I mentioned earlier this fall about how we saved coins all year with the intention of donating the money to charity around the holidays, and I promised to report back on the final decision. When all was said and done, we had collected almost $120 in loose change!

The boys discussed what to do with the money, and they came to a unanimous agreement (shocking, I know!) about how to divvy it up. One of the things that warmed my heart as we were bouncing around ideas is that they wanted to support everything we could think of. But, even $120 doesn’t go very far when you spread it too thin, so they had to narrow down their choices. Here’s what they finally decided:

• A gift of baby chicks for a family through Samaritan’s Purse
• Our church’s inner-city ministry (we used this portion to buy gifts for our angel tree family)
• Run For Life: Haiti, to support a maternity center where some friends of ours serve as missionaries
• Lastly, they wanted to support the local mammoth exhibits, but they couldn’t decide between the Waco Mammoth Site or the Mayborn Museum, so they split the difference between the two.

I’m proud of them for thinking so broadly about how to help others. We’ve already started saving change for next year’s donation, so hopefully we’ll collect even more to give away!