Son Surprises His Mom With A House For Mother’s Day

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All-women team re-roofs damaged homes

The women roofers of North Carolina say roofing is a “great way to get out frustration,” and in the process they have re-roofed more than 60 homes in North Carolina, and a handful in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

NBC’s Stephanie Gosk reports.

Two best friends, ages 6 and 7, raise $200,000 to fight rare disease

There are only about 100 people in the U.S. like 7-year-old Jonah Pournazarian.

He suffers from a rare genetic and incurable disease called Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1B. Up until the 80s, most kids with his condition didn’t survive past the age of two.

But his best buddy, Dylan Siegel, wanted his friend to get better, so he wrote a book hoping to raise one million dollars to find a cure.

It took him an hour to write and illustrate the pages of “Chocolate Bar,” an expression the boys use to describe something great, fantastic, or awesome.

He then nagged his parents to find a publisher. David and Debra Siegel, who live in Los Angeles, Calif., turned to a local printer for help.

“We had 200 copies to sell at a school fair,” said Debra Siegel. “We were hoping that we could sell all the books we had printed.  We didn’t want to get stuck with these books.”

In a couple of hours, the boys sold every copy and had collected $6,000.

“Lo and behold, we had to do a second printing,” said David Siegel, who then set up a Facebook page, and eventually a website. “People started to hear about this beautiful little book and wanted to help, be a part of Dylan’s Magic.”

In six months, sales of “Chocolate Bar,” as well as real chocolate bars donated by a local Whole Foods supermarket, have raised $200,000 along with awareness of a disease most know little about.

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goodstuffhappenedtoday:

Son Pays Off His Mom’s House Mortgage For His Birthday

By Rusty Blazenhoff on May 1, 2013

“You ask me who my mother is and she’s definitely the strongest person I know.”

This heartwarming video follows a young man who has saved his money for the past two and a half years “to do right by a very special woman in my life,” his mother. For his birthday, he went to the bank, paid off her house mortgage, and then presented her with the information. He says, “I just wanted to say that I am by no means a perfect son, for a long period I neglected my mothers needs, I ignored her calls and brushed her off until I needed something,” and furthers, “Just before I started putting money aside my Father passed away, it had a great affect on me because of the kind of person he was. I decided to make a change, value the only parent I had left. I made what little changes I could day to day to make him proud, but her most of all.”

Thousands of fans help make child’s MLS dream come true

It’s not often a youth soccer team plays in front of 3,000 screaming fans.

But that’s what 8-year-old Atticus Lane-Dupre and his teammates did Wednesday night. Lane-Dupre and the Green Machine scrimmaged their local pro team, the Portland Timbers, at JELD-WEN Field.

This game wasn’t part of a double-header. The Timbers weren’t playing an MLS foe later in the day. These 3,000 fans came to see a group of kids scrimmage their role models heroes.

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mccimperatriz:

Random acts of kindness caught on Russian car cameras.

PPD Editor’s Note: Thanks, lisawhitehare for tipping us off about this video. It was well worth the 5 minute watch!

Dog travels 10 miles to find shelter mate

Ben and Jade’s story began long before owners Courtney and Jason Lawler came into their lives. According to the Tribune-Star, the dogs (both mixed German Shepherds) were initially strays living on the north end of Terre Haute, Indiana.

When one-year-old Jade became pregnant with 4-year-old Ben’s puppies last summer, staffers from the Terre Haute Humane Shelter trapped them and took them to the shelter so they could better care for the mother-to-be.

“They were a bonded pair,” shelter manager Charles Brown told told the Tribune-Star. Ben and Jade were inseparable during the several months they spent at the shelter and even shared the same pen. But they were later torn apart when the Lawler’s, who were only looking for one pet, adopted Ben.

“We had him for about three weeks, and we thought he was OK, but he got loose on us,” Courtney Lawler told NBC2 News. Ben escaped the Lawler’s home last December and went in search of Jade at the shelter 10 miles away.

About 24 hours later, Ben had found his way back to Jade. “He came out of nowhere and started licking her through the fence, like they were kissing,” Courtney said of the dogs’ reunion.

When the Lawlers realized it wouldn’t do to separate the pair again, they adopted Jade as well and brought both dogs home.

Ben and Jade “want to be together,” Debbie Floyd, the Humane Society board’s president, told the Tribune-Star. “There hasn’t been a lot of human love in their lives. They found love with each other and that what’s make them happy … Hopefully, they will live their lives happily ever after.”

Homeless Man Who Returned Diamond Ring Reunites With Siblings on ‘Today’ Show

Hundreds of Missouri residents turned out to shave their heads to help raise money for the fight against cancer.

nbcnews:

32-year-old man adopted by former foster mother

(Photo: NBC San Diego)

Nearly 20 years after being ripped apart from his foster parents, a 32-year-old man was officially adopted Friday in San Diego, Calif., by the woman he has always considered to be his mother.

