Broke my heart today

[Trishagirl]

Yes we are truly blessed if we only could see.

[imagine]

My heart goes out to the family.

I should stop there, I should bite my tongue, but I won't.

Their situation is not rare.

Many children think a mattress on the floor is a bed. Many live with little furnishings and in slum like conditions.

And where I live child services does not take children away for those conditions, if they are with loving parents.

This family has more than some children do. Sounds like they have running water and electricity. Some do not.

So help this family that you have never met and far way from you if you wish. But please remember to look for and help those in your community. Don't forget those right in your backyard or a neighboring town. There are more than you realize. This situation is not rare it is often just ignored. People just don't want to see it close to their home.

[HappyMama]

My heart goes out to the family.

I should stop there, I should bite my tongue, but I won't.

Their situation is not rare.

Many children think a mattress on the floor is a bed. Many live with little furnishings and in slum like conditions.

And where I live child services does not take children away for those conditions, if they are with loving parents.

This family has more than some children do. Sounds like they have running water and electricity. Some do not.

So help this family that you have never met and far way from you if you wish. But please remember to look for and help those in your community. Don't forget those right in your backyard or a neighboring town. There are more than you realize. This situation is not rare it is often just ignored. People just don't want to see it close to their home.

Yes, that is very heartbreaking but true Imagine. I was an official and still member of a charity as well as Lions International. I also started a Charity for Women and Children of Domestic Violence with the proceeds of some Dolls I manufactured that go to that cause. I hope it does not sound bad that I am saying that it is just I have been in many situations over the years trying to help these families , at holidays and throughout the year. The one that broke my heart was a letter to our club passed by a teacher ( we played Santa in California) and the child asked for a blanket because he was cold at night and they had none. Our club and family adopted that boy and his sweet family , and brought them food, clothes, blankets, a bunk bed, firewood , bikes and help throughout the year.

I have seen many of these cases over the years. It is sad and heartbreaking to say the least.

May we all noticed our blessings and help the ones that need it.

Hugs to you all for your heart and kindness shows through here in your posts, thoughts and lives.

[forHISglory]

Sara, I so appreciate your caring heart. Probably it would be wiser for the many generous folks here at FV to reach out to those in their own communities.

This family will be helped by the Salvation Army and a local Crisis Center. However, those entities were not open over the weekend, so that's where we stepped in to help and start the ball rolling. Thank you to each one of you for your caring messages. I was already feeling so blessed, and you just knocked my socks off!!!

[imagine]

May we all notice our blessings and help the ones that need it.

May those words echo in hearts and eyes be opened to those in need around them.

This is my wish and my prayer.

[Sara Noel]

I feel better now. I was unhappy to think that your help and effort (and the charity you volunteer for) was all the help this family was receiving when there are several services in most every county in this country ready to help for this specific type of crisis.

Once the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, United Way etc. are involved, there is typically press releases that will solicit donations and drop off centers and this family will be helped. I wasn't going to sit back and do nothing if your help and effort was all this family was receiving. And if no one wanted to help, to each their own. Not to make light of what you did, of course. I think that was absolutely wonderful.

[kitkat0649]

Things like this really do serve to remind us just how good we have things. Last week I noticed an elderly women rifling through the recycling bins in my complex. She didn't appear to be homeless, just down on her luck. I stepped outside and asked her if she needed cans. After she replied yes, I told her to wait a moment, then went and grabbed all the cans I had been saving to take in myself. The women was brought to tears with gratitude, she said every little bit helps. I told her that every time she went through the neighborhood to come knock on my door. Today I checked my mail to find a handwritten note addressed to "Good Neighbor", thanking me for my kindness. I'm now collecting cans and bottles through donations from friends and family to give to her. It warms my heart that even in my own time of crisis, I can help someone else and gain far more than I would by taking in the cans for my own monetary gain. Between that and reading this story I am brought to tears by the reminder of how blessed I truly am.

My heart goes out to the family.

I should stop there, I should bite my tongue, but I won't.

Their situation is not rare.

Many children think a mattress on the floor is a bed. Many live with little furnishings and in slum like conditions.

And where I live child services does not take children away for those conditions, if they are with loving parents.

