AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Sunday is Christmas and everyone celebrates it differently. While foster children are struggling, some local foster centers think it’s important to still get the kids in the Christmas spirit.
Amarillo Children’s Home assistant director Katherine Stribling said a mission at their center is to give the children a sense of normalcy.
“We want them to have a great Christmas around the Christmas tree just like your family would. So they fill out a Christmas wish and a wish list and we work to fill those wishes,” Stribling said. “We’ve probably had a dozen people work on angel trees, stockings and fulfilling specific wishes, which is just amazing. It’s like watching the real magic come to life.”
At ACH, the children start Christmas morning by opening all the presents they have received. Then the children and foster parents go to the church service followed by a Christmas dinner. Stribling added that with the hardships the children are currently facing, it is important that they experience Christmas like any other child.
“Sometimes they had to grow up a little too quickly. So, we put the brakes on that growing up and go back to childhood, and open Christmas presents, have Christmas morning, just like everyone else. Because normalization is a really big part of getting them back to who they are and finding their center,” Stribling said.
Bair Foundation foster recruiter Holly Sieving spoke about the process behind making Christmas special for the kids.
“I think we probably reached out to our sponsors in October, September. We were like hey, we just touched the bases, what can we do this year, can you guys help us at all. They were like oh yeah, absolutely, and then we as Bair will send a wish list to our case managers,” Sieving said. “Each child fills it out and we do our very best to knock out two of what’s on their wish list.”
Sieving said the Bair Foundation and foster parents are doing everything they can to make the children feel safe and loved, not just during Christmas but every day.
Stribling said Christmas Day was made possible for the kids by all the support and donations from the community. She talked about a donor who went above and beyond for the kids this year.
“We had a donor who started saying she wanted to do the stocking wishes. She said, well I’m just going to do a great job with stockings and get it out. So we sent her a wish list and on the wish list we had stocking ideas,” Stribling said. “She said I was looking at this wish list and I couldn’t stop at stockings so she just kept going. She fulfilled every wish on every list, so that’s how the community comes together.
If you would like to donate, please visit The Bair Foundation and Amarillo Children’s Home websites.
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