Because we feel it is important that you know how and where your donations to Helping Hands are spent, here is what was done in the past week:

Electric 7 families $ 2,271.37
Water 3 families $ 1,276.59
Rent 41 families $44,635.84
TOTAL $48,183.80

Sherry is a 38-year-old single mother of 3. She never has had to ask for help before because she holds a well-paying job. A year ago her sister came to visit with her 4 children. She came to Midland from out of state to try to reconcile with their mother. Unfortunately the reconciliation did not work and so the sister decided to move back up north. She asked Sherry to watch her children until she could get re-situated in her previous town, and she would send for the children when she was able to. Several months passed and she had not heard from her sister even though she tried, unsuccessfully, to track her down.
She was then faced with not 3, but 7 children to care for. And because her sister’s children are not in her custody she is having difficulty getting them Medicaid or TANF. She is struggling to make ends meet.
We referred her to Legal Aid and Centers for Children’s and Families to see if they perhaps could advise her through this situation, and we helped her with two months’ rent so that she can get caught up with other bills.

George is a 40-year-old single father of 3. When he initially divorced his wife, she had custody of her children. She soon tired of the responsibility of raising three kids alone and gave them back to George. He also has a good paying job, but the tragedy of this situation is that he is still paying her child support. It is garnished from his check each week and so he is only bringing home half of what he should be getting. The other half goes to his ex-wife who is keeping it all to herself. He is so strapped financially that he cannot afford a lawyer to fight for him. He is filing the necessary paperwork to try to get released from the child support, however doing it alone is taking much longer than it should.
When he met with us he was past due on his rent to the point where he was facing eviction. We gladly got him caught up with his past due balance and paid an additional month which hopefully will buy him some time until the child support matter is resolved.

We thank God for these two parents who stepped up to take care of children who might otherwise have been abandoned, and we pray that both see happy endings to their ordeals. And we pray that all of the children realize just how blessed they are to have them.