Tag and Pack Brinton Adventures

 The Morales Miracle

December 23, 2020

On the morning of December 22, Joann posted an old children's cabinet for sale on Facebook marketplace. She listed it for $10 and she had a woman contact her to buy it. Joann arranged to have this woman come by the house to pick it up later that morning. I placed the cabinet outside our front door.

That afternoon, Doozy saw a woman outside trying to lift the tall cabinet with her two daughters. I looked out the window and saw a hispanic woman with two YOUNG daughters struggling to lift the cabinet. There was no husband or man with them.

I immediately walked outside to assist them and the mother and I carried the cabinet down to her van that I noticed was in dire need of repair. 

More noticeable was how happy and smiling her children were. She had 2 daughters (11 and 9 years) and a son (6 years) with her. Despite not having much, they were also clean and well behaved. This impressed me about this Mother. I gave her the cabinet and told her to have a nice Christmas.

As the family drove away, I had an immediate feeling to get her to come back to the house, so I told Joann to text her and tell her to come back because we forgot to give her some hangers. We hurried and grabbed 20 or so kids hangers and when the woman and her kids knocked, I gave the kids the hangers and asked them to go back to the van so I could speak with their mother.

I tried to hand a $50 bill to the mother and told her it was a gift to help her with Christmas. She shook her head "no" and wouldn't take the bill. Instead, she started to sob. I was stunned and so impressed with her. She had a personal pride about herself and as I held out the bill, for at least 10 seconds, she would not take it while she wept.

Joann gave her a hug and told the woman (we found out her name was ANA) that she was also a single mother for many years and that it was okay for her to accept this gift, but Ana wouldn't take it, so I smiled and put it in the pocket of her coat. Ana then answered Joann and said that she was, indeed, a single mother and that she had 5 children.

"5!?" I thought to myself and I left them while they were talking, mom to mom, and went into my room to grab another $50 bill to give to her.  When I returned and offered it to her, she wept again and wouldn't take it. I placed it in the coat pocket next to the other one and told her "Merry Christmas."

Honestly, it felt like I had just given her $5000! She was so stunned and grateful, it melted my heart right there on the spot because it was obvious how much she needed that money, today.

Ana left, and without thinking I jumped on Facebook and recorded a short video of this experience and how impressed I was with Ana and I asked my friends to help me help blow her and her kids away with a Santa gift. 

It was totally spontaneous and without much thought, but I know my friends and I knew they would be impressed with how Ana wouldn't take my money and I thought that perhaps a few people would have the desire to deliver some badly needed money to a nice family in need.

I remember thinking how cool it would be if I could offer Ana another $500.

Within minutes, my Venmo app started to ding.

$200!

Another $50

$100

$10

$25

Ding after ding. Within one hour I had received more than $1500! I was stunned! I immediately started worrying that Ana may have a heart attack when I try and hand her $1500! 

All the comments that friends made on Venmo, along with their generous Santa gifts were so inspiring.

Be Santa story on FB

🌲 family

Give this to your sub for Santa mom.

Christmas spirit!! Thank you

Gifts for family in need

For the brown eyed niños

I made another quick video thanking everyone for their generosity and letting everyone know that more than $2200 had been given, and I even got choked up. I thought about deleting the video and starting over, but I thought 'What the hell' and posted it.

Ding. Another $25. Saw video about the little family. Good stuff. Merry Christmas.

Ding. Another $80. 🎄from my kids

Ding. Another $50 Your Christmas Family.

Ding after ding, the money and Santa-hearted comments kept coming in. My friend Craig texted me and said:

Cool! You're going to literally change her life. There are tons of people in this world who want to help people who are willing to help themselves.

I replied: The fact that she would not take my money and was so grateful truly inspired me!

Exactly, It's why I wanted to help.

Another friend, Justin, texted and said:

People like her are the ones I love to help, not asking for anything and doing all they can to better their own situation. I can't wait to hear her reaction.

