Beginning New Traditions

Sometimes sad situations occur around the holidays, but they can provide opportunities to minister to children and meet them where they are in an extraordinary way. This was the case in Hailey’s story:

Hailey had planned to spend Thanksgiving Day with her aunt and enjoy her family’s tradition. However, an issue arose keeping Hailey from carrying out those plans.

When one of our staff heard the disappointing news, she asked her supervisor if she could invite Hailey to participate in her family’s Thanksgiving tradition – their annual trip to Pigeon Forge, sight-seeing, shopping, riding go carts, and eating dinner at a restaurant.

Everyone agreed this would be a wonderful experience for Hailey since her other plans had fallen through and would remind her how much she is loved.

The experience opened Hailey’s eyes, as no one had ever done anything like this with her before. It allowed her to see different family traditions, especially at Thanksgiving.

After all the sight-seeing, fun activities, and food, Hailey told our staff that she is going to start her own family holiday traditions when she gets older.

Hailey grew a lot that day and gained a new perspective on life!

*To protect the privacy of our youth, names have been changed.