The Holidays are generally “the most wonderful time of the year,” but for some they can also be the most stressful. For families that are barely holding it together financially, a lot of guilt and sadness can occur. Fortunately, there are organizations that host “Secret Santa” sponsorships to help those in need. This year, our wonderful community over in our Deals Group had the opportunity to sponsor two wonderful families so they were able to have the best Christmas imaginable. Here is a little about the families:
I nominated the first family because they are two people who I hold near and dear to my heart. The little boy is my daughter’s age and she really enjoys playing with him. During the school week he is in the care of an amazing woman who is doing the absolute best she can to ensure he has a routine, roof over his head, and his stomach is full. She relies solely on her disability check and her heart of gold. The little boys parents were also out of work this holiday season.
These two people weighed heavily on my heart and I figured I would post a general wish list with a few clothing items, school supplies, and toys on CMR Deals to see if I would get a response. If not, I tried and would see about doing all I could for them on my own. The outpouring of love was overwhelming. His entire list was purchased in under 15 minutes and I received a flood of comments asking for more items to be added. A lot of our members suggested I add food and toiletry items as well as a few items for his caregiver.
The next day, all of those items had been purchased and everybody was asking for another family to sponsor so I opened up nominations.
The second family is a father and two little girls in Florida. A family friend nominated them and for some reason their story just stuck out to me so they were next to be featured. It took only two days for their wishlist to be completed. This family was provided with food, toiletries, diapers, wipes, and even wrapping paper so they didn’t have to worry about anything.
When I delivered the wrapped gifts to the first family, she was beyond amazed. I opened the hatch of my Tahoe where everything was packed inside. I then presented her with a card that contained a gift card to our local grocery store so she didn’t have to worry about food for a good little while. She cried tears of happiness and said that nobody has ever done anything so sweet for her. It was awesome seeing the joy that our community brought to her. Kiddo was most excited about the Nerf Guns, Spiderman Body Wash set, and his suitcase.
The second family was taken care of by a family member who handled the acceptance and delivery of the packages. She was also blown away by the kindness of complete strangers and the love of the CMR Deals community. When she delivered the gifts to dad, she said he cried happy tears. I absolutely love that y’all provided such wonderful Christmas’ to these families. The photos of the little girls with their gifts just shows the complete joy they were experiencing.
I wanted to sponsor a third family, but we did not have time this year as it was approaching the deadline of Prime delivery season. I really hope that this kindness continues throughout the year and that we are able to get an earlier start next year and sponsor even more families in need. I love that the community came together for at least two families this year, with others reaching out to me to let me know they loved the Amazon Wish List idea and had created their own for families they knew.
I thank each and every one of you who participated and shared what we were doing. You are the most special people on Earth.
