My day without shoes...

I feel like I finally had enough time to reflect on my day with out shoes yesterday, April 8, 2010. My first thought was that my toes needed to be painted. Right, I was going to be going with our shoes, and my toes needed to look cute. So I was going to get ready to paint them the night before. I had to talk myself out of it several times. Reminding myself of the whole point of this activity…to bring awareness to the thousands of children who do not have shoes. I am sure that their concern is not if their toes look pretty. So I left mine the way they were.

I stopped to get gas, I walked through the parking lot of AMPM with out shoes. I was disgusted, worried about the things I would step on and I was tempted to put my shoes back on. I did not.

I went to work, my feet were cold. I was walking on the cement in the early morning hours. I resisted the urge to put my shoes on until an administrator told me that for safety reasons I needed to put my shoes back on. I did. I had them on and off through out the day at work. I took them off after the last bell rang and walked to my car with bare feet. At this time the afternoon sun heated up the cement, it was nice and toasty, but the longer I walked on it, the more my feet began to burn. Again, I fought the urge to put my shoes on. All the while thinking about children that did not have shoes. Not even one pair. I thought about all of the pairs of shoes I had. I am sure I have 5 or 6. On the grand scale of what most people have this is kind of minimal, but 5 or six and some CHILDREN have NONE!

I think about my self as a parent and how I would feel if my children did not have shoes. My heart is sad not only for those children with out shoes, but also for the parents that are not able to provide their children with shoes. My heart broke. I was HARDLY uncomfortable in comparison to those with out shoes.

My day went on, and I had my shoes off while I was at home and walking around, hardly something that is out of the ordinary. We went to the library in which we had ot wear shoes, but once we were out of the library, our shoes were back off. Then, I had to go to my other job, in which my boss already knew I would not be wearing shoes.

I went other places all with my shoes off, and I have to be honest, when I came home, my feet HURT, and not just a little bit, my feet REALLY hurt! Their were no cuts or bruises or gashes or anything, just soreness….which then again made me think. Of all the kids that did not have shoes.

The day was very emotional as I had said before, and I am not sure even how to end this other than the fact that we will be purchasing Toms shoes in the very near future, and we will be looking for ways in which we can support this cause as well.

I will announce my winner of the gift card soon!