Home and Holidays

chapter 30

Eventually, David, Lisa, and Noah were in the car, heading to the community center. David and Lisa had brought some donations for the food drive as well, since they also wanted to help out. Once they arrived there, Noah helped them carry the boxes of donations into the building, which reminded him of the first day he ever met them. Only, that day he wasn't sure where he was going to sleep, or what he was going to eat, and he felt uncertain about everything, but now, it was the exact opposite. Now he had a family who genuinely cared about him, a home, a girlfriend, and he wasn't worrying about where he'd get his next meal. He had everything he had prayed for, and now he was ready to donate and hopefully help someone else.

Once they were inside the community center, Noah, Lisa and David sat their boxes of donations down on one of the tables. Noah instantly smiled when he saw Valerie, waving at her as she gave him a warm smile of her own.

"Hey, Valerie! It's good to see you again." Noah greeted her, walking up to her.

"Hi, Noah. It's good to see you too." she reacted, embracing him in a hug. Ever since Valerie stayed for dinner on Christmas, she and Noah had become closer to each other. They had talked and gotten to know each other better that day, and Noah had grown to admire her quite a lot. He had even felt comfortable enough to explain to her about some of the things that he had been through before David and Lisa adopted him, and after hearing him explain it to her, Valerie admired him even more than she already did.

"We're here to donate to the food drive." Noah told her, which made her even happier.

"Oh, thank you. I'm so happy you were able to donate. You can actually bring your donations to the table over there, so our volunteers can sort through them and stock them on the shelves." she explained, pointing over to the table she was referring to.

"Ok, thanks, Valerie." Noah replied.

"No problem. I'm gonna go talk with some of the volunteers and I'll be back in a bit, ok?" Valerie said.

"Ok." Noah reacted before Valerie walked off.

"You ready to bring this stuff over to the donation table, Noah?" David asked after Noah had walked back over to him and Lisa.

"Actually, there's something I wanna do first." Noah said. He then grabbed some sticky notes and a sharpie from the a table nearby that had various different stationary supplies on it, which were there for labeling things.

"What are you going to do with that?" Lisa curiously questioned.

"Well, I know this might sound kinda ridiculous, but those cans of food that I had in my backpack are kind of special to me, since the day that I took them was the first day that I stayed with you two at your house." Noah began to explain, Lisa and David nodding in understanding as they wondered where he was going with this. "So, I'm gonna write encouraging messages on these sticky notes and put them on these three cans, so that whoever takes them next can get some extra encouragement. I want them to feel hope just like I did the day that you guys invited me to stay with you. And I know that this won't solve all of anyone's problems, but hopefully it can at least give someone a little bit of hope. If that makes any sense." he truthfully said, already getting started on writing out the messages on the sticky notes.

"Awww, that's such a kind thing to do." Lisa replied, smiling widely.

"Yeah, I'm sure it's going to really make someone's day." David chimed in.

"Thanks, guys." Noah said.

He carefully wrote out the messages, sticking a note on each of the three cans before closing the sharpie. "Alright, I'm ready now." he spoke, before helping David and Lisa carry the boxes of canned food over to the correct table.