Christmas is a Time for GIVING

Today all of us headed up to Salt Lake to make a special delivery to a family in need. Here is the story...

A few weeks ago on the news they did a story about 200 or so families here in the state that are refugees from Somalia. Most of them were brought here to Utah in the middle of winter with just the clothes on their backs, no coats or boots etc. This story got Rich thinking that we should do something about this. He got online and researched some things and got an email address. He sent an email asking what we could do to help.
A few days later he got a response and then told me about his plans. I guess the State of Utah gets these families a place to live and helps them with food and stuff but they usually don't have jobs or any money so they need clothes and all the essentials like shampoo and dishes and pillows etc. The lady assigned us a family that we could help. They don't have a phone so Rich was able to get the address from the mom's brother and Rich and I went to Salt Lake to see them to find out what they need.
It is a family with a Mom and 6 kids, 5 girls and 1 boy. We stopped by the house and the 17 year old answered the door but didn't let us in. The mom doesn't speak English and the daughter told her that were here to see if they needed anything and the mom told her to tell us no, that they were fine and didn't need anything. Rich and I got back in the car and were a little disappointed and didn't really know what to do next. We knew that they did have needs so Rich called the mom's brother and told him what happened and he said he would go talk to them and call us back. We headed to IKEA and that is when the brother called back and told us we should go back there and they would let us in. I guess the mom thought that we were with some agency and that we wanted her to sign papers and stuff so she was confused.
So, we went back and explained that we just wanted to help them get some of the things that they needed. I made a list of their names, ages and shoe sizes so we could get them at least boots and a coat. We were there for about half an hour and they were really nice and friendly. They told us that none of them had pillows and they didn't have any toiletries or pots and pans. They all love to read so they all wanted books and notebooks.

Rich emailed all his family members to see if they wanted to help us out. We got such a great response and we were really excited that we would be able to really help out this family. Even friends of family wanted to help out and donated money and TVs and clothes etc. We were able to get them all a coat and boots and gloves and pillows and all the things they needed for hygiene and pots and pans and even toys and DVDs and CDs and a CD player.
The Rogers family came with us today to deliver all the stuff. We took pizza for lunch and we all ate and then we started bringing in all the stuff and I think they were all a little overwhelmed. It was ALOT of stuff!!! They had fun going through all the stuff and seeing the books and DVDs. It was such a great experience, we are so blessed and have so much that it was really nice to be able to give and to see the joy on their faces. I think this is a Christmas we will always remember and we were really able to see what the true meaning of Christmas is.