She turned 12 in a house she’d slept in for just one night.
The evening before her birthday, a little girl entered foster care. By the next morning, she was waking up in an unfamiliar home with a family she had only just met.
The Fostering Hope Closet is closed on Saturdays, but someone always answers the phone. That morning, the call came. Laquita and Connie met the girl and her foster mom at the Closet.
She picked out clothes she loved. And despite everything that had happened, she was happy.
But it was her birthday. And someone wanted to make sure she had a cake.
One of our volunteers remembered seeing something on Facebook about Bramble Springs Bakery and its Blessing Cakes program.
She reached out to Angela at L-Life Food Pantry, who helped connect the family with Bramble Springs.
The bakery had only a few hours’ notice. They weren’t obligated to make a cake that Saturday, but they did.
From the Closet, the family drove straight to Bramble Springs to pick up her cake. Chocolate, with purple frosting and a cheerleader on top.
By the end of the day, a girl who had woken up with a family she’d only just met had clothes she’d chosen herself and a birthday cake made just for her.
And none of it happened because one organization had all the answers.
Someone answered the phone on a Saturday. Someone opened the Closet. Someone remembered a Facebook post. Someone knew who to call. And a bakery made room for one more cake.
Birthdays are a big deal when you’re 12. They don’t become any less important because your life has suddenly changed.
That’s why the Fostering Hope Closet keeps Birthday Cake Kits available for foster, kinship, guardianship, adoptive, and crisis families. Each kit includes cake mix, frosting, a disposable pan, and candles.
Through our partnership with Together We Rise, families can also receive Birthday Boxes filled with party decorations.
And for extraordinary circumstances, neighbors and local businesses like Bramble Springs Bakery help make sure a child can still have something special.
In the Ozarks, this is what community looks like.
CARRY HOPE – DAY 4 OF 30
For 30 days in November, discover the people, the needs, and the ways this community responds.
Follow the 30-day challenge
What you can do
Carry Hope
For 30 days in November, we are sharing one story a day about a real challenge facing children and families in the Missouri Ozarks, what is being done about it, and how you can help carry it.
Read more Carry Hope stories →Our Matching Partners
Thanks to these partners, $25,500 is waiting to match your gifts this November.
| Dr. Dawn and Dean Barker |  |  |
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Along with a generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous.
