Brunch With A Purpose - Family I (3 children)

Child I1 (2 year old male), Child I2 (2 year old female), Child I3 (8 year old female)

Family I: again, please forgive the lack of personalization. Part of what I have loved about Brunch With A Purpose is using the children's real first names. However, Brunch has grown so much and we're helping some small counties so it would be too obvious to list their real names and I have to protect their confidentiality.

Family I is an amazing family who I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with over the past year. The mother is a retired pediatric nurse who felt driven by her faith to start being a foster mother. She and her husband took in twins who were under the age of 1 (though they just turned 2!). The children were thought to have Down's Syndrome but it was discovered that their Down's features were actually due to severe fetal alcohol exposure rather than Down's. At the time the family decided to do foster care, they had no intentions of adopting due to the fact that the couple is in their 60s and have already raised their children. You can probably predict the end of this story. The children were adopted last month, just after the adoptive father was laid off from his job. And, there was another half-sibling out there that was going to be separated from the other siblings because no one could take her in. So now, this phenomenal couple has taken in all 3 children. Before the father was laid off from work, they never would have needed our help but they are struggling. In fact, they actually offered to volunteer with Brunch With A Purpose last year, never thinking, at the time, that they would qualify for our help just a year later.

They have already gotten some Santa gifts for the twins but cannot afford the one thing that would help them the most: upholstered rocking chairs. The mother was worried about the costs but I told her we should list them anyway. The twins love to be rocked (and need to be rocked due to their sensory issues) but as they grow, they keep trying to rock themselves and the grown-up rocking chairs are too big. So, the family is really wanting small toddler-sized upholstered rocking chairs that would enable the children to self-soothe and rock themselves.

Child I1's Wish List:

small toddler-sized upholstered rocking chair- available at www.sensoryedge.com or amazon.com or walmart.com (http://search.sensoryedge.com/search?keywords=rocking+chair&x=0&y=0 or http://www.amazon.com/KidKraft-Upholstered-Rocker-Ottoman-Chenille/dp/B00081FOOS): they'd love the pony print for one child and zebra for the other but said that if you find them cheaper somewhere else, please get the cheap ones! The mother has seen them at Tuesday Morning and WalMart too.

Child I2's Wish List:

Child I3's Wish List:

twin mattress- they really want to get her a memory foam twin mattress. This child has been through an enormous amount of abuse, neglect, and instability and they have found that she sleeps much better on a memory foam mattress but cannot afford to buy one for her bed. The mother said they have them at American Furniture Warehouse for about $169.

American Girl doll (she has Molly but would be out of her mind excited to have another doll!)

Frosty Party American Girl doll outfit (the outfit she wants the most!)

any other American Girl doll outfits

laptop (any laptop, even used, is ok. She is getting really into computers and loves going to her school's website. We don't normally accept used items but since laptops can be really expensive, a used one, for her purposes, would be great!)