I Was A Weepy Mess Because Of This

Shortly before taking this photo, I stood in the middle of our kitchen in tears. Crying. Happy tears. THIS is everything we collected for a beautiful family who has fallen on hard times this holiday season. I had NO idea just how much we had collected until we organized everything.

It all began at the beginning of this month when a friend of ours posted about family in need. They know this family personally and their friendship has been strong for many, many years.

Due to a job loss, the family was struggling. With Christmas being right around the corner, and having 2 kids, things were looking rather grim.

I reached out to my friend with an idea. I wanted to start a fundraiser. I'd run it for a couple of weeks, offer free homemade cookies to those who contributed, and plan to meet up halfway to deliver the goods.

Green light.

This was my original post via Facebook on December 1st. In the past, I've posted about fundraisers we've launched and the response has been nothing short of impressive. This was the first one I've posted so close to Christmas.

I didn't know what to expect.

The donations trickled in slowly over the course of 2 weeks. Food. Gently used and new toys. Clothing. A couple of monetary donations to put towards grocery shopping for the family. A $20 gift card to Walmart for the family to use.

Lisa and I stashed all of the items in the biscuit room and home office.

There were quite a few who committed to donating items, but never followed through. This is always awkward for me. I don't like to pester people, especially over the holiday season, but I need to take inventory on what we have and what we need to purchase.

This time around, I didn't send emails or messages. I put a reminder up on my Facebook wall a few days before delivering the goods.

On December 16th, Lisa and I purchased the Christmas dinner for this family. We also used the monetary donations to shop for groceries. I had scoped out grocery store ads for the best sales so we could stretch each and every dollar.

Also, on December 16th, we had to reschedule the delivery. Originally, we were supposed to deliver yesterday morning, however, we got about 6 inches of snow.

I was relieved that we postponed the delivery when we did. The roads were horrible. 

When a friend of ours discovered that we had rescheduled, she made a monetary donation for groceries. After the roads were cleared, Lisa went to the grocery store down the street and purchased all of this, with the money our friend donated, to add to our collection.

And, that brings me back to the here and now. This moment.

Yes, I'm posting the same photo again. I'm a weepy mess. This is everything we collected and purchased. It's a lot of stuff. We are grateful beyond words to everyone who donated.

Thank you SO much Liz, Danielle, Kelly, June, Judy, Lisa, Martha, Kimberly, Alex, Cindy, Jeff, and Renee. We couldn't have done this without YOU!

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

This, right here, is proof.