Angel Tree 2011

I want to go ahead and post about our Angel Tree delivery before the week gets away from me. I'm terrified I'm going to forget to thank someone, so if I do, know that it's because my brain is still fried and in overload mode - it's nothing personal!

Last year we sponsored 94 families. This year I numbered the people a bit differently so I'm not sure exactly how many families there were, but I know there were 147 people. And we'll have two more done before Christmas Day (they don't go to the Head Start but needed our help.)

And just like last year, we had parents cry. Heck, we cried! We had parents who were so happy they started dancing and praising God. I loved those people!!

We had a toy bin set up that also had winter coats and mitten sets for whoever needed them. Many of the toys were donated from Beulah Hill's ladies group. A lot of them were donated from The Classy Paci consignment store in Carthage. The mittens came from New2U in Taylortown and the coats were donated by someone in our church (anonymous).

The stories I have this year for Angel Tree are huge. We really didn't have any more people to sponsor this year than we did last year, but people's financial situations are totally different this year. I know there are so many people in our church right now that are having trouble making ends meet. I had countless people call me and apologize for not being able to sponsor a child. I completely understood their situation and I felt bad that they were even calling to tell me this. After all, I don't know who sponsors a child and who doesn't. I set a deadline of December 4 for all the presents to be wrapped and at the church.

On December 4, out of 147 people that were supposed to have Christmas presents, about 50 had been turned in. My sister had written blog posts asking people to help, and from that we ended up getting about 20 more kids sponsored, between her book club, friends, and in-laws. It made me really excited! Then I got phone calls from people at church saying they had coworkers who wanted to help. There went a handful more of people who would have Christmas.

Before the December 4 deadline, though, something really amazing happened. In one night at church, we had a huge bag of Wii games donated and we also had a $1,000 check given to us. (I blogged about that here.) Someone read that blog, called me, and said they wanted to donate a Wii game system to the Angel Tree. The next Sunday I received a $500 check. My sister's mother-in-law went shopping and bought a bunch of random items people had asked for (like sheets, towels, etc.) I had five people at church who took money and went shopping for me so I didn't have to do all the shopping by myself. My sister did last-minute shopping for me two days before the delivery. I had people from the church and my parents who helped me wrap at the church every night for two weeks until the delivery - sometimes until 10:30pm or later.

The Friday before the delivery I had three people meet me at the church. Another girl and myself loaded up my truck and her van and we drove a load of presents up to the Candor Head Start, where the delivery would take place. The rest of the people stayed behind at our church and loaded up our church bus. By the time we got back from Candor we found out the entire bus was full. So my truck was loaded up again. :)

The delivery was at 8am on Saturday. There were two ladies from Head Start and 5 adults, 5 kids from our church who did the unloading and sorting of presents. It wasn't long before a line started forming for people to pick up their gifts!!

Many of the parents didn't bring their children because these are the only presents their kids are getting for Christmas. I tried to take good pictures but I was so busy making sure all the presents were there and watching the parents' faces that I didn't get a ton!

I know some of the background stories of some of these families, but most just need a little extra help due to illness or being unemployed.

This is a young lady who has two small children and is a single mom. She's trying to finish school and I know she needs a lot of help but doesn't ask for much. Someone donated a stroller for her kids and you can see in one of the next pictures how much one of her daughters loved it!

This little girl could walk just as well as you or I last year. But suddenly she started having issues with her body. She can't walk well anymore (I thought she was born with leg deformities before I found out the story) and she has seizures. The family has no idea what's wrong with her. Heartbreaking, but you should have seen the smile on her face when she walked out of there with her presents!

A reindeer came to visit us! Made me wish I had worn my reindeer antlers from the Reindeer Run!

I love this picture. It's never too early to start teaching your kids about the spirit of giving. If Brianna was a little bit older (and less hyper) I would have brought her to this event.

Big haul!

What a sweet little girl!!

But when one of our "elves" tried to carry her present out to her car for her, she started crying! Haha! She just had to carry out the present that was bigger than she was!

I really and truly have no good way to express my thanks to everyone. I can't believe the people from outside our church who stepped up to help us. The people in our church who gave so generously with their money and time. My family who also gave very generously with money and time (including watching my kids a lot so I could be at the church!) My husband who wanted me home every night and didn't get what he wanted, but put up with it.

I still wish we could have done more. I always wish we could have done more, but my hope is that we did enough that even just one person will come to know how good God is through this ministry.

