Kevin and I had the opportunity to be involved in a sub for Santa project for a very needy family. With the help of so many Christmas Angels we were able to help this family have an amazing Christmas. This is such a great way to kick of the Holiday season, and celebrate Christ birth. I know this is what Jesus Christ would want us to be doing. Helping each other out. I have been humbled in so many ways. Thank you Kristin for giving us this opportunity. I cannot thank those of you who helped enough!! Kevin and I could not have done this alone. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!
Here is the story of our experience:
Since I heard Elder Russel M Ballard's talk "Be Anxiously Engaged" in the last General Conference session I have really been wanting to do better about serving others.
He says:
In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children. Then go throughout the day with your heart full of faith and love, looking for someone to help. Stay focused, just like the honeybees focus on the flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen. If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.
I decided to make it a goal to start praying for opportunities to serves others. At church a couple weeks later I heard my neighbor Kristin say how she was looking for sponsors to do a sub for Santa for families in need up in Cache Valley. Kristin is in charge of Operation Undies, which benefits a Headstart school in Logan for migrant farm workers. Kristin started gathering and donating underwear and socks for school kids who kept showing up to school with none. The need for these items were great. This year, there was a greater need for more than just socks and underwear. Kristin, through her contact at Headstart, compiled a list of families in need. (36 total very needy families)
I knew I wanted to help and I knew this was my opportunity I had been praying for. I emailed Kristin when I got home and told her Kevin and I wanted to sponsor a family.
Kristin said she had a feeling she needed to give me one of the most needy families. This is a single mother with 4 children. Mother has been working in the collection and selection of potatoes; however this income is not even enough to survive taking into account that she was only making $7.50 per hr and the potato season only lasts 3 months a year. The family was kicked out of their apartment and now are homeless with no furniture, food or anything. I contacted the social worker and she said this family needs basically everything. "She has one bed but I think it would be good to have a bunk bed or some twin beds for the kids. They have no dining table, chairs, blankets, sofa, entertainment center, winter clothes for the kids and mom."
I knew this would be a big project and we would not be able to do it alone. I sent out a quick text and email to family and friends to see if anyone would like to help. It was incredible the response so many family and friends agreed to help. We started collecting items for the family. My basement was filling up quick. I posted on our community yard sale website the items I was in need of. People I didn't even know were giving items to donate for this family. We swapped items between other families that were doing sub for Santa. Some of our friends posted on Facebook and friends of friends were donating. Our friend Muyly had the idea to contact the mattress warehouse and see if they would donate some beds. She emailed back and forth to the manager and was able to get them to donate 2 brand new twin beds!! I was so excited!!
I wanted to get pictures of everyone who donated but I ended up only getting a couple :(
This is my cute friend Aubrey. I met up with her and she had bags, and bags of items. She was so happy to help. Kevin and I were blown away by her generosity.
My brother Hyrum and his wife Jen were so kind to donate a new set of pots and pans, towels and meal in a bag. ( This was a great idea. Everything needed to make taco soup and cornbread was in the bag with the recipe on the outside.)
So many more donations kept coming from many family, friends and neighbors, and people I didn't even know. We as a team were able to collect several outfits for each child and mom, shoes, boots, pajamas, underwear, socks, hats, gloves, snow pants, coats, toys, sheets, blankets, bedspreads, 5 new pillows, 4 beds, 1 bunk bed, couch, table, chairs, bench seat, lamp, towels, dishes, silverware, hygiene supplies( soap, shampoo, deodorant, bubble bath, toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet paper, tissues, laundry soap, ), microwave, pots and pans, stockings, foods, money, gift cards.
Sorting through and organizing the pile of goods. My sweet Paisley girl who is not quite three. Would help me organize and sort through all the items. I explained to her that we were gathering items to help a family this Christmas. I explained to her that some kids do not have any toys, clothes, food etc. The next thing I knew she ran and got some of her books, toys and Halloween candy and put them in the box. She said "Mom they will be so surprised." This melted my heart such a sweet girl. She even put two of there favorite my little ponies in the box and after we came home from delivering she said. " Did they like my ponies?"
All wrapped ready to go
HUGE Thanks to our friend Marcus let us borrow his big box truck. We packed it up and we were off Monday morning. HUGE Thanks to my mom who helped me wrap all the toys and watched my girls when we went to deliver the items.
We meet the social worker at the school and she escorted us to the apartment where this family was living. The Mom and the kids had just gotten into this Apartment a couple weeks ago. Previously they were homeless and were living in a shelter. As we pulled up a man who was living next door came and talked to us and asked if we were moving in. We told him we were just helping with a sub for Santa he said he had this large TV that a tenant before had left and he was going to throw it out. It was an older big screen that sat on the floor. We asked her if she would like it and she seemed really excited. The man moved it over and set it up for her and got it working. We started moving items into the Apartment and we were shocked at how little they really had. No furniture or anything in the home. We noticed she did have a picture of Jesus on the wall.
Kevin's sister lives in Logan and her boyfriend Scott met us there to help unload the truck. So nice of him. There is no way I could have carried that couch up the stairs with Kevin.
