Today on HLN, I saw a story about a veteran who paid the electric bills of several people in line behind him at the power company where he was from (I at first thought they meant a veterinarian-silly me). The man said that he had been homeless just the day before.
I shopped with baby girl yesterday for our Angel Tree gifts, two young people wanted simple gifts-boots for the girl and a gaming store gift card for the boy. While I was out shopping earlier in the day, I overheard a man say that he "sadly needed to buy a Cape Central sweatshirt". He revealed that he too was shopping for an Angel Tree child. I politely tried to eavesdrop as to why he said "sadly". Turns out, his kids attend Notre Dame, the regional Catholic high school. It was then that I rudely laughed out loud, turned to him and rudely said "Glad you are able to lower yourself." I wasn't feeling his pain, as my poor little tropical storms very proudly attend Cape Central High School.
But the truly important part of the story isn't my rudeness or his pride, but rather that we both had taken it upon ourselves to shop for someone else for Christmas.
For the past 5 years, Mr. Hurricane, the little tropical storms and I have participated in The Advent Conspiracy-a program to encourage families to give each other homemade, handmade, or other such gifts, and then take the money that they would have budgeted and give it to charity. This year, we have opted to give through the Angel Tree program, and are actually buying gifts for the little tropical storms too. Either way, we are giving more than we ever have. Perhaps it is a trend everywhere? We hope so.
If you would like more info on The Advent Conspiracy, go to their website: www.adventconspiracy.org
Happy Giving!
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