giving

We decided as a family this year that we were going to concentrate on GIVING. For the kids what that meant was every time they thought "I want that" they needed to stop themselves and say instead, "I want to give that." For the parents, that meant coming up with several opportunities to GIVE to reinforce the giving idea and make sure that feeling was felt in their hearts enough to make a difference.

Now I have thought about writing this on the blog, and wondered if it would sound show-off-ish, but really I just want to document what we have been doing. No show-off-ishy-ness. okay.

We found several places to donate toys for the Toys For Tots program. We gave toys through the Boy Scouts, Marines and Texas Transportation Museum. We donated socks, play-doh, matchbox cars and coloring books to the flood victims in Mexico. We are doing a sub-for-Santa for a single Mom in our area. We give everything that is in our coin purse or car to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers everytime we see them. We gave generously to fast offering and Christmas fund at church all year, but especially this month.

But this story, tops them all.
Alec takes his work shirts in to a cleaners to be cleaned and pressed. He does this because he loves me, it isn't anything I ever asked for, but I know that is why he does it. He takes them so that I don't have to launder and press them (the first gift to me) and he takes them in so that I don't have to keep track of when he is almost out of shirts (the second gift to me). But this story isn't about me. The women where he drops the shirts off is young, married and has a severally handicapped young daughter. He has told me more than once about her, always expressing his gratitude that our children are healthy and whole. When he dropped off his shirts last week he also gave her a gift certificate to Toys R Us. She thanked him. But when he returned to pick up the shirts she had a holiday mug and hot chocolate for him. She was touched by his gift and explained that with hospital bills and medications, Christmas may as well not have come. Thanks to Alec's gift, it would. He explained that in his life there had been people that had lifted him and given to him at times that it really was crucial, with no expectation of anything in return and that is those experiences that he, and we, remember the most. He could tell that this seemingly small gesture on his part had made a world of difference for this stranger.

hooray for my Hubby! I don't write very much about him, but he truly is one of the most amazing people I know.