As we go about our lives this week getting ready for Thursday where most of us, if we're lucky, will be seated around a table filled with our families and friends and an abundance of food and many, many reasons to give thanks...
I'd like to share with you a few reasons I will be feeling thankful:
1) I'm healthy. I'm able to live, breathe, move, dance, love, and be the mom I want to be. There's nothing extreme that my body is either doing or not doing that stops me from doing any of that. Health is an incredible gift, one that we don't fully appreciate until we don't have it and all my thoughts and love go out to all of those who are struggling now.
2) I have a family I adore, a beautiful house, a job I love, two amazing girls who are the light of my life, a husband who never stops working to take care of all of us, friends who would move mountains for me, and I live in a relatively safe part of the city where I don't have to fear for my or my families' safety. Not everyone can say they are so blessed, and it hits me every day, not just on Thanksgiving.
3) I have the means to provide for my children. They certainly don't have everything they've ever wanted (NO Maelin, you can NOT have a phone yet!), but they have boots when it snows. They have a coat they can button up against the wind. They have gloves they can put on to keep their fingers from turning red. They have a warm bed at night and they have never once gone to bed hungry.
4) I am thankful for all of you for constantly answering the call for help for my Christmas Drive. I always hope that THIS will be the year that the need won't be as great, that all the kids will have a coat. That all the kids will have shoes and socks. That all the kids won't steal crayons to take home because they don't have any. That all the kids at least get something for Christmas. So far...that hasn't happened, in fact, it seems to be getting worse. But what I am thankful for...is that YOU are all stepping up. From you forwarding my request for help to everyone you know, to meeting me on your days off to deliver trunk loads of coats and supplies, to putting donations into my PayPal account so I can get these kids warm clothes, to offering to wrap items, to gathering pajamas, to buying hundreds of used books from the library, and to just talking about what we're doing in our little school in Commerce City with your friends so we don't feel so isolated and alone...you do so much, even if you don't feel you do. Everyone always tells me how amazing this Drive is every year because of the results, but the truth is...YOU are the reason it is so amazing year after year after year. YOU do the work, YOU send the funds, YOU talk to your jobs and get funds matched, YOU go shopping for me to save me some work, YOU host book parties so you can use the money to buy my kids books, YOU buy car loads of groceries for families who are homeless...the list is endless.
That is what I am thankful for and what I will be talking about on Thursday as those of us who are lucky enough to do it will be eating our holiday dinner. I am beyond thankful for all of you and everything you provide for hundreds...HUNDREDS of children and their families. You put the holiday spirit in all of our hearts and I couldn't be more grateful.
Thank you
*There's still plenty of time to get a Target card dropped in the mail, or a donation sent to my school, or put in my paypal account. You can send anything to:
Alsup Elementary School
c/o Mara Redenbarger
7101 Birch St
Commerce City, CO 80022
Please take a look at the video from two years ago as a quick reminder of what we all can do when we band together. You all are amazing.
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