Welcoming a new child to your family through foster care can be an extensive process. It can also be a tremendously rewarding one. It takes time for a family to adjust and learn the best ways to love one another.
One foster mom was looking to do just that. She took a chance on approaching a stranger in a store to ask for some advice. The foster mom, a white woman, explained that her new foster daughter was a Black girl. She told the Black woman she approached that they were taking steps to learn how to do her hair and asked if she had any useful advice.
The Black woman was surprised and happy to help the thoughtful woman. She shared the wholesome story online, where people were brought to tears by the sweet encounter.
A Black woman shared a wholesome story about a chance encounter with a stranger at Walmart. She originally shared the story on Tumblr, and it was shared again to Reddit.
"About an hour ago, I was in Walmart looking for my conditioner because today is wash day for my hair. As I'm looking for my product, this older white lady approaches me and she says, 'Excuse me miss. Please don't be offended by this,'" the woman shared.
Understandably, the woman was concerned about what was about to transpire. But her mind was put at ease when the older white woman explained her situation.
"Anyway, she follows it up with, 'My husband and I just recently won our custody battle with our foster daughter and she means the world to us. She's a beautiful African American girl and her hair looks a lot like yours. But I'm afraid because I don't know what to do with her hair. It's a lot different from mines and our other children and we are at a total loss,'" the woman continued.
The foster mom went on to share what she and her husband were already trying to learn.
"I've tried looking up the YouTube videos and my husband went to the braiding shops so they can teach him how to properly braid her hair, but he's still pretty new and it will be a while before he gets used to it," she said.
"Do you have any tips you can give me? If you don't have the time, it's okay, really! I just needed a little advice because I want her to look beautiful."
The Black woman was so touched by how much this family was willing to do to make sure their little girl felt beautiful and seen.
"Y'all. Swear I almost started crying on aisle 6. So for the last 30 minutes, I spent my time talking to her and what products to use and how to properly detangle and comb her hair with the proper tools and what not to do with natural hair," the woman shared.
"And I showed her a bunch of easier to follow natural hair tutorials on YouTube and saved them for her. (I also had to create a YouTube account for her so she could save it for later.) … She was so sweet, and I could tell that she listened to every single thing I had to say and she took little notes on her little notepad."
The woman noted just how much more these people were doing for this little girl than most families would.
"And what really filled my heart was the fact that her husband actually taking classes from African braiding shops. And she showed me a picture of him wearing a little sweater vest and loafers in a little shop surrounded by beautiful Black women showing him how to braid Black hair and even the lady he's braiding on is guiding his hands," she shared.
Many of those who saw this post on Reddit were truly touched by this family's commitment to making their new daughter feel beautiful.
"There's a really great non-profit organization trying to help parents with this problem too! If you need this sort of help check them out, if you don't then you can always give them some support, share or get involved! Styles 4 Kidz," one commenter noted.
"I have no affiliation but I think they're doing great work. Lovely to see that this couple went out of their way to do the same things on their own though!"
"I love all sides of this," another commenter noted.
"Girl has a loving home. Parents learning to be the best they can be for her. The lady stopping in the aisle to help her with all of this. Dad learning to braid from professionals. Professionals taking the time to teach him."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