This family has more than some children do. Sounds like they have running water and electricity. Some do not.

So help this family that you have never met and far way from you if you wish. But please remember to look for and help those in your community. Don't forget those right in your backyard or a neighboring town. There are more than you realize. This situation is not rare it is often just ignored. People just don't want to see it close to their home.

[mh3rdwheel]

So very true. I see scenes on TV news about life in Bosnia after the bombings, or life in Ethiopia, etc. This was similar: a dirty ramshackle slum with broken windows, the distinct smell of urine mixed with stale smoke and wet dog, and no belongings. And like the the pictures of Bosnia and Ethiopia, these folks are survivors, hanging on. I do forget that right here in mid-America, we have similar conditions. It may not be a war zone, per se, but it is a kind of war.

Forhisglory in my area you can get help with furniture, ask at DHHS or you local Salvation Army, but if you get a referral from DHHS the furniture might be free.

I understand what that little boy understood. When we was given the free apt we could not get used to the space.

You are doing a very great thing for this family.

[peanut]

imagine: that was the prayer of Mother Theresa. Every day she would pray that her eyes would be open to the need around her. I've been praying it for awhile now...and it helps attune me to what's going on in my environment.

We often have panhandlers in our inner city neighborhood, so DH and I will leave good things we don't want beside the dumpster (rather than put them in) for them. Next year the City is switching to individual garbage bins we roll out on garbage day. I can't help but worry a bit about where the panhandlers are going to go and if they're going to find what they need! Another reason to help out at the homeless shelter...

[mh3rdwheel]

Things like this really do serve to remind us just how good we have things. Last week I noticed an elderly women rifling through the recycling bins in my complex. She didn't appear to be homeless, just down on her luck. I stepped outside and asked her if she needed cans. After she replied yes, I told her to wait a moment, then went and grabbed all the cans I had been saving to take in myself. The women was brought to tears with gratitude, she said every little bit helps. I told her that every time she went through the neighborhood to come knock on my door. Today I checked my mail to find a handwritten note addressed to "Good Neighbor", thanking me for my kindness. I'm now collecting cans and bottles through donations from friends and family to give to her. It warms my heart that even in my own time of crisis, I can help someone else and gain far more than I would by taking in the cans for my own monetary gain. Between that and reading this story I am brought to tears by the reminder of how blessed I truly am.

Last week on Thursday this young guy walk from near Mt Pleasant Ohio to Wheeling Island Exxon to collect money owed him, he waited from 2 p.m. till after 8 p.m. He, I found out is a cousin of mine, he needed the money for diapers and stuff for his baby, I went and bought diapers, and bought him a pack of cigs, pop, and my co-worker Bobbie she bought him food.

[peanut]

You know, where I come from in the Maritimes, we had a saying "Family is family". If anyone in the family was in need and we knew, family took care of it. But with families being split up and moving all over the place to follow jobs, it's really hard to do now. Seems more and more people are having to rely on strangers to help them.

[mh3rdwheel]

My heart goes out to the family.

I should stop there, I should bite my tongue, but I won't.

Their situation is not rare.

Many children think a mattress on the floor is a bed. Many live with little furnishings and in slum like conditions.

And where I live child services does not take children away for those conditions, if they are with loving parents.

This family has more than some children do. Sounds like they have running water and electricity. Some do not.

So help this family that you have never met and far way from you if you wish. But please remember to look for and help those in your community. Don't forget those right in your backyard or a neighboring town. There are more than you realize. This situation is not rare it is often just ignored. People just don't want to see it close to their home.

Thank you, I am thinking of volunteering at Wheeling Catholic Charities, they helped us with food, utilities, in the Sunday paper the put out that they need more volunteers and money,I have been thinking for a while about helping in some way.

Thanks

[cjmobxnc]

Thanking God right now that my mom and I have a safe place to stay. If Irene had done damage to our house, that could have easily been us.

Forhisglory, I lift you and the family up in my prayers tonight and hope things get better for them.

[mauimagic]

Am so glad to see the far reaching effect that sharing has had - not only in helping others, but also in reaching around the world(even in our 'little' FV world) as a reminder. Mahalo for what everyone does.