In the midst of all the back-to-school craziness and getting back into familiar routines, we’ve also been doing some major fall cleaning. It’s something that serves a double purpose in my view: I get to declutter, but we’re helping others at the same time. I’ve given my cousin some furniture and a TV after he lost a lot in a house fire. But the real impetus for the goodwill came at the request of a friend.

At the end of August, my friend Trish sent an email out to our moms’ group as a call for help. I can say with first-hand knowledge that this is an amazing, powerful group of women who do wonderful things (they were a godsendfor my family when Daddy Coole was sick and even after he died). At any rate, Trish had befriended a family of Sudanese war refugees over the summer, with children roughly the same ages as all the children in our moms’ group. Here is an excerpt of the email explaining the living conditions of the family, cramped into a low-income subsidized family unit (2 bedrooms that they shared with another family):

The place was so awful that the basement backed up with sewer after every large rainfall and the mattresses provided by the landlord were infested with bed bugs. When Kelly stayed with us at the lake and I towelled her off after a bath , she complained of itchy skin. I was shocked it was from bedbugs, how awful that this little 4 year old knew this was the truth and accepted it as part of her reality! When picking up Kelly from the townhouse, there were no toys and there were NO baby items awaiting Simara’s arrival. Can any of us imagine what it would be like to bring home our beautiful bundles of joy to a condemnable apartment and not have the basic necessities in place?

So this young family was planning to move into their own place, but because of the bug infestation problem, they had to move with literally just the clothes on their backs. Trish put out the call to our group for anything we might have that could help set this family up in their new one-bedroom apartment. Happily, there ended up being more donations than they could even fit in the apartment. So we’ve been busy preparing for a fundraising garage sale (happening today), with all the proceeds going to help this family. The parents still don’t have a bed, so our hope is that we’ll be able to get them that and cash to spare for them as well. Looks like the weather is going to cooperate, so here’s to a succesful (cross your fingers) day.

But the point of this wasn’t necessarily just to explain what I’ve been up to. No, those fab ladies over at Crazy Hip Blog Mamas have done it again, this time giving away a Chicco stroller. Would I love to win a new stroller for myself? Absolutely. But what I love even more about this giveaway is that you can’t win it yourself: you have to gift it to someone else! The timing of the contest is perfect, with us setting up this new family. With their newborn baby a part of the family now, it would be wonderful for them, and I can say with absolute certainty, they (and I) would be most greatful.

After all this moms’ group did for me in my time of need, I want to give as much back to them as I possibly can, while at the same time ‘paying it forward’.