Love and Peace

Yesterday's post was about Hope and Joy. Today's post is about the experience I had volunteering with the Gift of Giving.

Like I said, I helped drive parents home. I drove home one mom. But I had another job. I had gifts for another mom in my trunk. I went to her house on Thursday and helped her wrap.

This mom has been ill and couldn't get out of the house to come wrap her children's presents at the church. Jer had asked if I could take them over to this mom and of course I was willing to do that.

While at the church on Wednesday, Jer loaded me up with everything I needed to help the mom wrap the presents.

The mom and I connected and made arrangements for me to come over. I got there about noon. Her sister was there to help too. The three of us wrapped presents like Santa's elves. It was so nice to talk to both of them, to learn about her kids, her family and her dogs (they were so cute!).

I was not prepared for the gifts. I wrapped presents for one of the boys. She told me that she could tell they are growing up because she asked them what they needed for Christmas and the kids were all practical (the younger boys are 10, the girl is 13 and the older boy is 15... I think). They asked for gloves and boots. They asked for warm blankets. They asked for clothes. They got all of those things and more. The three of us were having fun going through the gifts and showing them to each other.

We finished by 1:15pm. She wrote her thank you note and I was on my way.

I read her note.

It was so kind and full of love.

She had us write "from: Santa" on all the gifts so that her kids would know that these gifts came, not from her, but from the generosity of others. She included that in her letter, and it's clear that she's teaching her kids a lesson in love and giving.

What a gift for all of us.