The Family

We are now in the throes of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season!  I absolutely LOVE this time of year, but I'm always saddened by how fast it goes.  As soon as October hits, I can feel the excitement.  I love the fall weather, visits to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard, the changing leaves...November brings the planning of our annual turkey feast and sometimes even allows for some family visits...and of course December is Christmas...shopping, cookies, kids bouncing off the walls, X-Mas videos...  I have that warm, cozy feeling for 3 months every year, but then it turns off like a lightswitch on Christmas Day...as I realize that it's all over and I have to wait another year to do it again. 

One of the big things that is tying up some of my brain activity is a family that we have decided to adopt.  A few years ago (before we had kids), Drew and I adopted a family through the Salvation Army.  It was a good experience and I definitely FELT good about what we were doing for the family, however we haven't done one since.  We've had 2 kids since then and things always seem so crazy...  This year, however, we had one sort of fall in our laps...which must be a sign that they were meant to be for us!

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine sent out an email to a bunch of people asking if we had any beds, mattresses or other furniture to give to a family in need.  At the time we had several items to pass on, which we arranged for my friend to pick up and deliver to the family.  Obviously I was curious about who is was for and what had happened, so I asked.  One of the teachers at the daycare where my friend works has a husband who went into kidney failure several years ago.  Since then, he lost his eyesight and this past May his wife donated one of HER kidneys to him!  They have 5 children, as well as a niece who lives with them.  Obviously with her husbands health issues, they have tons of medical bills and her husband eventually lost his job.  Their sole income is her job as an assistant teacher, paying less than $8 an hour.  On top of all of that, which seems to me to be more than any one family should have to deal with, they discovered BEDBUGS about a month ago and had to get rid of EVERYTHING.  They were literally sleeping on the floor!  After hearing their story, I gathered up some more things from around the house that they might find useful and included them in the initial delivery that my friend, her husband, her sister and her brother-in-law delivered. 

I have no idea what it was about this particular story, or this particular family, but I felt like I needed to do more...and I kept wondering about Christmas.  With all those kids and the medical issues and the lack of employment, did they have ANY money to buy them ANYTHING?  There's just something about children not experiencing the joy of Christmas that breaks my heart.  So I asked...and discovered that they had NOTHING.  I also asked if we could 'adopt' them and my friend said her coworker got very emotional and said she had been praying for help...  That was a sign to me that this was definitely the right move and the right family.

Over the last couple of weeks I have learned little bits and pieces about the family...solidifying my decision to help as much as I possibly can.  They have 2 boys ages 14 and 3...and 4 girls ages 12, 11, 10 and 7.  The 7 yr old is actually their niece who lives with them full time.  The dad is going to school to learn Braille and to adjust to life without his eyesight.  They have a VERY small house, 1 TV and not even a DVD player.  The Mom and Dad had saved $115 for Christmas and that's what they were going to use to buy gifts for the kids.  They have no tree or stockings though...and never have.  Can you imagine not even having a Xmas tree?  It makes me wonder how much the kids 'believe'.  Is Christmas all that 'magical' when Santa brings everyone around you tons of clothes and toys...and you get nothing?  Doesn't seem so magical to me... 

So now I'm on a mission.  A mission to make this a great Christmas for that family.  To fill stockings with the crippety crap we all love to get...to make sure every child has a bunch of little presents to open on Christmas morning...to make sure the parents each have a few special things of their own to open.  It's been a lot of work so far, but I have truly LOVED doing it!  I've been shopping sales and if I hit even BETTER sales, I buy that stuff too and return the old.  I have a pretty big pile here, so now I'm in the number crunching, evening up and wrapping stage.  I want every kid to have the same number of gifts to open and to feel just as special as their siblings.  I've had people tell me that I'm a 'saint' or an 'angel' for taking this family on all on my own...but I don't see it that way at all.  How can anyone NOT be moved by their story and can people NOT help others out when they have so much and others have so little?  This family has experienced some REALLY shitty luck and have never asked for a dime.  If I ever hit that kind of luck...and I hope I NEVER do...I just hope that someone else will think of me and my family the same way as I am thinking of this family.