And hopefully it made all of us remember what Christmas is all about. I'd be lying if I said the presents don't matter. I took Brianna and Hunter shopping for the two kids we got off the Angel Tree and I LOVED being able to let them pick out toys for the kids. I wish with all my heart that I could see all of these kids open these presents on Christmas morning and see the look on their faces. But I also want them to know why we celebrate Christmas. Because, as Brianna will tell you, "Mary gonna have a baby. She name him Jesus. God's Son! Jesus loves [insert name: Mommy, Daddy, etc.]" Because God gave his only son for all of us, and I can't imagine giving up my child for half the lousy people in this world, and because Jesus took on our sin for us, and because I never have to worry about what is going to happen to me when I die (I'll be in heaven and hope to see YOU there!), that is why we celebrate Christmas.

So while you're drinking your hot chocolate by the fireplace Christmas morning (or coffee in my case, I'm sure) and watching your child's face light up when they get their toys from Santa Claus, please be sure to tell them where all these good things come from. Read the Christmas story. Even if you think your child is too young to understand. Tell them that Jesus really is the reason for this season, not Santa Claus, and not presents, and not food, and not decorations.

If I missed thanking anyone who was involved in the Angel Tree I am truly sorry. Please point it out to me and I'll give you your due praise, because I don't want to forget anyone!!!

Feeding Himself

Hunter loves feeding himself, and usually I encourage it, particularly with foods he can eat with a fork or his hands. But one day I let him loose with yogurt. It was worth it for the laughter that it brought me watching him try to eat this slippery stuff!!

Advent Calendar

A couple of months ago, Brianna found a really cute advent calendar at a yard sale that she just wouldn't put down. For $0.50, I obliged her, and it's actually REALLY cute.



But when I saw all these advent calendars on one of my favorite blogs, I knew I wanted to make one of those. I knew which one was just right for Brianna and Hunter!



My mother-in-law was kind enough to lend me some card stock. The background is one piece of card stock. We found a Santa icon online (we Googled images until we found one that we liked). We printed it to size (which was much harder than I had assumed it would be...) I traced each portion of Santa onto different colors of card stock and cut them out and glued them on the background together. Now, during the month of December, we will glue cotton balls onto Santa's beard. The closer Christmas is, the fuller his beard will appear! Bri definitely looks forward to this every day! I love how it turned out!

Visit With Old Friends

Two months ago we had a lovely visit from Sally and her beautiful daughter Evelyn. Of course we took the opportunity to have a play date with all the kids, and of course it's taken me two months to blog about it. Dad blogged about it only days afterward of course - he's so good. So here are my pictures, better late than never!

We started off inside the house. Mom and Dad's grandkids were starving as usual so they (Brianna) spent most of the time eating instead of playing. This is why the rest of the pictures have Brianna sporting a red strawberry mouth.

Evelyn spent the first few minutes exploring the new-to-her toys and getting used to the chaos that has become the Loyd house!

But it wasn't long before Evelyn and Claire made their way to the swing on the front porch!

From there, we made it outside and then the fun really began!!

Evelyn started dinner for some baby dolls and Brianna and Claire jumped right on that.

Here is Claire serving tea to Grandpa. Brianna is cooking in the background.

Evelyn and Bri cooking together.

Hunter just laid on his back for an odd amount of time. He thought it was hilarious to throw the ball and just sit back and wait for someone to give it back to him.

The wagon-pulling was a huge event. Bri was more of a supervisor but Claire enjoyed riding!

And now it's Evelyn's turn!

Bri and Claire stand around, making sure Grandpa is following the road rules.

Here, Brianna continues to supervise Claire's trip in the wagon.

At this point, Evan wasn't NEARLY as mobile as he is now! I think he wanted in on the fun but just couldn't get his legs to cooperate!

All the kids were happy as can be when they were playing in the sand pile.

And the swings were a big hit as usual too!

So funny to think that Sally and I were rocking out this swingset about 20 years ago!!

The kids love it when you can play with a ball and a cardboard tube.

Hunter: "And when I open my eyes, a ball shall appear!"

We had a great day, and hope to have many more of these playdates in the future - especially when Sally adds another baby to the mix in early 2012! (Okay, we'll give him a few months to adjust to his new life, but then we will have to introduce him to the beauty of this backyard!)

College Life

When I left for college (Go Mountaineers!), Gail gave me a book called "College Life". It was supposed to be a journal of sorts. I found it the other day and thought some of the things were fun to re-read.

Packing It All Up
"I went through five suitcases and duffel bags and so many bags for my "trinkets". This is insane! Am I packing too much??"

I'm gonna miss...
"Stephen. Mom washing my clothes for me. Jenn. Phase 10."

Advice I took with me
"Don't let anything pass you by. If you think you'll regret not doing something a year from now, just do it!"

