Faith in Humanity

It has been a very busy three weeks in BunnyLand! Just a few weeks ago one of my closest friends and fellow Navy Wife, Nelda, took in two young girls who needed a home. These girls, aged 10 and 11, and their eight-year-old brother were taken from Nelda's cousin's home due to their poor living conditions.
They came from Alabama to Jacksonville one weekend in October, bringing with them a few grimy toys a bundle of dirty, stained, holey, ill-fitting clothes thrown into trash bags. They didn't have pajamas or toothbruhes. They'd never been to a store that wasn't Wal*Mart or a Goodwill-type of store. They never had towels at their old home, so when they shower here they often don't dry off and will just throw on their dirty clothes from that day. It doesn't always occur to them to use clean dishes in the kitchen, because they rarely had clean dishes to use. It's heartbreaking.

The girls at a school carnival...blurry photo, sorry!

Sometimes they're troublemakers, but they weren't raised to be well-behaved. They weren't raised to know much joy, either.
Their little brother now lives in Tennessee with another cousin, who has mentioned the little boy is amazed that he can go to the grocery store whenever they need food, and just buy whatever they want. These kids have never been to a zoo, a movie theater, a swimming pool, a mall...they miss out on the things a lot of us have taken for granted.

As soon as I heard from Nelda about these girls I shot out e-mails, messages to my friends on Etsy, and Twitter messages. I set up a promotion in my shops that will last until Christmas to help get in some money for the girls. People from all over have bought from my shops in order to help, one woman who I don't even know spent over $200 in my shops. I have raised over $250 through that promotion so far. (You can get to my shops by going to my main blog page and clicking on them on the right)
Others have sent in checks, boxes of hand-me-down clothes, tons of hair accessories and goodies, gift cards to Target and other local stores...these girls are starting to see how life should be. In a few short weeks they have gone from having nothing to having almost a full wardrobe and a new chance for a good life.


The first day I met them, the girls tried on new t-shirts at Target, and one said "I feel like a princess!" Last week she told me, "when I grow up, I'm gonna be rich and I will buy things for others, after I get me a house."

It's nice to know that not only have I seen the magic of strangers helping strangers, but that these girls can recognize it too.
If you'd like to help, feel free to comment or send me a message. DreaCarbone(at)Yahoo(DOT)com