Woman opens store offering free clothes for foster kids after realizing they have nothing with them
After adopting two girls from foster care, a family in Georgia is opening a free store for kids in the foster system. Linda Durrence's eldest daughter, who was 27 at the time, died in an automobile accident in December 2016. Durrence, 51, and her husband moved to Glennville with their two other daughters after her death and began attending a local church, per Fox 5. Durrence's girls quickly made friends with three foster sisters living with another family. They all attended the same church and grew closer with time. In 2018, the sisters were to be separated and placed in different foster homes and that's when the family stepped in.
Durrence explained that her family agreed to house the two younger daughters until they could be reunited with their grandparents in Florida. Meanwhile, the eldest sister had reached the age of 18 and refused to be in foster care. Durrence told WTOC, "What God knew that we didn’t is that we needed them as much as they needed us." Durrence was astonished by how little their foster girls possessed when they arrived at their house in September 2018. She spoke to Fox News, "The first thing that broke my heart was that they came with a trash bag that wasn’t even halfway full with clothes that didn’t fit them." She added, "They had one hairbrush. They did each have a toothbrush, but they only had like a trial size thing of toothpaste. They had no shampoo, no conditioner, no nothing."
Durrence said that she and her husband took the girls shopping that weekend and purchased everything they needed. She noticed positive changes in the girls as they settled in. She said, "We watched them transition from a place of pure brokenness and they blossomed." The girls did not want to go to their grandparents' when the time arrived and stayed back with their foster parents. In May of 2019, they were able to adopt the girls. Durrence stated that she and her family maintain close contact with the girls' grandparents. The girls' older sister has also moved nearby.
Durrence recalled the garbage bags they carried with them when they had initially moved there. She said she had been thinking about opening a store for children in need when a location in a tiny shopping center became available late last year. She stated that she purchased it and began working on the store, which she named Blossom, in the second week of January.
Durrence said the store relies on contributions and has already received a lot of support, per Daily Mail. She said, "We’re already serving families, even though we’re not officially open." When Blossom opens, it will provide seven full sets of clothes and shoes to children in need for free. Families will be able to visit and receive seven new sets of clothes every three months for seasonal changes, or more frequently if a child's size changes significantly.