The day Emily Devinney found out she was pregnant with her youngest, she and her son were living in an acquaintance’s bedbug-infested attic.
She had recently left her ex-boyfriend, who had destroyed their documents when she left. Because she didn’t have her birth certificate or social security card – or her baby’s – most homeless shelters wouldn’t take her in.
Devinney was desperate. She was a month pregnant and couldn’t fathom bringing another child into her reality. A different ex told her the same.
With his help, Devinney found Wilmington homeless shelter Sunday Breakfast Mission. It welcomed her with open arms, and she’s been living there for almost a year.
Though she now has a roof over her head and steady meals, Christmas has been the last thing on Devinney’s mind. But on Wednesday, she, her 21-month-old son and her infant boy got a holiday surprise thanks to a local doctor and her urgent care facility.
Dr. Sandra Gibney, director of outreach at Newark Urgent Care, organized the gift event with the help of Sunday Breakfast Mission CEO Rev. Tom Laymon, Annie Coons – Sen. Chris Coons’ wife – and a handful of others.
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While Gibney has organized toy drives before, this was different. The presents were wrapped and addressed to each child living at Sunday Breakfast Mission while the parents received gift cards.
Gibney’s husband dressed up as Santa and their dog Pebbles donned reindeer antlers. In addition to gifts, the families celebrated with cupcakes and juice boxes.
Though most of the parents at Sunday Breakfast Mission were thankful their children even got gifts this holiday season, Gibney was insistent on an event where Santa was involved.
Why? It was the experience that mattered.
“The magic of Christmas is that it brings us joy,” she said. “And those that are less fortunate than us deserve as much as us, if not more, so we wanted to bring a little piece of that to these kids.”
‘You don’t change overnight’
Sunday Breakfast Mission’s women’s program has been transformative for Devinney.
When she arrived, her then-8-month-old son was covered in bug bites and slightly malnourished. She also soon learned that her pregnancy was high-risk.
She knew she had to make a change, but she was skeptical at first about what was required.
The program, offered to both men and women, is faith-based and requires participants to adhere to certain rules and meet certain criteria. Devinney initially figured she’d “zoom right through it,” but realized, after staff threw her son a birthday party just months after arriving, that she could alter her life path.
They also helped her get new birth certificates and social security cards.
“I started progressing and realized it really is life-changing,” she said. “But you don’t just change overnight.”
Devinney said she doesn’t know what she would do without Sunday Breakfast Mission. Because her pregnancy was high-risk, she couldn’t work full-time. (The shelter requires participants to help out, but it’s not 40 hours per week).
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Without full-time employment, Devinney doesn’t believe that she would have been able to keep a roof over her and her son’s heads – even with help from the state. And she certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford the two weeks of hospital care she received before giving birth to her youngest prematurely, at 34 weeks pregnant.
Because of all this, Christmas presents were also out of the question.
“There’s just no way,” Devinney said. “With this event, he gets a Christmas, which otherwise wouldn’t be possible.”
Amaiya Clark, who was with her son on Wednesday, echoed Devinney.
While her child is too young to attend school, a number of the kids were school-aged. The event allows them to say they, too, had a Christmas – and not come back to school in 2023 empty-handed.
“There are people who aren’t as fortunate and don’t know what Christmas feels like,” Clark said, “so for them to do this, they can at least feel the happiness and spirit that Christmas is about.”
Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2785. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
