This family is made up of mom, and two daughters 12 and 8.  I know this is the time of year that we normally do a Christmas family and YES we do have a Christmas family that you can read about here. But this family is in need of heat. They need propane to fuel their furnace so that they can stay warm.  Harli, the 12 year old, has Spina Bifida and has had 5 surgeries in 2011, 3 of which were brain surgeries.  The family has had a hard 2011. Mom supports the family on her own, with no help from dad. He was court ordered to pay child support but has opted not to.  Even harder than all of that…..mom had to stay home to care for Harli at one point this year and as a result she lost her job.

If you feel it in your heart to help this family you can donate via the Paypal link on the side of the page OR you can go to the Foundation  or mail a check to the Foundation. All information can be found here.

As usual….no amount is too small. If you feel you can’t help at this time please pray for this family and Blessing In Giving.

Bless you!

Hello Everyone!

I want your coupons! Let me explain. The economy has hit us all hard and as  a result I personally have been looking for ways to cut expenses. Back many years ago I was a coupon queen! Yeah..yeah…laugh! Remember…single mom with 3 kids!

It gave me an idea to help others……I thought how nice it would be if I could coupon shop and gather enough food and household items to give  away to families in need!  Blessing can give directly to families who apply for help on our site OR we can give to our local food pantries! Either way, your donations of coupons will go to help families in need!

I want your coupons!  Any coupons you get every week. They can come from Sunday paper circulars, mail coupons, check out coupons, coupons you get off of items when you by them, coupons you get any way you get them! When you stop and think about it…we come across coupons quite often in our daily life! They can be for food or really ANY item! Do not scrutinize whether we can use it….just send it!   EVEN EXPIRED COUPONS!

I will take any coupons! If we can’t use them or if they are expired I can send them to the Military Troops. Military can use expired coupons for another year!! So one way or another your coupons will go to good use!!

If you are willing to send me your coupons (if you are local I can pick up whenever you have them.)  Send the envelopes with coupons to the Foundations  address and clearly mark on the envelope that it is for Blessing In Giving! Address the envelope to the Foundation, but put ATTENTION- BLESSING IN GIVING in large letters so that we get the coupons!

Foundation Address

Hendricks County Community Foundation

5055 E Main ST. Suite A

Avon, Indiana 46123   ATTN- BLESSING IN GIVING

I am so grateful that you have read this far! If you can help AWESOME!! If you can’t please accept my gratitude for your willingness to read this email! As always I covet your  prayers for Blessing In Giving! The prayers are the most important part of the giving!! Thank you all!

Have a great day!!

Peace and Love!!

Christine Martin

Blessing In Giving

I received an email today from a single mom who had to bury the father of her unborn daughter.  Her letter was touching and according to her…… her request a unique one.  She lost her fiance when she was only 9 weeks pregnant, as you can imagine the pregnancy was a struggle, but when her daughter was born she again had a reason to live. Now she is building attempting to create a tradition with her baby daughter, one that will make sure she has memories of her daddy…albeit from pictures and stories but memories none the less. Part of the tradition she is building includes visiting the grave site on holidays and other special days.

Of course her unique request is for a headstone…we have had so many requests for headstones…. she does not know this is not so unique! Sadly  families do not seem to have many options for headstone, the inexpensive seem to be between $800-$1000.  She said…..” a headstone should not be a luxury” that hit hard! And I agree so much that I feel that I need to do more than just help by granting money to this cause…I think it is time to do more. In recent months Blessing In Giving has been getting an extraordinary amount  of applications requesting assistance with purchasing headstones. Not just headstones for babies or young people ( I say this because we have been focused on children) but headstones for loved ones of all ages.

Because of the unusual amount of headstone requests, Blessing In Giving is looking into the need for this type of a fund. If we find that there is a big demand/need we may be changing our focus to headstones.  As our applicant said…a headstone should not be considered a luxury…..there do not appear to be many options for families when considering a headstone…too many times families have to choose to not have a headstone but rather a ground marker.  I think we can do better…….

More info soon!

Thank you and God Bless.

Blessing in Giving is sponsoring Share Our Strengths Great American Bake Sale!  Share Our Strength, is a national organization that works to ensure that no child in America grows up hungry. They bring together a network of community groups, activists, and food programs to ensure that children at risk of hunger have nutritious food where they live, learn and play.

We have a Team “Blessing In Giving’s Bakers and Angels” ! You can support this cause and help Blessing raise money for Share Our Strength. You can join our team by following the link above or using this link .

We look forward to joining forces with you and helping to fight Childhood hunger in America.

She asked if we could help her cousin. She would help if she could but as I said, she is a single mom and really does not have the extra resources to help.

This is what Blessing in Giving was founded for. To help people like this….in need. These ladies are representative of both of our causes…they are single moms and have a bereavement need. I want to help them. I will keep you updated. Please pray for Nicole and Jaida’s mommy.

We would like to thank all of you for your donations as we well as Hope House of Indiana, who donated a truck load of wrapped presents for our families and many others.

Our hope is that in the coming years we will be able to help even more families. As of right now we already have a jump on Christmas 2010. We have about 4 large boxes of presents for this Christmas and will continue to take donations all year.

If you would like to make a donation just use our contact form to make arrangements for drop off.  Unwrapped toys for all ages, as well as any appropriate new items for moms or dads are accepted.

Bless you!

I hope that this site may be able to offer some help.

Coping with Grief and Loss