Someone recently asked me what I wanted for Christmas. This was an especially weird question for me this year. I guess it was a weird question because now I’m in the position financially to buy myself anything that I really want as far as Christmas gifts go. Yeah when I was a broke college kid this was different. When I was in college yeah sure there were tons of things that broke college kids need or want that I’d ask for.

I have never been a person who likes receiving gifts though. I’m always kind of awkward about it simply because….well….I’m not sure why.

I have always loved giving things.

For as cheap as I can be, I love giving presents. The funny thing is I don’t like giving Christmas presents because I hate the idea that people just sit around and wait on a present, or feel entitled to get what they want. This really bugs me about Christmas I guess. Call me Scrooge if you want, because I’ll say, “bah-humbug” all day to that. I do however love giving gifts to random people when they aren’t expecting it. I think there is something so awesome about doing things for people that have no idea it was coming. With that being said this Christmas will be special.

My family has never been big on Christmas gifts. We were always content with simply being around each other. It’s weird because this is the first time in my life that I can actually buy all of my family members something for Christmas. Never in my life have I bought Christmas presents, not because I didn’t want to but because I couldn’t. I guess that’s why I always felt weird about receiving them. I made up my mind that this Christmas would be different. I made my mind up that this Christmas I would go all out with the presents. I decided that everyone I loved would get something awesome.

Over the past few days I have felt super guilty for some reason about doing this. I couldn’t figure out why this was. I couldn’t put my finger on it, and then today I realized the reason.  I guess the idea of buying material things for people that have everything that they need just was heavy on my heart, especially after being over seas doing mission work, and thinking about what the amount of money I would spend on all of my gifts could do for someone else that really needed it. I wanted to do something randomly good for someone else.

So I went online and began to add up the price of everything that I had put in my online shopping carts for all the people I was buying gifts for and wrote down the total. I remember looking at that and thinking “gees” there are people out there that could really use this way more than my family. So I decided that some how I would figure out a way to give that amount away to a random person that I didn’t know that needed it. The tricky part was figuring out who this would be, and how I would do it.

So today I had coffee with a friend and he and his wife are thinking about adopting a child. I started thinking hmmm, maybe I could find a way to give this money to a random couple that’s adopting. Being that adoption isn’t cheap, I realized that it was the perfect idea.  So I had no clue how I would go about finding a random couple that’s adopting to do this for. I remember as I walked home from the coffee shop I was at I said a little prayer, and this is what I said.

“God just please bring a family to me that needs a financial blessing so this all works out.”

I got home and got on my computer and began to check emails and Facebook. Low and behold I had been sent a message from a girl I went to high school with that I haven’t spoke with really since then. I began to read the message and it explained how God had put on her heart a family that is adopting a little girl named Emme from Ethiopia. I just smiled and thought, “God you are too good.”  So then and there I decided that this would be the family.

So here’s the deal. I want to allow all of you to get involved with this Christmas present as well! For the next 12 days until Christmas day I will pledge 25 cents for every new person that follows me on twitter, up until the cutoff amount that I was originally going to spend on my family and friends for Christmas.  And no I’m not going to tell you guys how much that amount was until after Christmas day, so it will kind of be like a Christmas present to all of you as well!  All I will say is that if we meet this goal it’s going to be a huge blessing to an awesome family that I have never met!

Please go read about the Knight Family and their story HERE!!!

Currently I have 14,375 people following me on twitter! So on your mark ,get set, go!!!

Operation Random Christmas Blessing (ORCB) starts now!

To my awesome friends and family that won’t be getting any presents from me, thank you. All of you have helped me realize that love is all you need. Thanks for loving me.