The Heart of a Servant

It is purely amazing how God places you in situations that connect you with people, that otherwise, you'd probably never come in contact with. That is exactly what happened in this situation...we met the Alamond Family last year, through a mutual friend, Mandi Cruz! Since then we keep in touch on Facebook! The Alamonds are photographers whom are very talented...check them out on Facebook at Alamond Photography.
Here is where your heart will be touched: Karadyn Alamond has a heart of a servant at the young age of 7! You see, instead of a birthday party, she wanted to serve the homeless of our town with cupcakes! AND instead of gifts for her, she asked people to donate blankets, coats, hats, etc for the homeless also! AND instead of goody bags for the kids, she wanted goody bags to go to the homeless!
I was so touched by this, I asked her mom, Kelli, if we could buy things for the goodie bags! You should've seen the eyes that looked my way with all the bunches of bananas, water, etc that I had in my buggy. Lol
Soooo...the party was today downtown at Kidtopia(a park that happens to be close to the shelter). This is the part of town where all the homeless hang out. I prepared Marci on the way there, with the pep-talk of "these are nice people...they may smell different...their clothes may be dirty...but they are God's children too...and we need to share the love of Christ with them" etc...I tried to cover all bases :)
The weather called for rain...but God calmed the rain clouds! It's been very warm for Jan and Feb but today it was sooo windy and cold!! Seeing that we can sometimes take for granted the fact we have blankets and jackets, I think it was a humbling experience for all of us! It was not by accident that God sent that cold wind! We all need a wake up call at times!
The kids put on aprons and decorated cupcakes, served them to he homeless people that stopped by and handed out blankets and goody bags to them! The smiles on the faces were priceless!
On the way home, Marci commented on how nice the people were! It thrills me that she had the experience today!

Sorry...the pics are out of order...they downloaded at their own pace, I guess.  AND...pardon the quality...I forgot the camera and had to use the cell ;)

Paige had such a good time swinging!!! She laughed hysterically!!

Karadyn is the one right directly in the center of the pic, sitting down...such a sweetie!!

Here are the kids decorating the 200 cupcakes!!!!

Marci and Iliza have fun at Kidtopia!!!

Paige is enthralled in this HUGE dog that came to visit at the park!

This is Dutchess...a mix b/n a Standard Poodle and a Golden Retriever...aka GoldenDoodle.  She was a massive and a hit with all the kiddos!!

Just a few of the 200 decorated cupcakes!

This was the goodie-bag-assembly-table! Water, crackers, bananas, poptarts, animal crackers, koolaid!!

This gentleman was able to help put a coat on one of the fellows that stopped by.  He was cold and very appreciative of the used jacket!!

The lady in the sleeveless shirt made me tear up when she told Karadyn what a BIG heart she had to do something so self-less!!  I could have just balled...but I held my composure and kept my sunglasses on! ;)

Little did we know that we would know so many of the people that were there!  We ran into Peri Seward and her twin girls!! This was Paige's first SLIDE experience...and she cackled each time she went down!! Weeeeeeeee.......

Kidtopia is an amazing park!! :)

As I mentioned before, the weather was soooo "If-y"...chances of rain...wind...cold...but an hr into the party....the sun peeked through the clouds to provide this beautiful sky!!! Thank you GOD!

Marci...decorating cupcakes!

It was unbelievable how many homeless people there are in our small little town :(

The guy in the middle was a reporter/photographer with the Texarkana Gazette.  He heard about the story and came to take some pictures....be looking for it...it could possibly be in tomorrow's paper!(Sunday) :)