Chris and I received two great donations in the last forty-eight hours. One is a very large donation of $1,500.00. This was from someone I work with, and was completely unanticipated. I don't want to publicly name him, because I don't think he would like that, but he and his wife know how grateful we are. I am so incredibly fortunate to work with people that I respect and enjoy. Truly, every single person in our office gets along. We all have a great time working together, and everyone is very appreciative of each other. Certainly, there are squabbles and disagreements, but we have a very supportive family atmosphere. All of the attorneys are very successful and are very appreciative of the support they have from the office staff. They are all exceptionally generous, but this amazing donation caught me totally by surprise. There really is no way to communicate to someone how much you appreciate them gifting you with over a thousand dollars. It's incredibly generous and selfless. He has his own family and he's willing to give that gift to our family so we can, as he said, "bring your girl home". It makes me cry to think about it.
The second donation I want to tell you about was not as large in the dollar amount, but was just as large in the heart behind it. Misty, one of the runners on our Run for Katie, has a little girl named Ella. Ella turned seven recently and had her birthday party last weekend. A note went in every birthday invitation asking their guests to bring spare change to donate to our Run for Katie fundraiser. Ella made this jar to use to collect donations.
These sweet little faces brought $17.00 to Ella's party to donate to help us bring Kate home. This was largely their own money, and they were willing to donate it to help a child they have never met. Misty, and all of the other parents of these children, helped to teach these children something I hope my own children are learning by example - how to give to other people and how to help someone who needs it. These children don't know our family. They have never met us. They don't know anything about us really, or anything about Katie Ruth. All they know is that a little girl they never met needs a home, and that their money will help provide that. I sent Misty (who, by the way, I didn't even know until about a month ago) a text when she told me about the party donations. I told her that I will likely never be able to articulate to her how much Chris and I appreciate everything she is doing to help us bring Katie home. She pointed out that I'm not allowed to be sappy until the child is actually here, and I will adhere (somewhat!) to that. It is true though - how do you thank someone for literally giving of themselves, their time, their efforts, and their money to help bring a member of your family home? The only way we know is to be the best parents that Katie Ruth could ever have, and we will try our hardest.
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