Friday, October 1, 2010

Volunteer in your community

Hello All,


So I am new to blogging but I figured how fun it would be to get all of the information in my head out to everyone who is interested in hearing about our life.  So yesterday Cody and I started to volunteer at a place called Hawthorn Hill.  For those of you who are not familiar with Des Moines you probably will not know about Hawthorn Hill.  Let me tell you some about it so that you readers can understand more about why we volunteer here and why you should volunteer and a place like this in your community.  


 
Mission: To establish and operate housing programs for homeless families with children that help them obtain permanent housing and to provide services to help families achieve economic self-suffieiency. 


Hawthorn Hill has two different types of programs that they offer for those in need.  They have a New Directions shelter, this is the shelter that we volunteered at yesterday.  This shelter provides FREE, temporary, emergency shelter and services for homeless mothers and their children.  The second program that the shelter offers is The Home Connection program.  This program provides transitional housing and supportive services to homeless families with children with emphasis on attaining financial independence and home ownership. 


Most of you that are reading this are already going to know this bit of information, but for those of you who don't here is a little insight on our backgrounds and why we love to help our communities; while we lived in Missouri we were licensed foster parents to three wonderful sibilings ages 8, 11, and 13.  We had two girls and one boy.  Most of you ask, why foster parents?  What made you want to do it?  Well, Cody and I have been together for 5+ years now (Yes, since I was in high school).  We weren't looking at becoming foster parents especially with the age that we were at the time (not that we are that much older now) however, we are so thankful that we had the opportunity to be foster parents to those children who are like our children now.  Not only did we help them for over a year and still continue to help them, but they helped us.  They showed us how blessed we really are at the end of the day and how lucky we are to have what we have compared to them we have the world and we wanted to show them what the world was and the Lord blessed us to be able to do that all in a years time. 


There a several movies out that we all have seen over the years that have kids in them that are as fortunate to have the most supportive parents, or perhaps they do have supportive parents but they do not have the funds or the moral support that they need to succeed, perhaps it's that they dont have a parent that can help them with math or science, however for some this is a huge concern and for others we take it for granted.   For some of us growing up the only thing we worried about on a day to day basis was what movie we were going to see on Friday, or what vacation we were going to go on that summer.  Ask yourself this question, do you ever look in a fridge full of food and say man we dont have anything, nothing looks good, lets go out to eat? How many times a week/month do we do this as a family?  The answer is too many times to count.  We take this for granted.  Put your self in someone elses shoes that arent as blessed, for instance the people at the Hawthorn Hill shelter, or any shelter in your community, they dont have the money to get their child a tutor, they dont know how to be their childs moral support because they never received the moral support from their parents.  When they look in the fridge they can make any good meal out of whatever there is in there, they dont take it for granted.  There thought everyday is what will tomorrow bring? How will I get to the store, will someone call me for a job? How will I feed my kids?


After volunteering last night I said to Cody (and we all know we have thought and/or said these types of things before) "boy, they dont have much money and they are in a shelter but they went out and bought fake nails and soda," and Cody said, "Ya know Megan whats the different they still want a "normal" life, we go out and waste money all the time the difference is we make more so it seems okay." Ya know, this is SO true.  We take it all for granted just because we have it a lot easier off when at the end of the day we complain because we are behind a bill or two or we cant go out to dinner five nights in a row.


I look at our country and see how many "Super-Stars" are getting paid MILLIONS of dollars a year to catch a football or shoot a hoop, sure they are good but imagine what even 1 million would do for thousands and thousands of families out there.  America is great, but really we shouldn't have so many families and children be living in proverty and homeless. 


I urge each and everyone of you who read this to think about everything that has been said.  I urge you to go out in your own community and volunteer. 


The Hawthorn Hill is always  needing volunteers, donations and supplies for the mother and children.  If you would like to donate or volunteer go to Hawthorn Hills Website and there is a DONATE NOW button.  Click on that and you can donate! http://www.hawthorn-hill.org/  




Thanks for reading and remember there is always someone out there who has it worse than you!

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