Seth and Becca Know the Secret to Happiness

In their own unique way, Seth Adams and Becca Randich are seriously committed to living life to the fullest. They chose to get married on 7/11/2019 because they love free Slurpees almost as much as they love each other.

Now retired, the couple spends their days traveling the world and visiting their combined four children, who all live far away from their Seattle-area home.

Yet their favorite way to live life to the fullest is to help others do the same.  

Like the couple themselves, their approaches to philanthropy are perfect compliments. Becca can’t stand to see children going without. Her heart breaks at the thought of children going to school without lunch, parents who need to choose between a meal for their family or medicine for their child. One of her favorite charities is a local one that takes orphans and foster children to swim in the ocean — something they could never do in state care for insurance reasons.

Seth shares her priorities but comes at them from a different angle. While he doesn’t consider himself religious now, he grew up going to church each Sunday and still lives according to the conviction that being blessed means being a blessing to others. So the self-proclaimed “numbers guy” worked for a nonprofit consumer credit counseling service for five years and often volunteers to help people with their taxes, sparing them the fees of a financial planner. His affinity for numbers also means that, when presented with a new cause, he always goes beyond the sales pitch to focus on the hard data. Where is my money going? What measurable impact will it make?

When he worked for Microsoft, he used the company’s advanced tools to sift through 990s and annual reports to determine which charities they should support for their annual United Way campaign. That’s how he discovered Smile Train.

“One of the things that I really liked about Smile Train was how much of the contribution goes directly to helping those who benefit from it,” he said. “There's not 50% overhead. Virtually every dollar was going to help the charity, and to me, it was very important that my contribution went somewhere.”

He was especially impressed by the efficiency and sustainability of Smile Train’s “teach a person to fish” model. Rather than sending outside doctors on short-term medical missions, Smile Train trains, funds, and equips local professionals to provide surgery and other vital cleft care — including nutritional support, orthodontics, and speech therapy — in their own communities, making high-quality, comprehensive cleft care available year-round according to each patient’s distinct needs.

“The other thing I really like about Smile Train is the fact that if I give to cancer research, for example, that’s great, but I'm a drop in a big bucket just hoping that it makes some difference,” he added. “But with Smile Train, you know that your money is going directly to helping change the life of a child with a cleft.”

When Seth shared the cause with Becca, she was immediately on board.

“I was born with terrible teeth, and I am the granddaughter of a dentist,” she shared. “I was experimented on by an orthodontist, and that’s no joke. But it all made me see the value of a smile, what it does for a first impression. And that includes your first impression of yourself, what you see when you look in the mirror.”

The family now had two traditions: Slurpees and Smile Train.

Transcendent Joy

In late 2023, Seth got an email from Smile Train. Over three days in March 2024, donors would have the opportunity to fly to Guatemala to visit some of Smile Train’s local partners and visit patients in their homes — a Journey of Smiles. The promised combination of travel and helping children felt too good to pass up; he had never even really been to Central America before.

He showed it to Becca, who said, “We have to go” before she even finished the email.

From the moment they landed, the lushness of their surroundings and the freshness of the food took their breath away. But seeing firsthand how their contributions were helping children, families, and even local healthcare professionals live their best lives left them speechless.

It was the little things that really stood out. Seth will always cherish the time he spent doing crafts with a small group of patients. Even if his projects didn’t always turn out the way he wanted them to, he was amazed at how those small moments of simple play had the power to create a space of pure joy that transcended cultural, linguistic, and generational barriers.

He likewise couldn’t get over what he saw in the office of our partner orthodontist Dr. Gerson Chinchilla in Antigua. At the start of their appointments, patients ran to hug him, then jumped into his chair and opened their mouths wide. When their time was up, they ran back to their parents wearing smiles big as their faces.

“I was not jumping into that chair when I had braces,” Seth laughed, but he believes their enthusiasm speaks to a larger point: “I’m sure they were scared the first few times they saw Dr. Chinchilla, and I’m sure there’s some pain every time they visit, but they know what this care means and how much it’s going to help them. They don’t take it for granted.”

Strength Shared from Woman to Woman

As for Becca, she will never forget the strength of the women she met, both the moms and the patients. “No matter where you go, a mom is still a mom, a kid is still a kid, a giggle is still a giggle,” she said. “You read all about how children with clefts have difficulty feeding, but to meet a mother who is unable to nurse her baby — that situation would break down the most stable mother with the best support system in the world. So to see the power of these moms and children, and to know you were able to help them… it broke my heart and it filled my heart at the same time.”

She was no less impressed by another group of women she met: former Smile Train patients, each in her early 20s. One had just graduated college, another was going to be an accountant, and another had just completed her treatment and was about to take over her father’s business. They were demure about their accomplishments, but it was plain to Becca just how extraordinary they are.

While children with clefts all over the world are forced to drop out of school because of health issues and incessant bullying, the surgery, speech therapy, and other comprehensive care these women received from an early age thanks to Smile Train made it possible for them to survive childhood and stay in school. But the audacity to raise their hands, study harder, think bigger — that all came from them.

“I give them loads of credit for these things,” Becca said. “I saw the total support they had from the very beginning to now, when they are grown into young women laughing and loving, each about to make the world a better place because she feels confident enough to do it. I hugged them all.”

Asked what her message was for the women she met, Becca turned the question around. “I could learn a few lessons from them; they probably have some words of advice for me. I don’t know if it would go the other way. They are stronger than I am, I think.”

Journeying On

Seth and Becca extended their stay in Guatemala, camping among the Mayan ruins in Tikal National Park for three days before settling in along the volcanic shores of Lake Atitlán for another three. Still, looking back now, six months later, it’s the smiles of the children they’ve helped that stand out the most, each in their own unique way.

“Whether you're feeding people or whether you're actually helping people to feed themselves and make a better life for themselves, when you are able to give back and make such an impact at such a relatively minimal cost... to me, it's huge,” Seth said, adding: “We are absolutely going to go on another Journey of Smiles. Sign us up.”

Or, as Becca said: “I'm a sucker. I had to hold every one of those babies, I couldn't help it. I would have sat in the dirt and played with them all if I could. I love to see a kid smile, I really do. The fact that a kid wouldn't want to smile when they're having a great day, or someone who’s born to be outspoken becomes a wallflower because they're afraid of what someone might say about their smile or their looks… I want every kid to feel that they can step out the door and reach their potential, be whatever they want that to be and live their life to its fullest.”