I think these comments summed up nicely why my video rang true with my friends. There's something about someone, especially in Ana's position, who wouldn't reach out to take money, even when it's obviously so needed. She was the type of person who wasn't looking for a handout and who even had a hard time accepting a "hand up" gift like mine was.

I went to bed.

I awoke the next morning with $2200 in my Venmo.  

Holy CRAP! This was starting to blow my mind.

Another friend called me and offered to help pay for any repairs Ana might need on her van and that he knew a mechanic. 

Another friend called and said he wanted to help fix her van too. I thought this was a great idea, so I reached out to my golfing buddies down here and asked if anyone knew a tire store owner who might hook us up with some tires.

BOOM! An immediate reply saying "YES, my neighbor is one."

Then I reached out to my neighbor and the Bishop in my congregation, who is a dentist and asked him if he'd be open to check the teeth of these kids to see if they have any cavities.

"I'd LOVE to!" he said.

Ding. Another $100.   Sub for Santa family. Make that momma and her kids happy!!!!! Merry Christmas!

Ding. Another $50.   Santa project

Ding. Another $25   Helping 🎅 Merry Christmas, Mitch! Thank you for doing this!

I started thinking about how to get together with Ana. Where did she live? Would she be willing to get together? We had her cell phone and Joann texted her to come get Doozy's bed. She replied and said, 

"You have already done too much for me. Please if you can't sell it first, let me know and maybe I could use it."

I had an idea. My friend Vasu is a fireman in town and an all around great guy. A few years back I brought my boys to the station and Vasu let them climb on the big rig and sit in the driver's seat. I called and asked if he'd be willing to do the same for Ana's family.

"Sure! Let's do it tonight at 6 PM"

I texted Ana and made the invitation for her kids. I thought while I might not be able to lure her to our home to get these new gifts, I could lure her kids to the fire station.

"We would love to, thank you so much", She replied. 

Game on! 

I was having so much fun, thinking about Ana and how she was going to probably pee her pants tonight. I ran around town and grabbed some candy for the kids and some Santa paper bags.

Joann called me while at Costco and thought it might be good to not give Ana all that cash and that giving her some of it on a Costco card might be a good idea.

"Do it! Put $500 on a Costco card", I said.

I stopped into my credit union and asked if they have a debit card program where I could give someone a certain amount of money on a debit card that this person could use wherever they want. Yep, they do, so I put $1000 on a card with Ana's name on it. This was cool because if I received any more Santa monies, I could add this to her card with a few clicks of the mouse.

Ding. Another $250

Ding. Another $100

At 5:45 PM, I added up the amount and it was at $3,100. Are you kidding me?!

We went to the fire station and Ana came with her 5 kids.

Boy 15, Girl 11, Girl 9, Boy 6, Girl 18 months.

The 18 month old. I couldn't take my eyes off her and I immediately started flirting with her to see if I could get her to play with me and let me hold her. She was shy. But within 15 minutes she let me hold her. Awesomeness.

Vasu let the kids play on the red trucks and put on the fireman coats and hats.

We took the family into the station's living room, which had a Christmas tree. I gave the kids the small Santa bags with candy and they all said "Thank you!" and I asked Tag and Dooz to take the kids back out to the garage so I could speak to the Mom. Joann and Vasu went with them. The 15 year old son stayed with me to help translate, as we found out Ana's english wasn't very good.  

All her kids were born in the USA and attend school so they all speak english and 

Spanish fluently. Ana is from Acapulco, Mexico.

I had a Santa bag for Ana, filled with $300 in coupons for all kinds of restaurants in town given to me by generous friends, an envelope of $1000 in cash, a debit card with $1100 on it, a $500 Costco card, and $600 in my wallet to go towards fixing her van.

I had printed out a "Statement" from Venmo that showed all the profile pictures/faces of the "secret Santa's" who had a special gift for her family. I left the amounts off the printout, but there were 5 pages full of happy Santa faces! Incredible.

