When my newborn was in the NICU, people showed up to support us. I've made a point to pay it forward.

• My newborn daughter had a traumatic ICU experience.
• The immediate outpouring of support from family and friends got us through.
• A care package from a former high school acquaintance provided immense comfort.

My daughter was two days old when she was hospitalized with bacterial sepsis. The blinking monitors and beeping machines of the ICU felt like the soundtrack to my worst nightmare. Every hour seemed to pass in a painful haze of I.V.s, seizure medications, and bad news.

When I could muster the energy, I turned to Facebook, posting small pieces of our daughter's journey and asking for prayers and encouragement.

Not wanting to leave our medically fragile child alone, my husband and I spent the nights sharing a cramped window seat as a makeshift bed or slumped over on the room's solo hardback chair. We had arrived at the hospital by ambulance empty-handed and frazzled, yet our community had immediately and graciously stepped up to help us.

Everyone supported us

My sister and her husband cared for our older child. My mom packed a suitcase with our clothes and toiletries and brought it to us. Friends delivered homemade meals, baked goods, additional clothes, and even fresh-squeezed juices that were gentlest on my stressed stomach. I'd never been more grateful for our friends and family. Seven years later, I still remember the minutest gifts and acts of service that sustained us in those dark hours.

However, one of the most generous offerings came from outside that close circle, and its unexpected thoughtfulness continues to amaze me.

A week into our hospital stay, I received a care basket from someone whose name was vaguely familiar. Where did I know her from? I repeated it several times before it hit me — an old high school friend I hadn't spoken to in 11 years.

And yet, more than a decade later, she'd taken the time to drive probably half an hour to an hour from home to deliver a care basket for my family and me. The generosity overwhelmed me.

Inside the basket, I found an inspirational, hardback journal, fuzzy socks, sweetly scented soaps, snacks, and other sweet offerings that spoke to her own experience as a mom of a sick child. In the card, she shared how her daughter battled cancer and how the things inside this basket were the things she felt she would have benefited from having during her long, difficult hospital stays, including the socks for the cold, sterile floors.

The generosity moved me

It's one of the most moving examples of generosity I've ever experienced, and to this day, the memory floods me with gratitude

My daughter made a full, miraculous recovery. She is a healthy, strong 7-year-old — it's easy to forget she was ever on the cusp of death because her life's so full of vitality. But I never want to forget what that care basket and other gifts, meals, and thoughtful gestures meant to my family. They are why I am convinced it's important to always show up for others facing hard circumstances.

Since my own experience in the hospital, I have tried to pay it forward to other families in crisis by delivering meals, offering a listening ear, or sending a care package of my own. Because I know, from the deepest part of my heart, that in the darkest hour, even the smallest act of kindness brings hope.