Last year Jeff Clare received a call from Olympian Gold Medalist Stephanie Cox.  She called asking Jeff if it would be possible for her to bless some of our teenagers.  Jeff said it took ten minutes for Stephanie to actually say that she was an Olympian.  She explained to him that she her parents were foster parents while she was growing up and she was raised with many different foster siblings.  She told Jeff that she was sponsored by Nike and wanted to give some our kids the opportunity to have a shopping spree at Nike Town. Last year I was able to pick 5 teenage girls to go and they had a blast shopping at Nike Town.

This year I was given the same opportunity to pick 6 new teenagers to go with us.  We took three boys and three girls and they were given $150 to spend at Nike Town.  As we walked through the streets of Seattle they got really quiet but you could see they were excited and nervous at the same time.  We met Stephanie Cox in the lobby of Nike Town and she explained to them who she was and that her whole purpose of this was to bless them!  Then we let the kids go wild, they girls were eager to spend their money and the boys browsed for a while. But finally each kid easily spent $150 on shoes, boots, sweatshirts and shorts.

As I was watching all of the kids shop, one of the sales men asked me what we were doing there.  One of my foster girls said “we are foster kids and Stephanie is blessing us”.  He got all choked up and was a little teary eyed, he said that is really amazing, what a great Christmas present for these kids!!!

The best part of the night for me was watching the kids look at and hold Stephanie’s Olympic Gold Medal.  I was so surprised by their reverence to the medal and the awe that they showed.  The kids slowly passed the medal around and each had a chance to hold it.

In the car ride home the kids were very quiet and tired from a long day of shopping but it was great watching them show their foster parents everything they got.

by Anna.