Thank you to Pampers for generously donating a gift card to provide the gift of sleep! MomStart is a Pampers Baby Board member, and all opinions are our own.

The holiday season is a time of good cheer, sharing, and giving; a time to tell people what their presence means to us. That’s why every year, Pampers enlists the members of its Baby Board to become “Pampers Elves”, providing a gift card to pay it forward to a deserving family. I’ve participated in this project once before, and I was privileged to have the opportunity to do it again this year.

Pampers provided me with a $500 American Express gift card to give the gift of peaceful sleep to someone with a baby in need – be it a family, charity, or other community organization that helps infants. It was up to me who I chose and how I spent it, and I knew instantly the perfect recipient: My cousin, Shelby. Not only are she and her husband Luke active in their church community and busy parents of their 3-year-old son Judah, but this year, they also decided to become a foster family. I’ve been so impressed with how they’ve opened their home and hearts to foster children, and couldn’t think of a better place to put this gift to use!

Did you know that in Oregon alone, 11,238 children spent at least one day in some kind of foster care in 2015? Although there are a variety of complex factors as to why this happens, the top reasons for entering foster care include neglect and parental drug abuse. For kids in stable homes, the Christmas season means getting excited for gifts, Santa, and family fun; but sadly, there are many children in our community who do not even have their basic needs provided to them.

To answer this need, Shelby and Luke became foster parents and started providing emergency respite care. When children are removed from a situation that is immediately dangerous – for example, abuse is occurring, or a parent is arrested – emergency respite care is arranged for a day or two while the state assesses the situation and determines placement. Respite care is also used as babysitting for families who need a break. There is an extreme lack of respite care options in Oregon at the moment, which has resulted in children spending the night in DHS offices or even in hotels. Shelby’s family is doing what they can to help these kids and provide some sense of safety and comfort in an unfathomably tumultuous situation.

In addition to providing a temporary safe haven for children through respite care, Shelby’s family also takes in longer-term placements. Earlier this summer, they took care of a child for many months who was then successfully reunited with their mother. 56.1% of children leaving foster care were reunited with their families in 2015, so the idea is to show compassion and give hope to, ideally, fix the issues in the home to make it safe for the child to return.

When I reached out to Shelby to tell her about my project, she told me that it was perfect timing because they had just gotten a new foster baby the day before – talk about serendipity! Their family had just moved into a new home over the summer, so I told her to make a list of some things they might need around the house to rest easier, and we made a date to go shopping together so she could pick out exactly what she needed.

We had a fun family day out planned to grab lunch, hang out, and do some shopping. I piled in the car with Shelby, Judah, and her newborn foster baby, a sweet little girl. We were joined by Shelby’s stepmom, brother, and his girlfriend, and it was so much fun! This was the first time I’d seen Shelby’s new home, so we took a look around and brainstormed some ideas for what to get at the store.

Shopping with Shelby! Photo by Kim.

First, we stopped at the local Grocery Outlet to pick up a mattress topper to make Shelby’s bed more comfortable. We also picked up a set of cube organizer shelves, so that Judah would have a nightstand in his bedroom.

Judah helps us shop!

Next up, we went to Target to do some serious shopping! First, we stocked up on Pampers diapers and wipes – as you can imagine, the family goes through a lot of those, and Shelby told me she loved Pampers because she finds they never leak. That definitely helps the whole family rest easier!

Our next pick was a Baby Brezza Formula Pro. I would liken this machine to a Keurig for infants, because it automatically mixes and heats a perfect bottle every time. In Shelby’s home, the crib is next to her bed upstairs, so when she and her husband get up in the night to feed the baby, they have to walk down a long set of stairs and wind through the house to the kitchen. Inevitably, they end up making this trek several times a night to re-heat water for the bottles. She is going to put this Formula Pro in their bedroom to eliminate walking all over the house and fumbling with bottles in the dark. This is going to help everyone sleep better!

Another item we picked up to help with those nighttime feedings was an adjustable lamp to put by their bed. We picked out a lamp with three bulbs that can be aimed to provide soft, unobtrusive light. This way, they can see what they’re doing in the night without blasting everyone with the overhead light and making it harder to go to sleep. Shelby also mentioned that many of the foster children that have come to her home actually prefer to sleep with lights on, so a soft lamp can provide some peace of mind and make it easier to rest.

Picking out lamps in Target

Shelby is used to focusing all her shopping and attention on the kids, so I insisted that she pick up some cozy pajama pants and slippers for herself. She said she felt almost guilty getting all of these things, since she’s not used to “Splurging” on herself – which is exactly why she deserves it so much!

Once we got home, we set the items under the tree and thanked Pampers for the wonderful holiday gift they had enabled by providing this shopping trip!

Photo by Chara Renee Photography

Then we unpacked the shopping haul and got the new furniture set up!

Cozy new bedroom with soft lamp, mattress topper and jammies!

Judah’s room – the crates will be replaced now that he has a new nightstand!

Judah puts away the diapers

Our whole family is so grateful to Pampers for their generosity in this project. Getting the chance to be a “Pampers Elf” and take Shelby shopping with the gift card they provided was the most fun Christmas memory for all of us! Everything we picked out will be a incredible help to help everyone get a better night’s sleep – from cozy and practical items to help these busy foster parents sleep a little more easily, to diapers to keep their children drier overnight, to lamps and formula makers to help give their foster children comfort and peace during their moment of need. People like Shelby and Luke make the world a better place for children, and I truly thank Pampers for helping them in their important mission!

Shelby and the kids

Click here for more resources and information on foster care in Oregon. If you’d like to help a foster child but don’t know any foster families personally, you can create a Welcome Box for a foster child to be distributed by Embrace Oregon. Thank you again to Pampers for supporting this important cause!