Holiday Friends + emergency fund story

Holiday Friends was this past Saturday! It was held at our church and sponsored by the Harvest House. We fed over 1000 people and gave toys to over 500 kids!

The families checked in, ate a Christmas dinner, saw a Christmas drama, and then got to shop for their kids in the toy store. (While their kids were off doing activities) Jared was a loader & I was a toy guide. (Which really should have been called TOUR guide because we stayed with our families throughout the whole thing)

Before it started I got a couple pictures of the toy store. This was the area that people shopped.

The rooms were filled ‘stocked’ with each type of toy so that every group had the same amount of each toy to choose from. Look at all these!!!

As soon as the drama was about to start I got a text message from a neighbor that she was making a police report for the tire slashing that happened the night before. I was confused because we obviously made it to the church okay. Apparently they got all the vehicles in our cul-de-sac that were parked on the street. One of them happened to be Jared’s pawpaw’s truck that we are borrowing for emergencies. The darn CREEPS got 2 of our tires but only 1 of everyone elses. So thanks to our good ol’ emergency fund we can take care of it without much harm.

I’m so thankful for a couple reasons. 1.) They only got 2 tires. 2.) They did not get the truck we needed to drive to the church in. We were a little short on volunteers so we were really needed! The turnout was great and SUCH a blessing for me. I can only imagine how much other people were blessed too. It was very busy but everyone was so polite and thankful… even the volunteers that had been running nonstop. 3.) Jaidan did great at the childcare. He can go all day without nursing so that isn’t an issue anymore, but I’m picky & I don’t like leaving him. Ally was one of the helpers up there and he loves his auntie Ally so it worked out perfectly & I was able to volunteer without other things on my mind. (The childcare was also off site so it’s not like I could just run and check on him) We dropped him off a little after 10 and when I picked him up at 4:30 he was smiling and happy as can be. But can you blame him… look how I found him: girls and cell phones! (Look at the cell phones next to him, haha)