A Little Girl With A Big Heart

Ten Year Old Maria Hood

Danielle Hamilton 29.DEC.09

Maria Hood was a miracle baby. She was born a month prematurely and nearly died during birth. Maria was deaf for her first two-and-a-half years, she didn’t walk until age 3 and didn’t speak until the age of five. Though were you to meet Maria today, you would never know she ever faced those struggles.

Maria is 10 years old, attends 4th grade in Colorado Springs.She is an avid bowler, active in karate and basketball but when asked what her favorite thing to do was she quickly answered “I like helping others most of all”.

Maria and her mom, Gina, organized a grass-roots ‘Santa’s Elves’ program to help Santa out this year. With donations of new and used toys, clothing and bicycles made by the Colorado Springs Community, the Hood’s were able to help 81 families have gifts for over 200 children this Christmas.

The program was such a success, the Hood’s have decided to make it an annual effort. Anyone interested in making a donation, volunteering or more information can contact Gina Hood by email at ghood29@gmail.com

videos from christmas morning

since we couldnt do web cam with pat and marissa today marissa couldnt set her s up and our internet was down due to an outage with qwest service we missed out on seeing patrick on christmas day so I took videos in increments unfortunately some are really short as my hands were having issues with twitching so i di by best my hand kept causing my finger to keep coming off the button i had to hold on my camera since our camcorder broke it's the best i could do but at least pat can see us with this and same with family and friends and sorry some are sideways i held the camera at different angles and cannot figure out how to turn the ones that are sideways so sorry

OUR CHRISTMAS STORY

I WOULD LOVE TO SAY MY 10 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER MARIA HOOD AND I HELPED 74
LOCAL FAMILIES IN COLORADO SPRINGS AND WOODLAND PARK AND 7 OUT OF
STATE FAMILIES TO MAKE SURE ALL THE FAMILIES THAT CAME TO US FOR HELP
GOT IT. THERE WILL BE ALOT OF CHILDREN THAT WILL HAVE A CHRISTMAS THIS
YEAR WITH OUR HELP AND I ALSO THANK THE COMMUNITY OF COLORAO SPRINGS
FOR THEIR DONATIONS OF NEW AND USED TOYS,CLOTHING AND BIKES TO HELP
ALL THE FAMILIES. THE FAMILIES RANGED FROM 2 KIDS TO 10 KIDS PER
FAMILIY SO WE HELPED WELL OVER 200 CHILDREN THIS CHRISTMAS AND WE DID
IT IN 3 WEEKS. MY 10 YR OLD DAUGHTER WAS THE INSPIRATION SHE AND I
LOVE TO HELP EVEN THOUGH WE ARE NOT AS WELL FINACIALLY BUT AS SHE
QUOTED TO ME "CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT GIVING AND NOT RECEIVING" MARIA MY
DAUGHTER IS MY MIRACLE CHILD WHO WAS ALMOST NEVER BORN DUE TO
COMPLICATIONS BUT NOW I KNOW THE PURPOSE FOR HER BEING HERE AND THE
MIRACLE SHE IS THAT GOD GAVE ME. WE PLAN TO DO THIS EVERY YR

SO WE CAN HOPEFULLY HELP MORE
FAMILIES NEXT YR. OUR GOAL WAS TO REACH MINIMUM 100 FAMILIES SO NEXT
YR WE PLAN TO START EARLY WITH DONATIONS THROUGH THE YR SO WE CAN HELP
MANY MORE LOCAL FAMILIES. WE KNOW HOW HARD THIS YR HAS BEEN FOR MANY
FAMILIES SO WE WENT THE EXTRA MILE THIS YR AS IN THE PAST YEARS WE
HELPED A FEW I HAVE GOTTEN SO MANY THANK YOU'S FROM STRANGERS AND WE
BOTH RECEIVED CARDS WITH A HUGE THANK YOU. THE FAMILIES SAID IF IT
WASN'T FOR US THEIR CHILDREN WOULDN'T HAVE HAD A CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR.
SHE HELPED ME ALMOST DAILY BAG TOYS AND CLOTHING, I ALSO HAD MY COUSIN
AND ANOTHER WOMAN WHO WAS IN NEED VOLUNTEER TIME TO HELP SORT
ACCORDING TO AGES. I WANT TO WISH ALL THE FAMILIES OUT THERE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS
I HOPE MY DAUGHTER AND I WERE ABLE TO MAKE IT BETTER ONE.

