoskie truly shocked.
The unnamed friend said that he had communicated on the phone because Alvarez didn’t speak English very well. But none of that affected Hoskie’s image of the man; instead, their exchange simply led Hoskie to proclaim, “There are good people out here,” and show off her intact check to the camera.
Citing faith
But the real estate guru had more than just a verbal “thank you” up her sleeve. She later gave Alvarez another one of her checks – but this time, the money was for him. He wept when he saw how generous Hoskie had been, telling the New Haven Register in November 2017 that he hoped to turn his life around and find a job.
The day Alvarez returned the check to Hoskie proved he was well on his way. He had a simple mantra that guided his actions. “First of all, I believe in God,” the homeless man said. “My faith is what keeps me going through… I always believe that once you do right, right always comes back to you.”
Going viral
And Hoskie would continue to repay Alvarez’s faith in karma. She invited him to take classes at her real estate institution – free of charge. And she reported a groundswell of support for him online, with more than 13,000 people watching her Facebook Live clip within a day of it being posted.
People from as far away as California and Texas reached out to Hoskie, hoping they could help Alvarez, too. To them and everyone else, she promised she’d continue to stay in touch with him and “teach him to fish” through the training at her real estate school.
Totally unexpected
As it turned out, Hoskie’s efforts didn’t end there, either. A few weeks after she had handed Alvarez a check and an invitation to attend her training courses, she presented him with another unexpected gift.
In front of TV cameras, Hoskie gave Alvarez six months’ free housing so he could really get back on his feet. The honest check-finder, who broke down in tears upon hearing the news, told reporters he was shocked – he had thought he was there for a simple meeting with the real estate agent.
Pure generosity
Instead Hoskie explained, “You don’t have to worry about being in the cold this winter. We have housing for you.” That wasn’t all: she also gave Alvarez’s girlfriend the opportunity to attend real estate school, and promised the down-at-heel Good Samaritan English classes, advice on his future career and an interview with her business associate.
Alvarez could only express his shock after hearing about his second round of gifts. “I didn’t expect all this,” he told the New Haven Register. “Honestly, I gave it from the bottom of my heart and I expected nothing back in return.”
Good people truly exist
But Alvarez also said he had always been convinced there was goodness in the world. “I always say that there’s always angels around,” he told reporters. “I’m just trying to be successful, too, in life, so I’m just going to take advantage.”
As for Hoskie, she could only extol the goodness of others – of many people – just as she had in her original Facebook video. “I don’t care what you say,” she had said in her initial recording. “There are so many really good people in this world.”