On January 11th,
2013, I was all by myself & on my way to visit my husband in Wichita.
Patrick’s mother, Kathleen, called and asked me if I knew anyone who could come
in and clean up the Connor’s house. She lives states away and had the same
gnawing feeling that everyone else had of needing to do something for her son & his family.
I replied, “I think I can do better than that.” I assured her that I could get
a few friends together and really go at the housework if she would get them out
of the house for a weekend.
The dates were chosen and
it was time to send out the e-mail to my homeschool loop. My original e-mail
asked for volunteers for a “deep cleaning, yard work, mounting a ‘couple’ book
shelves, etc.” I had NO idea how this endeavor would end up. 61 families
responded to my e-mail. I don’t think I know 61 families but whatever, I’ll
take it. I had 2 weeks to come up with a plan. I asked a couple of my partners
in crime, Laura Holden and Ginette Green, to come to the Connor’s home and help
me figure out what each room needed. I took notes and made categories. We made
a perfect team. We each had qualities, idea’s and personalities that
complimented each other. Laura is a thinker, organizer and planner. PERFECT!!
The planning scenario went something like this…. As we went into each room,
Laura placed herself in the center of the room, circled it slowly and put her
index finger on her lips and chin for about 2 minutes while Ginette and I
stared at her in stone silence. The talking and planning and taking notes
began. Off to the next room with a repeat of silence and watching Laura think.
Before we knew it, 3 hours have gone by and every room had a plan.
I went home and sent out
my first e-mail that consisted of everything we wanted to have donated. Since
people were willing and in the mood to help in ANY way they could, this was
tooo easy. The donations began pouring in. I had a family from every part of
the metro area offering to be a drop off point for donations. Philip &
Natlie Sadler up North, Laura Holden in Independence, Stephanie Jacobson on the
Kansas side, me in South Kansas city & Ginette Green in Raymore. I tried to
keep my new “Helping Connors e-mail loop” up-to-date with what donations have
been taken. Within a day, I almost had everything I needed so I thought up of
some “pie in the sky” donations, as I liked to call them. They were donations
that were for luxury only and were not necessary. These were items like a
mattress pad, electric blanket, etc.
Since I didn’t want to
overwhelm the e-mail loop, I sent out my plans one at a time. First was the
pleading for donations. The second e-mail was the “Big Jobs”. I look at my list
of big jobs and just laugh now. But when I was typing them out, the only one
that was laughing was God & Nolan. “You poor, poor girl. You have no idea
what is really going to happen.”
This
was my “Big Jobs” list….
Pick
up carpet & tack stips in hallway (maybe boys room too)
Pull
bunk beds apart & separate into 2 separate beds
Find
the studs and mount the hooks by front door
Mount
bookshelves in living room and possibly the kids bedrooms
Put
up a new screen door in the front
Put
up curtains and curtain rods
Fix
hole in family room floor
In
bathroom, boys room, girls room
Put
up door stops in all the rooms
Clean
out Patricks car
Bent
fence in the back yard
Trim
branches hovering over the driveway
Make
an altar on the family room shelf
Get
rid of the non working appliances (3 dryers, 1 refrigerator, 1 dishwasher)
Make
a corner in the basement a play area for the kids
Put toilet in the parents
bathroom
Put door knob on the back
door
Yes, God was laughing.
This was about 5% of what really happened that weekend.
To be continued…..
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