Pay it Forward- James Manny

This is James Manny. 

He was nominated by James's friend's mother, Holly.

Holly's daughter and James are friends. 

I know often times teenagers get overlooked at Christmas. 

Let's give this sweet young man a Christmas to remember. 

Location: Winona, MS.

"I want to nominate a young boy I know. He is 16 years old and is my daughter's friend. 
He hasn't had Christmas since his mother died when he was 13 years old. 
He also recently lost his step-father a few weeks ago to cancer. 
He lives with his grandparents and basically takes care of them, as they are not in good health themselves. He has never had much of anything and they barely have food at their house. I feed him a lot of the times when I cook for my kids. He doesn’t have much family left. 
He is trying to get into the military as soon as he is able so he can make a living for himself. 
They do not even have a tree or any decorations.
His basic needs are clothing or gift cards to get some clothing, as he owns very little. He would benefit most from a nice pair of shoes and some warm clothes. He doesn't have hardly any shoes or warm clothes. He is usually just wearing a white t-shirt every time I see him. 
I am sure he would be grateful for anything. 
He never asks for anything and tries to do everything with out asking for help. 
He is such a sweet kid and I would love to be able to see him have a Christmas again. 

Thank you so much for this wonderful pay it forward to help those in need."
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WAYS TO HELP:

Here is James's Amazon wishlist.  FULFILLED
You can purchase directly from his wishlist and it will be sent directly to Holly, to deliver to James. 

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:

If you would like to send other items like gift cards, letters of encouragement, etc., to James, please email me at JBHolidayPIF@gmail.com with the subject line JAMES1130. 

Pay it Forward- The Byrd's

This is the Byrd Family. They need some help this Christmas. Let's help make their Christmas a little brighter this year!

Location: White Oak, Tx

"I would like to nominate our three children, not myself or my husband just my children. They have endured more than I have ever expected this past year. I am going to keep it short as I am sure there are way more families that have lost loved ones and need more, however it weighed on my heart so heavy that I knew I had to at least try for our babies. 16 months ago, I quit my job (full time as a secretary) to return to nursing school to improve our income to get my husband home who has been away working for 8 years. We have 3 children - 10 year old (boy), 8 year old and 5 year old (girls), my husband has missed so much in their lives. 6 months ago he was injured in our home and we have gone without an income for the last 3 months, savings was depleted over the last year with college tuition and one income. I graduate next month with my RN and our children have suffered more than any of us. We are so close, however they have emptied their piggy banks to help us buy food (food stamps denied us because he is still "employed", they have eaten on the free lunch at school and have already told us that they know that Christmas isn't about presents so we can tell Santa that it's okay they don't wake up to presents. We asked them to write a letter to see if we could find an angel tree in our area but they know we are strapped for money so they told us they could just make gifts for each other to wake up to on Christmas morning. Many times our youngest, who does not understand, has asked for things such as a pudding or juice and our older two have told her before we could intervene "no sis we can't waste our money on things we don't need." It breaks my heart to know that our kids are having to grow up faster due to what we thought as parents was a great decision and now it's backfiring. I sat in my car the other day crying and screaming out to God and wondering why is this so hard? I have tried to donate plasma for extra cash but I am apparently anemic, I have picked up a part time job during nursing school that only allows 12 hours and our account is negative from bills so it gets eaten up every time I get paid, I just do not know why it is so hard when I am trying so hard. Of course, I would love for my kids to wake up to toys but even more important to receive clothes without holes in the knees or a special gift that they know we did not endure all of this for nothing. They are so special and they have hearts of gold. I am not asking for gifts upon gifts just a little something for each of them to show the spirit of Christmas is still alive even in a scary world. After writing this email, I realized that I am asking for gifts when actually I have 3 that have already learned the spirit of Christmas. Writing this email has actually blessed me and pulled me out of my funk. Thank you for doing this, I am moved to tears as I know so many families will be grateful for any help."

What beautiful children they have! I knew immediately we needed to help this family. 

After I contacted them and let them know they had been chosen, this is the response I got from them: 

"I am currently bawling my eyes out in the building where I attend nursing school. I just finished my final exam and walked out to this email. I have no words right now as I am speechless and so grateful. Just this morning my curly headed 8 year old was begging for a pair of matching earrings so she "could be pretty like her friends". Brandi you are helping to make her feel pretty and you do not even know it. For us, right now we are facing our electric to be disconnected but that is monetary and really the only thing I can think of besides encouragement, which is what this is by helping our kids. I haven't even thought of anything we could benefit from as our main focus has been keeping our kids from stressing. You just helped alleviate one of the biggest fears in my heart.Thank you from myself and my husband. I just read him the email and he is currently crying (a man that in 10 years I have never seen cry). We appreciate you more than you know. Thank you is not even enough."

