They saved me too!

.When I first left my husband with my two kids 4 & 2, we moved into city housing.

Every Saturday I bought ice-cream from the truck that came round. Apartment kids started hanging around using my kiddie pool, sprinkler and games, so I started buying for them too. Word got around and I soon had 17 kids hanging around. They named my house the “after school clubhouse”. I bought juice snacks, board games and arts and crafts, and of course Saturday ice-cream.

The last Saturday of the month I was broke, so I didn’t let any kids over and kept my two in when the ice-cream truck came by. During the second month of doing this, the driver realized what was happening and came knocking on the door with two cases of strawberry ice-cream. She told me that she really admired me for what I was doing and provided two cases a month for the two years I lived there. She also contacted a church who picked me and a bunch of the kids up for vacation bible school. On the last day when they dropped me off, I realized they left a new bigger pool filled with age appropriate bibles, toys, games and lots of snacks and juices, but also a thank you card for me with a hundred dollar Wal-Mart gift card. I just wanted to provide kids in a bad neighborhood with something fun, never realizing the life long impact it would have on me.

Oh and 10 years later I ran into one of the boys who was now 17. He hugged me and thanked me, saying that helping him with his homework and getting him into church saved him. After I moved, the church continued to mentor some of the kids and he received a scholarship. He said his alcoholic mother didn’t help and with me and the church he made it. What those kids don’t realize is that not only did they restore my faith in humanity, but they saved me too. – Carolyn ❤