Your Story

I'm a single mother with no income and no help from my daughter's father and for the 1st time in my life I was able to take my 7 year old daughter to the beach for a weekend, thanks to some wonderful, caring, giving friends. There were maybe a dozen people on the beach and I got a snapshot of my baby that brought tears to my eyes, even chokes me up just thinking about it. The background is the sky, the ocean and the sand, the picture itself is the BACK VIEW of my petite, little girl, nobody around her, sitting on a beach towel, shoveling sand into her little purple pail. One of those "PRICELESS" shots. But even better than that, when we were walking off the beach at the end of the day, my little girl stopped me, said "Mom...", and she wrapped her little arms around my legs, kissed my stomach (because that's as high as she could reach) and said "I love you so much, thank you for my awesome day and taking me to the beach. I love you Momma" and it brought me to tears. For 7 years I could do nothing special for my baby and this day at the beach meant so much to her and she expressed herself in a way that I will tear up about every time I think of it. If I could share the picture I refer to, I'm sure that along with the details of our "special afternoon vacation" would do the same for you. She doesn't have much but what little I can do for her makes her the happiest most appreciative child in the world and for that, I am the luckiest mom in the world!

Janice H.

When I was in college, I was going through a rough time with a serious boyfriend. My mom sent me a photo book that she had made. Each page had a fun memory that I'd had with this boy and she had posed my cat (me) and my dog (my boyfriend) in positions and outfits to match the activity. I don't know how she did it, because they didn't have photoshop in those days, but it must have taken her days to complete. They were canoeing, playing guitar, eating at the dinner table with my family, watching a movie, etc. And the captions were hysterical.

It not only brightened my day, but gave me years of laughter afterwards. It also reminded me at what lengths my mom would go to cheer me up.

Janice D.

We took our son to the zoo for the first time. It was for his second Birthday and he was so excited. The elephants actually walked right up to him and he could almost touch them.

We were the only people who were able to get the apes to pay any attention to us and our son, Daniel asked if he could stay and play with them.

It was the best time ever and I will always remember it.

Martina S.