Full of Gratitude

The holiday season is a special time for everyone, but there are moments at Family Scholar House that are unlike anywhere else.

The past month, I have been helping with our Adopt-A-Family program, assisting donors and participants. Hundreds of families are blessed with presents, but there’s one family’s pick up I will never forget.

I was busy working on something on my laptop when a participant poked her head in the doorway.

“Hi, I’m here to pick up my gifts.”

I led her back to the playroom where gifts were piled high all around us. I found her stack, and went to go get the cart to help her take them out to her car. As I turned to go get the cart, she stopped me. She put her hand to her mouth and said, “I think I need to just take a second.” The sweet mother of four broke down in total awe and gratitude for the generosity shown to her.

“I want to write my donors a thank you book!” she joked.

The entire time we were loading the gifts into her car, she was switching from crying to smiling in total shock and amazement. Once we finally got all the gifts loaded into her car, she stopped and gave me a hug.

She thanked me and explained how much all of this meant to her. She told me how she had recently lost her job and had no way of getting gifts for her kids for the holidays, and that she didn’t want to ask her family for help because it would be too much of a burden on them.

I looked at her and said, “That’s why we’re here.”