Helping The Needy

This year, my family decided to adopt a family in need of a hand and buy Christmas presents for them instead of each other. Through a social worker, my sister was able to identify a young couple with three children in my parents' hometown of Marshall, Illinois. As Christmas approached this past weekend, my sister ran into a snag in trying to deliver Christmas joy to the family when she discovered the family's telephone had been disconnected, and it appeared the family no longer lived in their house. Upon further investigation, my sister learned the three children had been removed from their parents' home days earlier by child protective services and placed in foster homes. The social worker put my sister in touch with the children's grandparents. Last night, my two sisters delivered the presents to children's grandparents' home with the hope the gifts would reach the intended recipients. The grandparents said nothing about the circumstances of the family, only that they would be seeing all of them and make sure they received the presents.

According to the social worker, the family had on four separate occasions in the past year removed the children from local schools to move to Tennessee, only to later return to Marshall. Surprisingly, the children's teachers say the children do well in school when they are enrolled. As I think back on my life growing up in Marshall, I can say that I spent every single Christmas with my family, and I have continued to return home every Christmas since I left home. I can't imagine spending Christmas apart from my family voluntarily, let alone by the hand of someone else because my parents were deemed unfit to parent me. I can only hope the future turns brighter for this family we chose to adopt this holiday season, or at least they were able to enjoy a little holiday cheer from the unexpected gifts we gave them.