‘Tis The Season – An SOS Call To Action

It’s hard to believe, but the holidays are upon us!

Saving Our Sisters has helped dozens of families stay together over the last 4 years. Helping mothers preserve their holiday traditions, by passing them on to their children, is just one blessing that SOS has been able to provide.  Which, is to say the least, priceless.  We have said, countless times, that it is not enough to help a mom who has changed her mind and decided to parent her child instead of relinquishing her child to adoption.  What is enough you ask?  Ongoing support is necessary to make sure that she knows and uses the tools to find the resources and options that are available to her, to ensure that she is able to conquer anything that is thrown at her, and that her success will last for generations in her family to come.  This is something that SOS has been and still is very committed to.  How can we define success?  We believe that successful parenting includes a safe, stable, loving home with the local support nearby to ensure basic necessities of the family unit are met. Success, in our eyes, does not equate to fancy homes, trendy clothes, or all of the newest gadgets. Success is the simple things in life, and these families, who were at one point this year in such a crisis that they considered losing a child, (usually due to financial issues and afraid to ask for support), already have the simple things.  They have love, they have siblings, they have asked and received support, and………they have each other.

While some may not consider a warm and joyful holiday season to be a basic necessity, we do believe it adds to the joy of the ‘in tact’ family.  It is, often times, the very thing that mothers were worried about when they were considering adoption for their new addition to the family.  Not being able to provide the ‘things’.  No mother wants to go to bed on Christmas Eve with nothing on or under the tree for their children. In some cases, this could be the catalyst of a shattered childhood fantasy – Santa Claus. “How can Santa Claus be real when he visited everyone else’s house but not mine?”  The reality is this – while we are ensuring that basic necessities are met and families have support, warm and safe homes to grow and love in, the spirit of the holiday season moves us to provide a little bit extra for these moms and their families.  A nice warm meal, a few new items of clothing, and a toy or two for the kids to open on Christmas morning. Providing these things for their families, on their own, is sometimes just not possible.  Our moms from this year already had children when they came to us for help.  Your sponsorship will include giving these kids, these in tact families, a joyous Christmas.

This year, just as in the past 3, we’d like to announce the 3rd Annual Sponsor a Saved Family. The families that will be sponsored have already been saved through the SOS network in 2015. You can see some of their pictures throughout this post.  We would like to bless all the families that found SOS, and for that to happen we need your help.

Is it enough to just help them parent their baby?  Or should we show our commitment to them when they are least expecting it?  Taking some of the stress off of purchasing even one gift for their kids means the world to these mothers.  Helping them to see their children happy together, and that they are sharing their new baby’s 1st Christmas confirms to them, “You did the right thing.  We have your back.” This is the message we want to send.

 

Every little bit will make a huge difference if we all do this together for these families. You can also have confidence that your donation, every penny of it, will truly go for something amazing.  The pictures will be shared, and just like when their babies were born throughout the year, will be worth a thousand words.

There are some ‘signature’ things that SOS has been doing over the last few years that we would like to continue doing with your help of course.  We purchase a holiday meal to be delivered from Honey Baked Ham.  We put together a ‘Night Before Christmas’ movie themed family gift – complete with new pajamas for each of the kids, a Christmas themed movie, and of course popcorn and candy!   We get them a family photo package at a local JcPenney or the like, this is something that they wouldn’t be able to afford.  We have purchased a nice ‘pamper item’ for mom, maybe a robe, or a gift certificate for a spa service of her choice.  Last but not least, we purchase 1 gift for each of the children in the family.

You can help sponsor a saved family in two ways.  1)  If you want to shop, wrap and ship a gift, please send an email to Lynn at wsbirthmom@gmail.com so she can keep gifts ‘even’ across the children and families and coordinate with others who want to donate this route   2)  Send a cash donation to the CUB website and let the SOS organizers handle the shopping, wrapping and shipping of the holiday meals.

 

‘TIS THE SEASON!!!