Eddie and I LOVE to shop, seriously, we LOVE it. We enjoy scouring the racks and shelves for amazing deals on clothes, toys, housewares, and just about everything else. Sometimes we buy stuff just because it is such a good deal, not because we need it, which can lead to a crowded house. Yes, we know we have a problem, but now we've found a way to help people doing what we love to do.
Our favorite store is Target, let's face it, a lot of people's favorite store is Target. We love Target because you can find amazing clearance deals throughout the store. One day we were shopping in the toy department and so many toys were 70% off. There was Barbie, Monster High Dolls, Star Wars, Beat Bugs, Disney toys all at 70% off!! So I thought this is the perfect time to buy all the kids in my family their Christmas presents. I started loading up our cart. Eddie looked at me and said I wish my mom had been a bargain shopper when I was a kid. She never had any money to buy us toys for Christmas, but look, we found all kinds of cool Star Wars toys for $5. She would have been able to afford that and I would have been so happy getting this for Christmas. The conversation in the toy department got really deep really quick and we started thinking about all the foster kids here in San Diego. I know there are so many toy drives for foster kids during Christmas, but how many people actually buy cool toys for these drives? From what I've seen, not many. So we decided we should be the one to buy cool stuff for these kids because we could do it without spending a ton of money. Very quickly the toys in my cart became toys for these kids and not for my family.
Our first haul to Polinsky Center was a big one! We donated about 60 items ranging from toys, books, CD's, and clothes. Our daughter Mila was with us helping put the toys in the donation cart. The representative from Polinsky Center even commented on how special these toys were and that she would be placing them in a separate area for the kids. That comment alone let us know that we were accomplishing our goal to provide these kids with toys they would love Just Because.