Modes of transportation
- Appalcart
- Get ride from someone
- Walking (there are several stars next to this one; my main transportation!)

Why I Love This School
"It is full of awesome people. Everyone is so great! Classes are great, professors are overall cool, VIEW IS GORGEOUS!"

Best first-week activities
"Running around with Mary, Kristin, Lauren, Jess; meeting people; ice cream social"

About my living space
"Uh, 10x15. Enough said."

Extra-curricular activities
"Movies, Wing Night"

Cool care packages
"From Jenn - Contained pixie sticks, socks, candy and a card!"

Cool concerts
"Weekend Excursion" (If you know the story behind this concert this is even funnier.)

What finals I breezed through
"Old Testament Literature, Sociology, Statistics, Social Problems"

What finals I simply dreaded
"Geography, Archaeology, Social Issues"

About halfway through my second semester of freshman year I started a blog (not posting a link to that blog so no one can get any incriminating information from it!) so I quit writing as much in this book. It's still funny to me to see some of the pictures I put in here and little notes and stuff. I love finding things like this!

Hunter Says "Boo!"

I laugh every time I see this video of Hunter trying to scare me.

Angel Tree Update

Well, let me tell you how good God is.

A few days ago both my sister and I posted pleas on our blogs for help with my church's Angel Tree. We were having trouble making sure all the names got taken off the tree, and it wasn't due to people not wanting to pick a name, it is just because of the hard time people are having financially right now. And trust me, I know all about that, so I didn't want anyone to feel bad for not being able to take a name.

Just a side note - I don't know who gets names off the tree and who doesn't anyway, so I'm not keeping tabs, just for future reference!

Anyway, I had a friend who told me they wanted to donate some money for the Angel Tree. I was excited because I was thinking this was probably going to be a large check - my guess was $100. (To me, that's a large check!!)

Our church treasurer came up to me after church last night and said, "Hey, somebody made a donation to Fed By Faith." She was grinning like crazy but I just said, "Okay, great!" She kept grinning and said, "Do you want to sit down?" That's when I realized this was going to be a larger amount of money than I had thought. I'll be honest, my first thought was, "This is going to be a $500 check."

She looked me in the eyes and said, "One thousand dollars."

Whaaaaaat!?

Do you even have any idea what $1,000 will do for these kids? At this point, my family (in-laws of my sister are included in that) and my sister's book club have stepped up tremendously, along with other people at church chipping in to donate toys, and The Classy Paci donating a large amount of toys, and we were down to about 40 children left on the tree.

One issue we were having this year is that so many kids asked for video games, mainly Wii games. I was thinking about just going to Gamestop and buying some of the used games just so they'd get at least something.

Until last night, at church, when someone showed up with a big bag of Wii games they wanted to donate.

See, I'll admit I was starting to get a little worried about the Angel Tree. My husband and my best friend are both pessimists so between the two of them I was starting to think, "What in the world are we going to do if we can't do this?" When really, I should have realized, we can't do this. If we depend on ourselves, honestly, we can't do anything of substance. I talked to Cindy (pessimist friend) last Sunday after Stephen (pessimist husband) urged me to find out what would happen if we couldn't help all the kids on the tree. He wants to have a plan for everything! But after I talked to her I just couldn't get in the "spirit" of worrying. I just knew that if we were doing this for the right reasons (to give kids Christmas, to show people that God will provide for them) that God would work this out somehow. I've always been way too optimistic, just like my dad, but hey, it's worked for me so far!

So last night, at church, when I saw the stack of Wii games, I was giddy and I was so happy... but I have to admit I wasn't totally shocked. And when I was told about the $1000 donation, I was blown away by the generosity, but I wasn't totally shocked. I knew God was going to make this happen, as long as we make sure we don't make it about us.

I know people are going to say that the Angel Tree is happening because of people. People are buying the presents. People are donating cash. But tell me - who do you think gives people that spirit of giving and generosity? People in general are not good. People in general will run you over to get a leg up in the world and not think twice about it. Luke 18:19 in the Bible actually shows Jesus saying, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except for God." (my paraphrase).

So today, I am telling you, the only way we are able to do this Angel Tree (or anything good) is because of God. So please thank God today for the generosity of people. For giving us hearts that want to help others. For giving people financial blessings so they can bless others. Because it all comes from Him.

General Cuteness

Brianna's bookbag for school is actually one of MY old bookbags! Mom and Dad cleaned it up and she loves it! This bookbag is the talk of the preschool because it's so original!

The after-party of Hunter's 1st birthday party:

This is the life.