Lauren Street

A few weeks ago, my 10-year-old daughter held a bake sale to raise money for foster families and our local senior services center. When I say she held a bake sale, I mean SHE held a bake sale. Not me. I wish I could take credit for it, or at least take credit for teaching her generosity.

But if anything, her generosity persists in spite of my best efforts to temper it.

When she first told me her idea, I smiled and nodded, hoping she would be occupied in her room for a few hours “planning,” and then forget about it completely. When she asked to bring our kids’ cookbook to school so her friends could pick out the baked goods they wanted to contribute to the sale, I said, “Sure,” thinking that would be a fun activity for recess but nothing would actually come of it.

David Gaspar was shot in a domestic violence incident, hospitalized for a prescription drug overdose, taken away from his mother, and placed in foster care – all before his eighth birthday. When he committed a violent crime at age 22, he says it was like the context of his childhood simply disappeared. His humanity was erased, and all anyone saw was a criminal.

Twenty years later, Gaspar is out of prison and thriving as CEO of The Bail Project, an organization that provides bail assistance through philanthropic dollars and advocates for the elimination of the cash bail system. But Gaspar is by far the exception. Most formerly incarcerated people struggle the rest of their lives to find a stable income and re-enter the prison system repeatedly.

WHOOSH. Jimmy’s spitball soared. SPLAT. It smacked into the back of Mary Ellen’s neck. “Awesome!” I shouted, alternately punching both my fists in the air.

My name is Tony and today was the best school day ever! My favorite teacher, Mrs. Ivy, was out of town, and Mrs. Newberry, a substitute, came to teach the class in her place. Everybody knows what that means: NO RULES!! I mean, sure, Mrs. Ivy gave Mrs. Newberry some assignments for us to do, but instead I let Hank (the classroom rat) out of his cage to run around the classroom, which sent most of the girls running and squealing to the corner of the room. I was practically rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard!

So after putting a puddle of red paint on the seat of Mrs. Newberry’s chair during art, a food fight during lunch, disappearing into the woods behind the playground at recess, and a harmless little paper airplane competition during history, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for that last bell to ring so I could run home and tell my big brother all about my day. Mrs. Newberry, who had been sitting at the teacher’s desk with her head in her arms, lifted her head with a look of defeat on her face.

When I became a parent, I had already been babysitting for over a decade, nannying for six years, and playing the role of World’s Best Aunt for five. I had read parenting books cover to cover before even getting pregnant. I had grilled my favorite parent friends on everything from discipline to diet. I had extensively researched pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, baby wearing, sleep training, attachment parenting—pretty much all sides of every major parenting debate—and had a game plan of what would work best for us.

I had my eye on the prize: not just being a good mom, being a perfect mom.

Perfect Mom: (n.) feeds her kids the right foods, reads aloud for 45 minutes a day, never lets her kids see a screen, always says the right words in the right tone of voice, provides endless opportunities for each child to discover the world and their unique talents and passions; kids with a Perfect Mom never get sick, always feel smart and capable, know they are loved, always make the right choices, and are their Perfect Mom’s best friends for no less than 60 years.

The United States is known around the world as a bastion of economic mobility – a place where anyone can become anything. But with nearly 40 million* Americans living below the poverty line and another 100 million** struggling to make ends meet in low-income households, the American Dream seems to be in contrast with many Americans’ realities.

The problem of poverty in America is likely more complicated than you think.

To get to the root of poverty, you have to think about the factors that cause it – lack of community support, economic instability, inequality. But the factor with the most immediate effect on poverty, as it relates to economic mobility, is employment. And it’s not just any type of employment that brings economic mobility.

“But Julia can’t wait till next month for new shoes!” Julia could hear her mother yelling all the way across the house as her little brother peeked into her bedroom.

“Come here, Sammy,” Julia said quietly motioning for him to sit with her on her bed. It wasn’t unusual to hear her mother and father fighting. In fact, it wasn’t even unusual for them to be fighting about money. But what was unusual was how early they were fighting. It wasn’t even 7 AM.

Julia wiggled her feet in her old tennis shoes. She poked her toe through a small hole in her right shoe and couldn’t help feeling guilty for starting the fight. She had noticed the hole as she was laying out her clothes for school the night before. It didn’t bother her that her shoes had been a little tight recently, but she knew that hole would just get bigger and bigger. She didn’t want to wear shoes with holes in them to school so she asked her mom if they could go shopping for some new shoes after school. And now her parents were fighting – about her shoes.

Eight hundred years ago, in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi created the first recorded nativity scene. What compelled him to recreate the setting of Jesus’ birth for others to see was not pageantry and spectacle but a realization that many had lost the true spirit of Christmas.

It is believed that St. Francis had recently visited the humble cave in Bethlehem in which Jesus was born. Struck by the contrast between the conditions in which our Savior came into the world and the materialism and lavishness of Italian life at the time, St. Francis had the idea to recreate the scene from the cave to help people visualize the humble circumstances of Jesus’ birth.

Today, we see this familiar scene everywhere – Mary, Joseph, wisemen, and various livestock gathered around a baby in a manger – in our towns, churches, neighborhoods, and living rooms. But does it still incite in us the sense of humility St. Francis originally intended?

The number of people experiencing homelessness in a single night in America is often estimated to be in the hundred thousands, but researchers say the real number is likely closer to 3.5 million. As local governments scramble for solutions, we spoke with four experts who say the true root of the crisis isn’t only structural – it’s relational. And Christians may be uniquely equipped to do something about it.

At 23, Amanda found herself battling addiction with no place to call home. She had lost custody of her three- and four-year-old daughters and, having aged out of foster care, had no support system to lean on. “My life was in complete shambles,” she says. With seemingly no reason to improve her situation, Amanda fell deeper into addiction. For more than 10 years she never had secure housing of her own. Instead, she crashed on couches or moved in temporarily with a boyfriend.

Amanda finally found a reason to make a change when her daughters, by that point teenagers, pleaded with her to start the hard work of breaking out of addiction. She checked into an in-patient treatment facility and began her journey to sobriety. A year later, the birth of her twin boys only solidified Amanda’s determination to stay sober and be the stable mother her children needed.

“Twinkle twinkle little star

Take the trash out of the car.

Put it in the big trashcan.

Hand it to our nice trashman.

Hmm hmm hm hm hmm hm hmmm…”

Lilah hummed as she pulled an old sock from behind the backseat of her family’s minivan.