The week's good news: December 14, 2017

(Image credit: iStock)

Jump to category:

1. Doctor delivers former patient's baby in gas station parking lot
2. 4-year-old holds his own readathon, finishes 100 books in 1 day
3. South Dakota boy donates piles of presents every December to children's hospital
4. After growing up in kinship care, Virginia man adopts 3 kids before turning 30
5. Teen helps stumbling competitor cross marathon finish line

published 14 December 2017

1. Doctor delivers former patient's baby in gas station parking lot

Had the fuel light not gone on in his car Saturday night, Dr. Javier Soto would never have stopped at a gas station in Merritt Island, Florida, and run into a former patient who needed his help — fast. While filling up, the OB/GYN was approached by a man who saw he was wearing blue hospital scrubs, Soto told People. The man said his fiancé was in labor in the back of his truck, and when Soto ran over, he realized the woman was one of his former patients, who switched doctors because of her insurance. The baby's head was visible, so Soto jumped into action, and after just one push, the baby boy was born. An ambulance arrived to take the family of three to the hospital, and Soto followed behind. Both the mother and baby "are doing great," Soto said.

When he grows up, Caleb Green wants to be an astronaut and a Ninja Turtle, but for now, he's content spending his time reading, reading, reading. The 4-year-old from Chicago set a huge goal for himself last Saturday — to read 100 books in one day. His parents got out all of Caleb's books, and borrowed others from friends to reach 100. Caleb started to read out loud, and his parents streamed his readathon on Facebook Live, reaching people as far away as Florida. Every time he finished reading 10 books, Caleb would celebrate by doing a dance. His dad, Sylus Green, said Caleb has inspired him to dream big, but probably not as big as his son. "I want to be a basketball player," Caleb told ABC7 Chicago. "When I am 22 I want to be an astronaut and when I'm 23 I want to be a Ninja Turtle."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Every year, the pile of toys Nolan Adams, 11, brings to Sanford Children's Hospital in South Dakota grows. While driving with his family to visit his grandmother four years ago, Adams heard a radio ad for the hospital and got an idea. The family stopped and bought two presents — a toy truck and a stuffed animal — and dropped them off at the hospital, the beginning of a new family tradition. Through "Nolan's Project," Adams raises money to buy gifts for the patients, delivering them in December. This year, he made his biggest donation yet, for 176 kids. "I want them to forget about what's gonna happen next and I just want them to forget about all that and live a normal happy life," Adams told KSFY.

Barry Farmer was raised by his grandmother in kinship care, and wanted to pay the kindness she showed him forward by signing up to be a foster father. At 21, he became a foster father to Jaxon, then 7, and now, nearly a decade later, he's a single dad to three sons. "If you would have told me 10 years ago that this would happen, I wouldn't believe you," Farmer told WTVR. Jaxon called him "Dad" right off the bat, and after a year, Farmer adopted him, an "unforgettable" moment. He wanted to give Jaxon a sibling, so in 2013, Farmer adopted Xavier, and in 2016, Jeremiah joined the family. "There's no reason to be afraid of our foster children who are waiting to be adopted," Farmer said. "All they need is some security, some love, some attention, stability."

Chandler Self was mere yards from the Dallas Marathon finish line when disaster struck. The 32-year-old doctor had been leading the pack for the final 8 miles of the 26.2-mile race when her legs started to buckle from exhaustion. Luckily, Ariana Luterman, a 17-year-old high school athlete who was anchoring her team's relay, was there to lend a hand. Luterman helped Self to her feet several times and gently pushed the winner across the finish line: a display of sportsmanship that has since gone viral. "The only thing I could think of to do was to pick her up," Luterman told DallasNews.com, "so I picked her up."

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.