I told Ana, while her son translated, that I had a Christmas story for her. I explained that I was so impressed with her hard work and happy children. And more importantly, that Joann and I were impressed with her not wanting to accept my gift earlier at our home.

I told her that I had some amazing friends and that had I made a short video to tell them all the story about her and her cute kids and had put it on Facebook and asked those friends if they'd be willing to give Ana a Christmas to remember.

She immediately started to cry. 

I had wanted to find a way to video this conversation, but I just knew it would be too personal for her and I just couldn't do it. But let me tell you, what you'll read below was a thing to behold.

I thought to myself, "Oh man, sister, you have no idea what's coming! You'd better save some tears!"

I also got a little concerned that her knees may buckle and she might have a heart attack when I showed her the gifts and I was suddenly glad I was in a fire station with Vasu who knew CPR!

I trudged forward.

I pulled out the 5 pages of friends' faces and showed this to Ana and asked her to look at everyone. Her son translated what I was saying, as they both cried. She grabbed the pages and looked at all the faces.

I then told her that my friends had a special Christmas gift for her of $3,100.

Silence.  Sobbing.  Christmas tree right behind her.   Magic.

I showed her the gifts. Envelope of cash. Costco card. Credit card. Coupons. 6 Minky Couture blankets!

She. Almost. Fainted.

As if on queue, Joann, Vasu, my boys, and the kids came back in the room. Ana did her best to compose herself.

Ana asked Joann to tell her kids what just happened. This, I caught on video.

Watch video here.

After we went home, I had received several hundred more in donations. Wow.

If you're reading this you are probably one of my friends who gave so generously the last 24 hours. Thank you!

2020 has been such a dumpster fire for us all. For those of you who use Facebook, you have read my rants about the masks and ridiculous government overreach. I can't believe it's Christmas and we're STILL wearing masks around, where we can't see each other's smiling faces. I digress.... haha

I have many friends whose businesses have suffered and this is so frustrating.

Still, the Christmas spirit abounds and I am so honored by all of you who quickly helped. I feel a great sense of stewardship to make sure ALL the donated monies and gifts get directly to Ana and her kids. I have a spreadsheet and I mark down each donation.

My family has always been big believers in Santa Claus. This year, Tag came to me and privately told me he knew I was Santa Claus. I acknowledged his discovery and immediately enrolled him into the Santa secret society so that he could keep the magic alive for his little brother. All of December, Tag has helped hide the elf and keep the magic alive.

The spirit of Santa is the spirit of giving. And in our home we celebrate the greatest gift of all from the King of Kings. We believe in Christ, we worship Christ and we seek to know Him better. He has blessed our family in so many ways that let us know he knows us by name and is aware of our circumstances. He will do the same for you when you humbly ask him for help.

My neighbor and friend, Ryan, said a great statement to my boys. Recently, he invited me and the boys to go out fishing on a Sunday morning. It was a beautiful morning that day, and he said to the boys, 

Remember, boys, it's more important to think about Jesus while fishing, than it is to think about fishing while at church.

Indeed!

Merry Christmas to all of you and my God bless you for your generous Santa hearts.

Mitch

December 24, Update:

Joann helped bring Ana's van into the tire store. Turns out her tires were okay, but they found $3,000 in things that need fixing. We are going to get another shop to verify this, but I would love to help make sure her van is safe and functioning as she takes it to work (she cleans houses) and as she carries her kids around.

I am determined to to help her do this. Note: if you want to help, my Venmo link is below.

December 25th, Christmas morning:

Just got this text from Ana:

Joan, I don't know how to thank your family and your friends for all the help and for all the help you've done for us. I think I feel like it's a dream I never imagined in my life.  I'll ask God to bless you today. I don't know how to thank you all this is a dream for my family. Thank you. Thank you

This was another blessing thanks to you and thanks to friends