Mommies Helping Mommies – How YOU Have Helped!

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Last week, I shared our state’s devastation from April 27th’s horrific outbreak of tornadoes, and offered you the opportunity to make a tangible difference. I knew that some of you would participate, but I had no idea the tremendous amount of love that you would pour into our state!

I cannot possibly express my thanks, and especially the thanks from all of those you have helped!

– You gave $1,145 to my Mommies Helping Mommies fund to buy formula, diapers, and other baby items for areas of Alabama that aren’t getting sufficient help.

– You sent over $1,200 worth of items straight to the Christian Service Mission via their Amazon Wish List, which they immediately distributed out to the hurting communities.

– The Christian Service Mission had so many deliveries from the Amazon Wish List that UPS had to dedicate an entire truck to them!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I was so touched by your generosity in my Mommies Helping Mommies fund that I spent Sunday afternoon learning to coupon – I wanted to make sure that every dollar you gave was stretched as far as possible.

And even though I’m not normally a couponer (and I’m convinced that trying to plan my grocery list around coupons would drive me batty), I must admit that I did feel a bit of thrill when I spent $675 and saved $377!

On Monday, I researched which areas needed the most help. DeKalb County in North Alabama was one of the heaviest damaged counties, yet was receiving the least help. FEMA just arrived this week – nearly three weeks after the storms! 22 people died, and so many others lost their houses and are living out of their cars or tents.

On Wednesday, my friend Ashley and I drove to Henager, Alabama – a small town that was severely hit by an EF-4 tornado, to take your first delivery.

Along the road, there were signs like this about every 200 feet –

Their addresses – because many of their houses now look like this:

The landscape looked straight out of an apocalyptic movie – trees were twisted, knocked down, wrapped with metal from surrounding houses,

or stripped bare of their branches and their bark – something only the strongest of tornadoes can accomplish:

I was able to find a wonderful church to partner with that was serving it’s community, despite their own significant tragedies.

…Their pastor lost his house, and his mother was killed – they found her in a field behind her house.

…The church secretary, who had been so helpful to me in planning my trip, had lost her own house, but never even mentioned it – she was too busy serving the others that were hurting.

…One of their members, a 36 year old mother, was picked up out of her house and dropped behind it, killed immediately. Her three children – 15, 6, and 2 years old – were left inside the house and all seriously injured. Her husband was at work, and it took four hours for him to make it through the destroyed town back home. Thankfully, one of their neighbors saw the two youngest children wandering around outside and took them to the hospital.

The stories were heartbreaking, but the church volunteers weren’t dwelling on them. Their faces shone with the joy of serving their community – they all had been working tirelessly, providing meals, showers, clothing, and helping take care of all of their needs in an area with little aid.

Their gymnasium had been turned into an outpouring of blessing on their community:

And, thanks to your help, I was able to add all of this and more to their supplies:

One of the sweet church volunteers told me excitedly, “We were about to completely run out of formula at the beginning of the week, but thanks to you and a couple of other deliveries, we now have plenty! God has provided for all of our needs like that – exactly when we need them!”

As I was getting ready to leave, it was such a blessing to see a young mom, walking around the gymnasium with her grocery buggy, and perched on top of it was a box of diapers that I had just brought – her needs were met, just in time.

Thank you!

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If you would like to help in these continued efforts, I will be making relief trips to various communities over the next several weeks. Every penny of my Mommies Helping Mommies fund goes to buy formula, diapers, and other baby needs for tornado victims – just click here to donate. Also, the Christian Service Mission has been able greatly help dozens of communities by purchases sent to them off of their Amazon Wish List – just click, order, and it’s automatically sent straight to them! Coupons and formula checks are also greatly helping – if you have some to spare, email me at rachel (at) graspingforobjectivity (dot) com for instructions on where to send them.

Thank you again for your generosity!