Adopted Boy Sends Xmas Gifts to Friends in Shelter, They Team up to Reward Him Later – Story of the Day

Cory's little heart went out to his unprivileged shelter friends who hadn't found a loving home like him, so he decided to do something special for them one Christmas. Little did the boy know that his love and kindness would return to him 20 years later.

While the snowflakes descended like glitter from the cloudy skies that morning, Cory dashed down the stairs of his new home and stopped dead in front of the Christmas tree.

He saw presents… so many of them piled under the tree! The little boy couldn't contain his excitement as he opened them.

"Mommy… Daddy?" he asked his parents, who kissed him and wished him Merry Christmas. "Are all these presents for me?"

"Yes, they are, sweet boy," said his adoptive mother, Heidi. "We didn't know what you'd like, so we bought you many things."

Cory's eyes welled up as he looked at the gifts his parents had gotten him. But soon, a strange sadness gripped his little heart, and he thought about his friends at the shelter who hadn't found a loving home yet…

Cory was a little boy who had been in a shelter for as long as he could remember. When Heidi and Samuel visited him and said they wanted him as their little boy, Cory cried.

"Will you be my new Mommy and Daddy?" he asked in tears, and the couple smiled.

"Yes, honey," Samuel then told him. "We want to take you home. Would you like to have us as your parents?"

When you give unconditional love to someone, that love finds its way back to you.

Cory nodded almost immediately, and he had to leave his friends to embrace a new life. The little boy cried when Samuel and Heidi showed him his new room with blue walls and superhero posters! He didn't even have his bed back in the shelter.

So when Cory saw all those presents, he was suddenly reminded of his many friends who didn't have a bed or gifts. They all slept on the floor sometimes in winter because the shelter was overflowing with kids.

"Mommy, Daddy…" said Cory, hugging a gift. "Did you get me presents because you love me?"

Heidi and Samuel laughed. "Of course, honey," said Heidi. "We give presents to people we love! It shows we care about them. But it's ok even when we don't get them gifts! Sometimes, all we need to do is tell them that we care. We love you."

Cory loved his shelter friends too. But he didn't know how to tell them he loved and missed them even after finding a new home. So what he did was… plan a surprise for them, like his parents surprised him with gifts.

From that day on, Cory did many small and odd jobs, like helping his neighbors carry groceries and baking cookies to raise money for his poor friends, and he also saved the little allowances he got from his parents and grandparents.

A year later, on Christmas, he dashed to his parents with his piggy bank, Charlie, and dropped it on the floor in front of them.

"Honey, what are you doing?" gasped his mother. "You loved Charlie! Why… why would you break it?"

"We're gonna get gifts, Mommy!" chirped Cory. "For my shelter friends!"

"Oh honey!" sighed Heidi. "We could've gotten them presents without you breaking the piggy bank!"

"I had to break it, Mommy!" Cory said as he quickly picked up the sticky dollar bills and coins from the floor. "I wanted to surprise them and get them gifts with my money! I had to show them I cared! You love me, so you got me so many gifts last year!"

Samuel laughed. "I'm proud of you, champ," he said. "You're a big boy now! So what should we get your friends?"

That year on Christmas, Cory sent gifts to his shelter friends, who were very happy. Some of them even cried when they found their favorite things inside the gifts.

"We promise we'll never forget your surprise, Cory!" his friends wrote in a letter to him. "We will get back to you with a bigger surprise!"

This happened… almost 20 years later. As a grown-up, Cory's life was in shambles. He lost his parents right after graduating high school, and he somehow made it through college.

Then he met a lovely woman named Sasha, fell in love with her, and married her. But things only got worse as time went on.

Cory and Sasha's little daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Because their house was destroyed by a storm, they were forced to live in a neighbor's barn while struggling to make ends meet. They had no money and were in desperate need of help when Cory received a parcel from a man named Sam.

When Cory opened the package, he found a handmade quilt inside and a note. The note read:

"Hi, Cory,

This is Sam. I hope you haven't forgotten me. Finding you took me a while, but I'm glad I did. Remember the Oakwood shelter home, that dingy shelter with the awful caretaker? We made so many memories there! I can never forget how we all hid in the storeroom and shared our candies on Christmas.

My wife, Maria, runs a small business and makes these quilts. Christmas is around the corner, so I wanted to get you something. I'll never forget how kind you were to us! My business card is in the envelope. Call me when you're free... Would love to hang out after these years.

Love, Sam and Maria."

Cory cried when he saw the quilt and letter. He needed help. Could he ask Sam for help? Cory wasn't sure, but he dialed him.

"Hey, bud!" Sam said cheerfully. "I'm all great. How are you?"

"I… I need help, Sam…" Cory said sadly as he explained how he was struggling. Sam agreed to help, but Cory had no idea that his old friend would get in touch with all their shelter friends and team up to pull his family out of the financial bottom.

One of Cory and Sam's friends was a renowned doctor at a hospital, and he offered to get Cory's daughter treated for free. The other friends gathered money and rebuilt his house.

Bit by bit, Cory's life was brought back to normal, thanks to his friends. When Cory asked them why they helped him unconditionally after all these years, they said:

"Remember how you never forget us after you found a new home? We wanted to pay you back. Sooner or later, we all agreed to help you and joined forces. Thanks for making our Christmas brighter back then, Cory. You gave us a chance to make this Christmas brighter for you!"

What can we learn from this story?

• Let's be a Cory in someone's life and brighten their Christmas. It was very thoughtful of Cory to get presents for his friends. Sweet boy! He even broke his piggy bank for that!
• When you give unconditional love to someone, that love finds its way back to you. Cory didn't forget his shelter friends after finding a home, and that love found its way back to him when he needed it most.

Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a lonely toy owner who visits children's shelters dressed up as Santa and finds a family in one of them.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.