What went viral this week: Mom donates a whole Payless store + a miracle baby born 4 months early

Kindness in action: One mama’s novel way to make sure every kid has back-to-school shoes

Mom and lawyer Carrie Jernigan of Arkansas recently went to one of the Payless shoe stores currently going out of business with the intention of scoring a couple of pairs of shoes for her own kids. But when her daughter asked if they could also pick up a pair of heavily discounted shoes for a classmate of hers who needed a new pair, Jenigan had a lightbulb moment.

“As I was checking out I just said, ‘How much for the rest of the shoes in the store?’ almost joking and I could see the clerks, her face, her wheels start to turn and she finished checking me out. She said, ‘Can I have your number?'” she told 5 News.

Later that day the store manager called her, and soon she ended up with hundreds of pairs of shoes for kids (and adults) in her community who need them.

The story went viral and has turned into something she couldn’t even imagine.

“It’s turned into this huge school back to school bash for our community,” she told Good Morning America. There’s going to be a major event at the local middle school and others have joined Jernigan to donate backpacks and school supplies.

Mamas paying forward: This mom received the sweetest note from a stranger in the drive-thru

As the New York Post reports , mom Heidi Goforth stopped at the McDonald’s drive-thru for a couple of breakfast burritos when she got the sweetest surprise from a fellow mama.

When they pulled through to pay they discovered the vehicle in front had bought them breakfast and left them a sweet note on the receipt: “My son is in the airforce. I can’t buy him breakfast so I bought yours. Have a blessed day.”

“I just had this happen to me. It touched my heart sooo much!” Goforth wrote on Facebook. “I was buying breakfast for my son at McDonald’s and the sweet lady in front of me in the drive-thru paid for my meal.

“I pray that you see your son soon,” she wrote to the anonymous note writer. “He’s lucky to have a mom that loves him so much! God bless you and him! Tell him thank you for his service.”

This mom gave birth 4 months early + her miracle preemie is going viral

Ellonn Smartt from Des Moines, Iowa was supposed to be due in November, but her baby is already here. As ABC News reports, when Smart went into labor at just 23 weeks pregnant the 25-year-old mama was understandably scared.

“I started bawling my eyes out,” she told ABC News. “I had dreamt of a perfect pregnancy and I thought everything was going great. All my appointments were fine, I was healthy, I ate right.”

But her son, Jaden, was coming four months too early. Smartt needed an emergency C-section, and when her son was born he shocked his mom and the medical team by trying to do something pretty impressive for a baby so tiny (just 13 ounces). He was trying to breathe on his own.

“[The doctors] just were shocked that something so little was trying to do stuff on his own and breathe,” Smartt said.

The tiny baby has been moved to the NICU at Blank Children’s Hospital, and Smartt and her partner Jordan are hoping to take him home around the time of his original due date, November.

“[The doctors] are kind of going day by day. They’re pretty much saying he looks really great,” Smartt says.

Hang in there Jaden, you can do it!