Planting the seed

A few moms from our playgroup and I sponsored a needy family for Christmas. We chose a family that has two kids, a 9 yr old boy and a 10 yr old girl. They live in east Austin in a tiny house (300 sq feet) and the mom just had heart surgery. The dad is unemployed. When I called her on the phone to see what her needs were, she was so excited to hear that she had a sponsor. She said they needed groceries, clothing, and toys for the kids. She kept saying that they were just having a very hard time right now and thanked me profusely for helping.

It's been neat to see Larkin's reaction to all of this. When I first told her about the family, she pretty much just understood that a little boy was cold and didn't have a coat, so we were going to buy him one. Then after a few days she started asking questions like, "Why doesn't the boy have a coat?" and "Why don't they have any money? Why don't they have a job?"

Once everyone brought all the presents over so that Emily and I could deliver them, Larkin said, "I wish people would come over and bring ME presents!!" I turned that comment around and talked about how happy the little boy and girl were going to be when they got their gifts. She agreed but still thought people bringing her gifts was a great idea. Can't blame her!

Larkin came with me to drop the gifts off. She didn't say anything while we were there, but she did carry a gift inside all by herself and keeps talking about how she wants to wrap her front door in wrapping paper "just like our family." The family invited us inside their house and the kids were so incredibly excited and grateful for the gifts. As we left we could hear them all squealing behind the door. There were five of us who pitched in together to help them, so they got quite the jackpot of gifts, food, and clothes!

This afternoon Larkin and Willa were flipping through my cookie cookbook and Larkin was trying to pick out the cookies she wanted to make today. She pointed at some of them to make for Daddy, some for Willa, and some for "our family" (meaning the family we adopted.)

Then tonight I read Larkin Jack and Beanstalk at bedtime, and when it talked about how poor the mom and Jack were Larkin immediately interrupted me and said, "We should give them some food! But they probably live far away."

Joel and I agreed that this is something that we want to do with the girls every year, so next year we're going to adopt a family by ourselves and all go deliver the gifts together.

If anyone is interested in adopting a family this year or in the future, google Christmas Bureau of Austin.