Sub For Santa

I had to share the neat experience we had with Sub For Santa this year. This is a tradition we have every year. For the past 8 or 9 years we have gone through the United Way sub for Santa program because I like the way they screen the families and have them go to classes on how to interview for a job, how to prepare a resume, etc, to help them get back on the right track so they don't need Sub for Santa the next year hopefully. They also have very specific rules so that each family is treated fairly, 2 clothing items, 2 toys and a book (I am a proponent of reading, so I especially like the book part). Then, they suggest you sponsor more families if your budget allows instead of just buying more extra stuff for the family you got. We try to get a larger family (5-6 kids) because we have always budgeted the money to do so.

With the lack of work this past year at our household, we almost didn't do it, but Sean and I discussed it and still thought we should do it because we wanted to continue the tradition and also show the boys that even though we don't have a lot of money this year, we are still better off than a lot of people. Also, my Young Women had helped with that baby blanket with my lesson a couple of months ago, and sub for santa is where they wanted the blanket to be given. When I requested our family this year, I specifically asked for a family with a baby boy and 2 children max. The guy on the phone didn't think I could request something that specific but took the information anyway. I received our sponsor family and it was a woman that is recently separated from her husband with a 2 month old baby boy and a little girl that is 6. Perfect!!! One problem, they don't speak English very well and we don't speak Spanish very well (okay, we don't speak Spanish at all). I was very impressed with the list of things they asked for. Lots of times we get lists with very specific, sometimes large ticket items on it and it is hard to find the stuff. I could sense the humility in this family as I read the list, clothes, snowboots, coat, nursery rhyme book, Barbie. I guess a baby can't really need any big ticket items, but I was still impressed.

Monday for family night we took our list and the blanket made by my young women and this year I handed the list to the boys and had them make all of the decisions. It was kind of fun to see what they put together. We got a full outfit for the baby (pants, shirt, jacket, socks, and shoes) and also a pair of pajamas. They picked out a little spinning toy and we got a board book for him to go along with the fleece blanket. For the little girl we got a Sleeping Beauty princess Barbie, a princess microphone and play cell phone. Sean picked out a Disney princess activity/story book and the boys picked out the cutest pair of jeans with a silver sparkly belt and a pink long sleeved shirt with sequins on it. I should have taken a picture because it was the cutest outfit. The only disappointment was that we couldn't find princess or pink boots in her size so we had to get black ones but I'm sure she won't mind, I'm sure that warmth is more important and they looked like really warm boots.

We transferred the stuff to two white garbage bags when we got to the car and I called and told her we were on our way to the house. She is living in the basement with either a friend or relative but met us upstairs at the main door. The boys carried in the bags and we presented them to her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she struggled with her English to tell us thank you and that she didn't know what she would have done without us to get gifts for her babies as she had no money. You could really feel how grateful and humbled she was by this experience and it really made an impact on all of us. She gave us these cards that they had made and apologized for them being in Spanish. We assured her it was okay and she broke down again and gave all of us hugs. Here are our cards. I think we figured out the main gist of what she was saying, but if anyone can translate for us, that would be great.

I'm so glad we decided to go ahead and do it this year because this was one of our greatest Sub for Santa experiences and I know it made a great impact on the boys.