Dear Volunteers and Staff at 2Hands.org,
We are writing this letter from a place of deep humility and urgency. We are asking for assistance to provide Christmas gifts for our five children this holiday season. Both my partner and I recently experienced sudden job loss, wiping out the meager savings we had desperately set aside for Christmas and plunging us into financial distress right before the holidays.
The true heartbreak of our situation lies not just in the job loss, but in our journey of recovery. We now live our lives committed to our sobriety and more so committed to being people our kids can be proud to call mom/dad. While today we continuously strive to be better parents, we cannot escape the fact that our active addiction stole years of stability and presence, causing all of our children immense suffering and heartache that no child should ever endure.
The Impact of Absence on Our Children
For us, this request is about mending wounds and building a foundation of trust:
- For my fiancé, who has three children (ages 24M, 13M, and 6F), the past weigh heavily. The absence from his oldest son’s life began when the boy was an infant, at the request of the mother due to his active SUD. While he is committed to repairing that relationship today, it is an uphill battle. He is utterly devastated that, after years of always managing to scrape together a present for his children, even in the depths of addiction, he now faces the prospect of giving them nothing at all. To make matters worse, since our job loss, we have had to deny his younger children their regular weekend visits because we cannot even afford to put food on the table for them.
- For me (Mom), active addiction consumed my life between the ages of 18 and 39, stealing countless irreplaceable moments and memories from my two children (15-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter). Thanks to my sobriety, this Christmas marks a profound turning point. After six years of truly destructive addiction, this is the first year I have been able to see my children and be present in their lives, the first year they received a birthday gift from me, and it will be the first Christmas in six years where I am even in a position to be involved. I desperately want this memory to be a start to a new, stable life, not another heartbreaking disappointment.
A Plea for Hope
These children, our blended family of five, are truly amazing. They have endured every hurt and setback we have created, yet they have shown us the purest definition of unconditional love. They possess such resilient and good hearts.
They have missed out on countless everyday parent moments other children take for granted. We cannot bear the thought of adding a barren Christmas morning to that list. We just want to get this right. After all the failures and disappointments we have given them over the years, they deserve a magical morning, and we deserve the chance to provide that moment of joy as their parents.
We are working tirelessly to secure new employment and rebuild our lives, centered on sobriety and family stability. Any support you could provide would not simply be a gift; it would be a powerful step in healing and restoring faith for children who need to know they are loved and valued, especially at Christmas.
Thank you for your compassionate consideration.
Sincerely,
Kelly Mahoney
- Listing ID: 17350
- My City: Ypsilanti