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WAYS TO HELP:

I asked Cortney to send me a picture of their family and her response was "we don't have any of the 5 of us because we haven't had family pictures taken in years due to finances."

Perhaps a local photographer would be willing to donate a family session for them so they could get some family pictures taken? 
UPDATE- Meredith Smeltzer Photography has donated a family session to the Byrd Family!

Cortney also mentioned that she hasn't had her hair done since summer. 

We got her fixed up there!

Emily Pipak at Hair by Emily in Kilgore, Tx. is fixing Cortney up with a cut and color! 

I asked them to put together Amazon wishlists for their children. 

You can do directly here and purchase something from their wish list and have it sent directly to them!

James's Amazon Wishlist (10 yr old boy) FULFILLED

Emma's Amazon Wishlist (5 yr old girl) FULFILLED

Peyton's Amazon Wishlist (8 yr old girl) FULFILLED

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:

If you would like to send a card, letter of encouragement, make a payment to their electric company (it is facing disconnection on December 5th)-UPDATE THEIR ELECTRIC BILL HAS BEEN PAID! THANK YOU!,  please email me at 

JBHolidayPIF@gmail with the subject line: CORTNEY1129 

with what you are wanting to send/help out with.

UPDATE: Their electric bill has been paid off, but if you would still like to send something other than filling their children's wishlists (top priority), please send an email. 

Thank you for helping Pay it Forward!!

Holiday Pay it Forward 2018

In 2012/2013 I was writing my blog daily and documenting my 60 lb. weight loss, running journey and new mama journey.
I had a good amount of people reading my blog and I wanted to do SOMETHING to help less fortunate people during the holidays.
Pay it Forward was born.

I had my readers submit stories of families they knew of in need. Families who were good people but had fallen on tough times.
The amount of people nominated was overwhelming. I spent the entire month of December reading through heart wrenching families, trying to decide who's to feature.
It was hard. But more than anything, it humbled me and stirred something so deep inside me that I didn't know was there.

I wanted to use my platform for good. I wanted to #bethebridge and connect these people who NEEDED help, with people who COULD HELP!

So I posted their stories on my blog with ways to help and what happened next was a Christmas miracle.
My readers rallied together and sent these families PILES of gifts for their kids, gift cards to buy groceries, clothes to people who had lost everything in hurricanes and fires, paid off medical bills for complete strangers, bought entire Christmases for inner city classrooms, donated any and everything they could, sent cards and letters just saying they were praying for them in their time of need.
Many families didn't even know they had been nominated and would come home to mound of gifts, piles of gift cards and letters and just BLESSINGS.

It filled my heart with so much joy, that I've wanted to do it ever since.

The thing is, it's a lot to take on. It's a lot of behind the scenes and organizing work that I just didn't know HOW to do.
I still don't really know HOW.
I just know I HAVE TO.

Over the past 5 years since doing the Pay it Forward a lot has happened in my own personal life.
I've gotten divorced, started my life over from ground zero, had my 3rd child, gotten remarried and built a life I am proud of.
I am truly blessed and I feel like it's the right time to bring back the Pay it Forward Movement.
I call this a movement because thats exactly what it is.

I'm just creating the bridge to connect these people who can help with those that TRULY NEED IT.

HERE'S THE PLAN:
I will choose 20 families to feature on this blog from December 1st-December 20th.
I will post their story on my blog (right here) and will then give y'all call to action steps. Most likely it will be in the form of an Amazon wish list, etc.

You can then read through the stories and if you feel so inclined, send anything that family needs directly to them.
I will let you know how you can help the families nominated and what all they need.
Even prayers, cards and letters of encouragement and kind words would be AMAZING!

HOW TO NOMINATE A FAMILY:
I have received over 100 entries already. Please know this process takes awhile to sort through.
I do have some awesome friends helping me out!
But if you would like to nominate a family, you can send a SHORT email (please keep them short, as reading through them takes a lot of time!) with who you are nominating and why to
JBHolidayPIF@gmail.com
Pictures of the family would be great.

IF YOU WANT TO HELP:
Read the stories and donate!
Share the blog, share my Instagram (@justbrandi_) , share the stories!
Another way you can help is to spread the word. The connections we can make go far beyond my reach!

Thank you all for being part of such an amazing movement! It blew me away with the amount of kindness I saw last time, and I just know it will again!!! I can't thank you all enough!

Here is one of the AMAZING things we were able to pull together and accomplish 5 & 6 years ago:

Please direct any questions to JBHolidayPIF@gmail.com