I just wanted to post this here for my own future reference…
These apply to adoptive families, military families, single parent families, families taking care of the elderly, those with chronic illness, those in financially difficult times, new parents, post surgery, the list goes on!
Some lists from https://www.facebook.com/HisHandsHisFeetToday:
Things that most families use like:
toilet paper
rice
peanut butter
pasta
shampoo/soap
Gift cards to:
barber shops
gas stations
grocery stores
pizza places
oil change places
Others:
clothes/hand me downs
socks
mittens/gloves
underwear
diapers
wipes
Some other things that were done for their family:
-A woman made all of our kids their own quilts.
-A woman has sewn all of the kids their own unique pillowcase.
-A chicken (dead/frozen) in our van after church (lol).
-A family bought our kids an Ipad for speech.
-Vegetables from people’s garden surplus.
-A family bought all the kids a tshirt from their home state.
-Tickets to Sea World when we went to FL a few years ago (the husband worked there)
-A woman sent us a beautiful sculpture she created when Josiah died.
-A family out of state ships us toilet paper regularly.
-A woman made all the kids a necklace when Selah died.
-Meat from someone’s deer kill.
-When Josiah died, a woman dropped of juice (it’s a rare treat at our house … she is now known as “the juice lady” to the kids :)).
-A former dealer of Ben’s would give us a Costco gift card whenever we adopted another child.
-A meal or a bag of groceries “just because”
-Hand-me-downs
-A woman knitted all the kids a hat
And then a post with more ideas here:
http://www.onethankfulmom.com/adoption/eight-ways-to-help-a-struggling-family/