I AM ALSO HOPING FOR FUTURE YRS
TO HAVE MORE VOLUNTEERS AS I AM NOT WELL AND I AM DISABLED BUT I STILL
PULLED IT OFF THIS YEAR AND THE YEARS TO COME. ANOTHER QUOTE FROM MY
10 YR OLD DAUGHTER MARIA TO SANTA " SANTA I KNOW YOU ARE REALLY BUSY
SO MOM AND I DECIDED TO GIVE YOU A HELPING HAND THIS YR AND EVERY YR
AFTER THIS WE ARE HELPING THE NEEDY FAMILIES IN COLORADO SPRINGS WITH
TOYS AND CLOTHING SO I GUESS WE ARE LIKE YOUR ELVES" SHE TOLD SANTA
THAT WHEN SHE SAT ON HIS LAP INSTEAD OF ASKING HIM FOR TOYS. I ALSO
HAD A FAMILY THAT DONATED AN ENTIRE CHRISTMAS DINNER TO ONE OF MY
FAMILIES WHO WENT WITHOUT A THANKSGIVING DINNER SO THEY WERE THRILLED
TO KNOW THAT NOT ONLY WERE THEY GOING TO HAVE A CHRISTMAS BUT ALSO
CHRISTMAS DINNER COMPLETE WITH EVERYTHING NEEDED FOR THE MEAL. THE
BEST THING THAT MAKES MY CHRISTMAS IS MAKING SURE OTHER FAMILIES ARE
TAKEN CARE OF BEFORE MY OWN FAMILY IS. TTHIS IS MY CHRISTMAS GIFT TO
MANY IN COLORADO SPRINGS AND THE 7 OTHER FAMILIES IN OTHER STATES
ESPECIALLY ONE FAMILY OF SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS THAT WERE ADOPTED BY A
LOVING COUPLE WHO ADOPTED THEM WHEN NO ONE ELSE WANTED THEM AND THE
LOST THEIR HOBS THIS YEAR AND WERE NOT ABLE TO HAVE A CHRISTMAS UNTIL
I CAME ALONG AND SHIPPED THEM A 35 LB BOX FULL OF GIFTS FOR THE KIDS
AND THE PARENTS I WAS TOLD BY THE OLDEST CHILD THAT HER PARENTS CRIED
WHEN THEY FOUND OUT SOMEONE WAS HELPING THEM SO THEY WILL BE SENDING
ME A CARD WITH PICTURES OF THE FAMILY AFTER THEY OPEN THE PRESENTS
THEY DECIDED TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH ME AS I HAVE NOT ONLY ADOPTED THEM
FOR CHRISTMAS BUT I ADOPTED THEM AS A SECOND FAMILY TO ME

williams 13th bday party

allen opening his gifts

ugh i can't believe bill got me in another picture

william with his goofy smile
william reading a card he got it was neat it had jokes inside it and the answers were under each flap thats what he's doing here reading the jokes

the boys had a blast
william opening his gifts
allen was sweet he let william open his gifts first

allen's mom made the cake
bill got me lighting the cake for the boys
mari this is alex's mom
group photo of all the kids with santa
another friend of both boys and another one of our neighbor's
my awesome maria who was talking santa's ear off she was thrilled santa came to visit little does she know santa is coming christmas eve to visit as we are starting a new family tradition this year. since we miss the family christmas parties and it doesn't feel the same we decided starting this year to have a christmas party at our house every year with our 2 neighbors and their kids allen's mom and sister and brother is the one family william's friend alex and mari is the other family and our other neighbors which are maria and williams friends every one is bringing food and we are doing a secret santa gift thing and of course santa himself but we kept it from the kids hahahaha they will be thrilled since i told them santa was too busy to make it. if it goes well we will do it every year then it will feel like christmas again for us.
rochelle she is allen's sister and maria's best bud
williams friend alex
andre williams friend



dale our neighbor and friends with william and maria and also allen's little brother
william
allen also the birthday boy

we did a combo party with both boys since they have the same friends and the parties were the same day and time so we combined them allen's mom got the food and made the cake for the boys and i got santa to come and visit. the joys of being a december baby santa gets to visit

kids christmas pics i love all of them so i got the cd with copyrights

maria had a blast posing she was so natural with it
william took a really good photo here
neat picture
so handsome and goodlooking i can see why he has girls flocking him lol
this photo of maria is now on file with the photography studio for modeling if a company is looking for models they can see her photos

