Doing Something About It

On Christmas day we passed out cinnamon rolls around our neighborhood to anyone we saw outside. We mostly found folks standing outside of their apartments or walking down the streets. It wasn't freezing outside on Sunday, but it certainly wasn't warm either.

As we were out and about, we saw a lot of people who were not properly bundled up. Well over half of the people outside were men standing outside their apartments coatless. We saw several families hurrying to cars with pants and long sleeves, not wearing or carrying any coats. We saw several groups of kids outside playing. Only a few of them had jackets, none of them heavy and warm. Most had on shorts. Hardly any had on shoes. They probably have to save their shoes for school. It was WAY too cold for the way they were dressed. One lucky girl had some protection on her feet: a pair of worn flip-flops.

Over here in Arlington, folks walk a lot. There are sidewalks along all the streets and there are always folks walking to and from their homes. I'm not sure why everyone walks everywhere quite yet. My guess would be that they either have no car, or are saving their gas to drive to and from work if they do have a car. Either way, there's a lot of foot traffic and I suspect those folks get awefully cold on those cold days when the wind bites at any exposed skin.

Within a one mile radius from our cute, cozy new-old home, there are people who are cold.

That fact bothers me.

It also bothers our children.

When we were driving around seeing all this, we talked about how thankful we are to have a heater and warm clothes and money to buy food, etc. We also talked about why those folks weren't dressed appropriately for the weather.

The kids decided they would give away ALL their coats to kids who are cold. I think I'll have them keep one. Although, if they want to give them all away, I won't stop them. We do have a warm car and home after all. Also, I can always go out and buy them another one. We are so financially blessed that I can buy my children a coat without it meaning that we all miss a meal. We can eat AND be warm! Praise God for that!

That is not the case for everyone.

Yesterday, when I was hanging up the cute new jacket I got for Christmas...oh wait, I got two cute new jackets for Christmas! They are cute and I love them for sure! I've already worn one of them and it's sure nice to have around the house. But like I was saying, I was hanging up my two new Christmas jackets, I was struck by how many jackets I have hanging in my closet.

16.

I have sixteen jackets or coats. Sixteen! Six more than ten. 15 more than 1. 16 more than the mother down the street has. And 16 doesn't even include the cute sweaters and pull-over sweat shirts that I have.

I wanted to throw up a little bit.

I hurt because people are cold, yet I have 16 jackets hanging in my closet. I have at least 4 more out at the deer lease that I just leave out there. That means I have 20+ jackets, coats, sweaters, sweatshirts, etc.

Jeff and the kids don't have 20 each, but we all have several choices of jackets, coats, rain jackets...no matter what the weather, we're all set.

We're having a coat drive for Laura's birthday. Don't feel bad for Laura. She got presents for Jesus' birthday so she's all good.

For Laura's birthday celebration, we're passing out coats around our home. My goal is to have over 100 coats to take out and about. That's a managable goal because we're already 1/3 of the way there with what we've taken from our own closets.

The date it's happening is January 8. We'll gather coats until that day and on that day. At 4:00, anyone who wants to participate can gather at our home to help sort the coats by sizes and gender, then we'll head out into the neighborhood to pass them out. Call me if you have coats you want to get to me or if you want to join us on that Sunday afternoon.

Please, please pray for a dry day so that many will be outside. If it's raining, we won't be able to find folks out to give them to. I'm praying for a super cold, dry, beautiful day. Many out playing in the cold just waiting for us to bring them a coat so they can play and be warm!