Read the complete story.

Facebook friends find out they’re family

More than 100,000 children are adopted every year in the United States. Some of them end up searching for their biological parents and some don’t. But what if you find your birth family by accident?

That’s exactly what happened to 29-year-old Abbey Donohoe of Bettendorf, after one of her friends posted a message on Facebook about a baby given up for adoption 29 years ago.

“It was just a surreal,” said Donohoe. “Did I really just accidentally find my birth family?”

Paula O’Brien was the woman who wrote the post. O’Brien has been friends with Donohoe for four years. But neither knew they were actually related.

“When I was a little girl, one of my older brothers and his girlfriend gave a baby up for adoption,” O’Brien said. “It really had an impact on me and for years, I had hoped to find her.”

And last week, she did.

“A chance post on Facebook. I posted something with the birth date, bringing to light that I had a niece out there somewhere, and one of my friends responded.”

That friend is Abbey Donohoe.

“I read it and I’m like September 19th, that’s my birthday,” said Donohoe.

The two women compared information and confirmed that they are related. O’Brien is Donohoe’s aunt.

“My family had prayed for this for years,” O’Brien said. “For 29 years we dreamed of this day and it’s here.”

How letters from strangers saved a teen’s life

To write to Noah, visit lettersfornoah.com

A homeless man in Las Vegas who had been living on the streets and had not seen his six children for nearly 25 years has been reunited with his daughter thanks to modern technology and the kindness of strangers.

Jimmy Francis was outside a Firehouse Subs shop earlier this month when he was spotted by a local realtor Jim Snyder, as he was going in to pick up his dinner. When Snyder saw Francis struggling in the cold weather he, with the help of Firehouse employees, bought the man a sandwich and gave him some cash.

After Snyder got home his thoughts stayed with Francis, left out in the cold.

“He was shaking so uncontrollably and was so cold it just broke my heart and I thought there’s something I’ve got to do here,” Snyder, 49, told ABCNews.com. “By the time I got to where my home is I knew I had to turn around and get him.”

Snyder, who says he had never before done anything like that, brought Francis to the home he shares with his wife, Maria, and gave him coffee, a warm shower, washed his clothes and packed a suitcase full of his own old clothes for Francis.

Over coffee and a warm meal, Snyder, himself a father of five children and step-children, learned that Francis had not seen his six children in over two decades after a divorce. He was particularly torn, Snyder says, over not seeing his only daughter, Natalie.

“He told me he had colon cancer in 2010 and wasn’t expected to live and because of that experience, the one thing constantly on his mind is he wants to be reunited with his children,” Snyder said.

The Snyders took down the names and birth dates of Francis’s children and used social media to search for them.

The couple found Natalie Francis, now living in Northern California and herself a grandmother, on Facebook and sent her a message. Less than one hour later, they had a response.

“The message just said, ‘Oh my God. This is my dad. Is he okay?’” Snyder recalled.

Just days later the couple brought Francis, living temporarily with an acquaintance, back to their home for a Skype call with his daughter.

“A whole lot of emotions,” is how Snyder recalled the virtual reunion. “That was the first time they’d seen each other in 24 years, literally. It was very, very special.”

Natalie Francis, it turns out, has been unemployed since November. Not able to find a job in her hometown, she is job searching in Las Vegas in hopes she can move there to live with and take care of her dad.

First, however, the two will be reunited in-person this Friday, thanks again to the kindness of strangers.

The Synders set up a fundraising site online for Francis and the publicity the story has received led to a woman donating airfare and travel expenses for Natalie Francis to fly to Las Vegas for a five-day visit with her father.

“In my wildest, wildest unbelievable imagination dreams, I never thought anything like this would ever happen,” said Snyder, who said he speaks with or visits Francis daily.

“When I did this I was just trying to help what I saw was a little old man freezing his tail off and just hungry,” he said. “I don’t know what compelled me but I just felt something pulling on my heart. Once I decided I didn’t hesitate and here we are.”

Two enemies discover a ‘higher call’ in battle

Five days before Christmas 1943, a helpless American bomber pilot locked eyes with a German fighter pilot over the frozen skies of Europe. The German pilot spared the life of the American, and both men would reunite and become friends 50 years later. Franz Stigler and Charles Brown started the war as enemies, but during a tense wartime encounter, both men discovered a higher call.

Read the full story HERE.

[h/t: zeefood]

You’ll come for the food, but stay for the hugs

Tim Harris, owner of Tim’s Place, is the country’s only restaurant owner with Down’s Syndrome, and the joy he gets from serving people good food carries over into his diner’s most famous export: hugs.