There are going to be times your gift of giving is not well received.

In some cases I have been asked by the recipient to please give them more, and early on iI did because I felt I had so much.

One holiday season I contacted a women’s shelter to adopt a single mom with 2 kids who were getting out on their own.
We were not able to have any kids and wanted to do for others, so $1500 later with tree decorations gifts and food, the mom asked if I would take her to place X so she could get her kids some free toys that were being given away !!!
I was struck dumb !
I began crying right there because all I had done was not enough and this person wanted more !
She did not even feel bad either.
I told her no and thought long and hard before doing it again the next year for another family, but I did, only I kept my info private and had minimal contact with the family.

I got a mom with one child the next year.
I heard from the shelter director that the mom only wanted clothes for her daughter, that they were more important than toys, and that the mom would like a coat from the thrift store for herself because she had to wait outside for public transportation.
Needless to say, I went all out that year and bought the mom a great full length coat from a good store and included the receipt for the shelter director in case it did not fit or was not a color she liked.
I did ask for size but she did not care about color.

I delivered the coat right away to the shelter because it was getting cold and I wanted her to have it then and not wait 4 weeks.
I heard she cried tears of joy to have a brand new coat.
She wanted her daughter to be gone when I took the items to her home so she would not figure out the santa thing.
It broke my heart… windows had cardboard in them, but she was so proud to have gotten this place out of the shelter.
We set the tree up together but she wanted to decorate it with her daughter.
I gave her extra wrapping paper to wrap some of the items so they were not all the same paper and could be from her and not all from Santa.
I went back to the store and bought more food and a few goodies for mom.

So if I had given up from the prior year, I would have missed out on this great experience.
This mom was so thankful and appreciative.

There have been more ups and downs over the years and my heart has been hurt more but I keep on giving because it makes me feel good… and it makes a few kids happy too. – Kim ♥






Love Ya, ~Barbara