What kind of angel tree tag does your child pick?
Every year before Thanksgiving my husband picks up an angel tree tag at church and we usually get a tag with a very specific toy or two that ends up being a challenge. To be fair, my husband was in his forties when he became a first time dad and is not in the know of what is popular. So it is common place that he is clueless to what he has selected until I take a look at the list. We have in past bought video games, electronics, certain book series and name brand clothes for angel tree tags. In a changing of the tide moment, my husband passed on the torch to our first grader who picked up a tag without her dad checking out what the shopping list on it was for.
I was given the tag in a rush to our pew, probably in hopes that I break the news that we got a challenging search ahead of us a little later in the day. When I took a look of the tag, my eyes darted first to my daughter and then to my husband. There would be no phone calls searching for the impossible, no praying that the online order comes before the deadline and no searching for the right size. My husband had saw the puzzling look and assumed the worst when I mouth “diapers.” While it would be an easy purchase, the hunt of finding the perfect gifts was non-existent which unlocked a new level of disappointment. These gifts were not expected to be wrapped and could be placed in a garbage bag for donation. We later went back only to discover that the tree was bare to make a second selection.
The following Sunday, I went to the grocery store we go to each week to buy boxes of diapers and purchased enough size three and size four diapers to cover the cost we would have normally spent on the angel tree presents. It was a safe bet that the diapers were far and away the bulk of the shopping for the week. We went to our normal cashier and she laughed stating that she thought our girls were past the potty training stage. When we got home, I could not stomach putting these gifts in a garbage bag so they made their way into large paper shopping bags.
As much as I had mixed emotions about the easy yet boring selection that my daughter made, I was happy to help those in need. Diapers can be very expensive, especially on a budget. Both of our youngest daughters spent about year wearing diapers at the same time and it was often a weekly occurrence to make a diaper run at a warehouse store. I hope that these boxes can free up a budget a little for a family in need!
