Once again, thank you so much to those of you who donated food to our food drive this year.  And a HUGE thank you to all of our very generous winners of the mini sessions!  We made our own donation match the highest bid and with the help of Andrea, Sara and John, Jessica, Lauren, Mary, Chelsea, Denise, and Heather we were able to collect ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN food items to donate to our local food pantry!  Yes, 1316!!  Imagine how many families will now be able to have Thanksgiving dinner because of the kindness of those who were part of this food drive.  God is good!  The generous and caring hearts of all of the couples and families who made a bid and donated food makes me so grateful, not just for the food we collected and the good we can do but also that I am able to meet and get to know such amazing people through our business.  I know I just said it but once again, THANK YOU to every one of you!

It was especially heart-warming for me to see how important the food drive was to our kids.  They would talk to people about how we were collecting food for those who didn’t have enough money to eat and about how we need to share our blessings.  They were excited to help in any way they could, from collecting food to counting the items to carrying all the bags and boxes of food.  Their enthusiasm and involvement makes me so proud and gives me great hope about the people they will grow up to be.

As we ended this year’s food drive, the word hope seemed to come up more and more for me.  I feel a little overly sappy saying it but really hope is what helping others is all about.  By giving food to the less fortunate you don’t just give them a meal, you also give them hope.  And by giving them hope you also help to give them a better future.

“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”  -Christopher Reeve

Just to give a frame of reference to the picture above, the letter “H” in “Help” has 102 cans!