On Mother's Day, my family and I made arrangements to go
on a tour of St. Anne's. I had previously learned that every time a
child (18 and younger) has a birthday while staying at St. Anne's s/he
is given a present and a party. One thing they NEED are presents. They
get a lot of gifts at Christmas, but not so many the rest of the year.
Jenny Cantor, the director of St. Anne's, told me they could use any
new toy/gift, but they really needed items for kids 12 to 18. She gave
me several ideas which I passed on to my children. My husband and I had
asked our kids to buy gifts for St. Anne's instead of purchasing
Mother's Day and Father's Day presents for us.
It was truly a great opportunity for my family to have
this experience. Please consider going as a family or see if your RS
would plan a tour for your ward. It truly helps us recognize how
blessed we are. If you go, put yourselves in the place of these mom's
and their children. Think how different your life would be if this was
your home. Listen to things they mention you could do to help.
Consider what you could do.
When I was a small child I
had polio. I spent a month in the hospital and was blessed to have no
long lasting effects. One day when I was a teenager and looking out the
window of our living room, my father and I noticed a young girl walking
by. She had braces on both legs and would take a few steps and fall,
pick herself up, take more steps and stumble again. My father said to
me, "There but for the grace of God goes you." I will never forget
those words and try to remind myself all the time how blessed I am and
how different my life could be in all regards except for the grace of
God. Our lives could all be different than they are. We could be the
ones who are homeless. Read the words of the hymn "Because I Have Been
Given Much" and let's all think what we can do to help.
I will be talking to Pres. Smith the second week in
June to see how he feels about some things we could do as a stake to
help them. Nothing big or major, just each of us doing one or two
little things individually, but hopefully, a big thing collectively.
