30 Days of Giving

I found this post I had started. 

The Giving Challenge was not a complete failure.  Our family did talk about giving and did give throughout the month of both our time and talents.

Unfortunately, life got in the way.  With the mandatory overtime my husband has been working, the homeschool curriculum that some days reduced us both to tears, and Morgan's high school cheeleading schedule, on top of all my normal daily duties, this project kind of got put on hold.

In my free time,  I have been cleaning and decluttering a little at a time.  Although we have "good stuff,"  I didn't want to hold onto this stuff for a yard sale.  My husband doesn't like freecycle because we know several people who have had other things stolen after giving things away on Freecycle. 

Sometimes we give our used clothes to people we know, but at this point, we don't really know anyone in need in these particular sizes.  I would take them to Goodwill as a last resort, but I hate that people in need have to PAY for items that are donated. 

I recently found out about a local food pantry in our county.  They take donations of all types.  Food, clothing, new and used toys, household items.  They GIVE the items to people of need in the community.  Woo-hoo!

I loaded up the car with a trunk and half a backseat full of boxes and bags and delivered them to this pantry. Sorry, I can't get the pic to upload.  UGH, technology! 

 The people at the pantry were so nice.  They even gave Shayla a book for coming along to help.  While there they told me that they do weekly hot lunches and dinners, have counseling and support group meetings and even a game night for anyone in the community that wants to hang out.  I'm sure we'll be back to this place. 

It started out that I was on a mission to give, but it seems like they wanted to give us the gift of friendship and so much more.

So, were you able to complete the challenge?  How did you do?  Did you find that you were blessed in ways you never thought of before?