maria won a photo package in a drawing with a local photographer

WILLIAM AND MY SERVICE DOG UPDATE

BELLE IS RESTING HER FACE ON RUBY
CARMELITA TOOK TO RUBY RIGHT AWAY AND WAS KISSING HER HERE
THE 2 SERVICE DOGS TOGETHER
HERE IS BELLE BLOODHOUNDAND BLUE HEELER MIX BELLE IS MY SERVICE DOG
HERE IS RUBY SHE IS A PUREBRED GOLDEN RETRIEVER WE HAVE ALL HER PAPERS

RUBY IS WILLIAM'S NEW SERVICE DOG

UNFORTUNATELY THE PUPPY BANDIT WE PICKED TO BE WILLIAM'S SERVICE DOG WAS NOT WORKING OUT AND MY TRAINER WANTED BANDIT AND SHE HAD RUBY A GOLDEN RETRIEVER THAT IS HOUSEBROKEN AND HAS SOME TRAINING UNDER HER BELT SO WE SWAPPED AND RUBY HAS RESPONDED TO WILLIAM RIGHT AWAY AND IS ALREADY FOLLOWING HIM AROUND AND SLEEPING BY HIS SIDE AND LISTENING TO HIS COMMANDS AS WITH BANDIT THAT WAS NOT HAPPENING. TODAY BELLE MY SERVICE MOBILITY DOG WENT OUT IN PUBLIC FOR THE 1ST TIME TO START HER PUBLIC TRAINING AND SHE DID EXTREMELY WELL FOR THE 1ST DAY. I HAD TREATS ON ME TO GIVE HER AS WE WENT ALONG TO PRAISE HER WHEN SHE FOLLOWED COMMANDS BUT SHE WOULD NOT TOUCH THEM WELL IT TURNED OUT BECAUSE SHE HAD THE VEST ON SHE KNEW SHE WAS WORKING AND KNOWS SHE IS NOT TO EAT ON DUTY BUT AS SOON AS WE GOT HOME AND TOOK HER VEST OFF SHE ATE THE TREAT. SHE UNDERSTANDS WHEN THE VEST IS ON SHE IS ON DUTY AND WHEN THE VEST COMES OFF SHE CAN PLAY AND EAT AND DO WHATEVER.

RUBY WILL START PUBLIC TRAINING AS SOON AS WE CAN GET HER A VEST BUT WE HAVE TO WAIT ON THAT SINCE WE DON'T HAVE THE FUNDS YET WE ARE BORROWING THE TRAINERS VEST FROM HER DOG FOR BELLE BUT WILLIAM NEEDS A BRIGHT ORANGE OR RED VEST SINCE RUBY IS A SEIZURE ALERT DOG. I AM WAITING ON THE HARNESS FOR BELLE ALSO FOR THE SAME REASON SHE WILL DO ALOT BETTER WITH THE HARNESS THAN A VEST CAUSE ITS HARD ON ME WITH THE LEASH AS THE HARNESS HAS A HANDLE FOR ME TO KEEP HER BY MY SIDE AT ALL TIMES WHEN OUT BUT I HAVE TO WAIT FOR MONEY FOR THAT TOO I AM HOPING TO HAVE IT SOON AS IT IS NEEDED BELLE NEEDS A SINGLE STRAP BROWN COLOR HARNESS FOR A DOG WITH A GIRTH SIZE OF 26 IN I THINK ITS A SMALL OR MEDIUM IT DEPENDS ON THE COMPANY THEY ARE LEATHER. AND RUBY'S VEST IS FOR A DOG IN THE 50LB RANGE I ORDERED THE WRONG THING FOR BELLE SO I AM WAITING FOR IT TO COME IN SO I CAN RETURN IT TO GET THE HARNESS AND THEN RUBY WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE MESH VEST FROM ACTIVEDOGS.COM UNTIL WE HAVE THE FUNDS FOR IT ONE THING AT A TIME.

WE WILL KEEP UPDATE ON BOTH DOGS ON THEIR PROGRESS AS TIME GOES ON UNTIL THEY ARE READY TO PASS THEIR CANINE TEST TO BE FULL SERVICE DOGS NOT IN TRAINING ONCE THEY PASS THE CANINE GOOD CITIZEN TEST AND THE SERVICE DOG TEST