Shopping

Not Christmas shopping, not shopping for myself or family.  But shopping at the school district's clothing bank with two special needs children.  One of whom lives in a foster home.

Our PTA brings children twice a year, or as needed to the Sara Spano Clothing Bank.  I worked there last Spring & helped a little girl who touched my heart.  This year, I've been promoted to driving/shopping with the children.  I'm the contact person for the PTA so I'm automatically on the drive committee along with our PTA President.  We took a special needs boy in the fall.  He's a sweet boy & worked well with us as we told him he had to try on the clothes we were picking out &if  he was good, we'd take him to McDonald's afterward.  Over lunch, he told us about how he'd moved to GA from WI, the amount of snow he was used to & what his hobbies were.  I'd see him in school periodically & he'd high five me.  When I realized I hadn't seen him in a while, I asked his teacher.  He's currently living in a battered woman's shelter with his mom.

Today, we went with M & M.  She's 5 & he's 10.  Both have special needs.  One lives in foster care.  Both have such sweet little eager faces that it just breaks my heart to think about their situations.

A busload from another school managed to get into the building ahead of us.  Once one of the admins realized we had 2 special needs kids, she pulled me aside & got us signed in.  Since there were 3 of us (PTA President, myself & the aide for our 5 year old) and only 2 kids, we were asked if we'd mind helping a child from another school.  I helped a boy who was a total sweetie.  We had fun filling his bag & I kept going back to find more clothes.  It's not as cold here as it is in other parts of the country, but it's cold.  I stopped counting after 8 shirts went into his bag.  He gave me a hug & high five when he went back with his school.

We took our kids to McDonald's for lunch & things were fine until we were almost back to school.  Our 5 yr old lost it.  Took off her seat belt, tried to open the locked door, screaming, crying, etc.  When we got back to school, her teacher put her in a keeping area where she told me the same thing happens daily at 11:30.  Total & utter melt down.  I've been home for a little over an hour & I can still hear the screaming in my head.  Trust me, Sunshine's had some major screaming melt downs, but nothing like this.  The desperation in that little voice---so sad.

As I was leaving school, I passed one of the 2nd grade teachers who was bringing her class back from the lunch room.  We stopped to chat for a couple minutes & she asked what I had been up to this morning.  I told her & she just shook her head.  "Thank you for everything you do.  You ladies may think that people don't notice or appreciate it, but they do.  And you're making the difference for children who really need it."  she said.

Thank you, Mrs. J.  I needed to hear that today.