Making Christmas Brighter for Foster Kids!

 

A couple of years ago, you all helped me raise money in an effort to help my friend Jeni provide Christmas gifts for all the foster kids in Greene County (which is the county next to mine). She called it “Fostering Christmas Care”. And it was awesome! Since then, Jeni has continued to try and provide gifts for the foster kids in her county by getting wish lists from case workers and getting her friends and family to commit to shopping for a kid or two each. Last year, I took the kids to Kohl’s to go shopping for the kids we’d been assigned. We went to Kohl’s because they have a really great toy selection and AWESOME sales around the holidays!

This year, I wanted to do a little something more, so I got the bright idea to ask Kohl’s if they would sponsor my efforts to provide some gifts for foster kids – and they said YES, to the tune of $200! I guess you could say that this is a sponsored post, but really it’s just me telling you how generous Kohl’s is and how I’m trying to be a good steward of their $200 gift card they sent me to buy gifts for foster kids with and maximize their great sales to get as many gifts for those kids as I can!

But let me back up and tell you the reason I got the idea in the first place. This year, foster care has become a little more real to me. For the past several months, my brother, sister-in-law, and their four kids have been preparing their home and their hearts, and this fall Andy & Sarah were officially licensed as foster parents. Just about three weeks ago they got their first foster child, a little girl.  We first met her at Sophie’s birthday party, about a week after she was placed with my brother’s family. Sophie was SO excited and prays for her every night!

Anticipating a new member of our family all summer had me thinking about foster care and the holidays early. And when I emailed my contact at Kohl’s, they responded generously and sent me a $200 gift card just in time to take advantage of Black Friday sales! I did my first round of shopping online. I don’t have a “wish list” from the case workers yet, so I bought items for mostly little kids who wouldn’t necessarily have a strong wish list. When I shopped online at Kohls.com, I used a Black Friday coupon code, got free shipping over $50 AND earned $15 Kohl’s cash for every $50 I spent!  I spent just over $55 and got six great toys AND $15 Kohl’s cash to spend the next week!!

A few days later, this big ol’ Kohl’s box arrived!

Here’s the haul I got shopping online for less than $56!

 

I decided to do my next round of shopping in the store, and tool my little helpers with me again – I wanted Joshua and Sophie to once again experience selecting a toy for a child who otherwise might not be getting one.

Just like last year, Kohl’s had a really big selection of toys -tons of great brands like Hot Wheels, Barbie, Disney, Fisher-Price, Little Tykes, Playmobil, Melissa & Doug, and tons more – and it was all on sale!

After m-u-c-h careful examination and deliberation, Joshua and Sophie each picked out a toy for a child their own age, and I picked out one for a child Jonah’s age (I picked a Little People school bus, which Jonah is in fact also getting for his birthday from my mom – who got it at Kohl’s, too!)

We also picked up a pair of Hello Kitty slippers for my foster niece, because we DO have her wish list since my sister-in-law can let me know what she wants and needs.

We took our purchases up to the register, and after my $15 Kohl’s cash that I earned from shopping online on Black Friday, I spent just over $40 on the Kohl’s gift card. Here’s what we got!

So far we have 11 presents for little kids, and we still have $103.24 to spend on the older kids whose wish lists we will *hopefully* get next week! I will of course report back with what we get for them! Stay tuned for part 2 of our Fostering Christmas Care adventure!