Freya Fox celebrated a birthday she received’t neglect Saturday, thanks to a group that got here collectively to give her a fast however particular third birthday celebration at Pearsall Park.
It was the birthday Freya had by no means earlier than had, mentioned her mom, Fiona Fox: Pink birthday balloons, a Barbie-doll cake and quite a few birthday items simply for her.
At the park’s splash pads, she wore her favourite colours, pink and purple, a “BIRTHDAY GIRL” sash and a tiara between her two curly hair buns.
At her residence on Thursday earlier than her celebration, Freya shared particulars concerning the items she obtained for her birthday, which was on Tuesday.
“It was my birthday and I got a cake,” mentioned Freya. “Strawberry,” she mentioned, including it was her favourite. She put her fingers behind her again, then mentioned, “Her gave me that,” remembering the second her mom introduced her birthday cake. She didn’t know that another person would present her a second birthday cake on Saturday.
“They all gave that to me,” she mentioned fortunately, her birthday items unfold throughout the lounge ground. Her mother requested her how she felt on her birthday.
“Grateful,” she mentioned.
Freya turned 3 weeks after transferring along with her household from Indiana to Texas. While the Foxes are nonetheless adjusting to life in San Antonio, the struggles they’ve lately confronted made offering a celebration or items for their youngest daughter a problem for Fox and her husband, so Fox turned to her final resort: Asking the group for help.
“Tomorrow is my daughter’s third birthday. We just moved here,” Fox wrote to a personal Facebook group, Buy Nothing-San Antonio, which has 14,500 members. “We honestly are living off donating plasma and doordashing.”
“I’m struggling and hustling so hard,” Fox wrote. “I’m looking for any girl toys or girl themed anything to give her.”
One by one, the messages and feedback got here rolling in for Freya. Twelve individuals donated toys and humanities and crafts wrapped in pink birthday present luggage that made it an much more particular expertise for Freya. Fox mentioned different group members who noticed her publish donated $70 to her private CashApp.
Each time, Fox mentioned, Freya squealed with pleasure and was stunned that strangers gave her items.
“The things they donated to my daughter are things that all my kids can do together and enjoy together,” Fox mentioned. ”It wasn’t only one smile, it was 4. That means extra to me than any greenback indicators, any nickels, something on this earth. Knowing that they’re comfortable, that’s what I reside for as a mother.”
Fox up to date the publish with a photograph of Freya within the feedback, sitting behind eight present luggage with a big smile on her face.
In one other publish to the group, Fox mentioned she was amazed by the gracious giving and grateful for making her daughter’s birthday particular. She additionally prolonged a public invitation to Freya’s celebration to mother and father who’ve youngsters.
“I was like, ‘OK, Freya, it’s your birthday. What do you want?’ She said, ‘I just want to dance with my friends.’ I said OK,” Fox mentioned.
“It really touched my heart that I was able to see that smile on my daughter’s face,” Fox mentioned.
The household had been via troublesome occasions earlier than the transfer, together with experiencing homelessness twice, Fox mentioned. Fox, who’s vocal about being a survivor of human trafficking, mentioned she has suffered psychological well being traumas stemming from these experiences however mentioned motherhood motivates her to be what her mother and father couldn’t.
“Neither one of my parents got the upbringing that they truly needed to be good parents,” Fox mentioned. “Help is not coming. I learned that a long time ago, unfortunately. … My only hope is the help of someone else.”
She’s had 15 interviews within the final week, she mentioned and has had hassle signing her household up for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In the meantime, she’s been as resourceful as she may be and has furnished her three-bedroom house by the use of Facebook teams to flip it into a residence. She additionally used Facebook to discover somebody prepared to hire her car to Fox for $100 a week.
Through all of it, Freya is a brilliant and comfortable lady. She’s talkative and inventive and has nice communication expertise for her age. On Thursday in her residence, Freya performed with a Barbie Little Dreamhouse set with two dolls in her fingers. With a huge smile on her face and alluring her siblings to play along with her, Freya confirmed all the things she may do: Change her dolls’ outfits and ship them up and down an elevator and down a slide. On her wrists, she wore handmade beaded bracelets she made with the kits somebody gave her for her birthday.
But her pleasure on Saturday was even larger: Excited and positively overwhelmed by the help she was seeing, Freya ran below water pads along with her siblings at Pearsall Park, then with the kid of a guardian on Facebook who confirmed up to have fun her birthday.
“I was new here once, too,” mentioned Perfida Harralson, who met Fox on Facebook and has a daughter Freya’s age. “The most important thing is to show kids, get them involved, too. … If I was ever in that instance, I would want that, too. That makes it even better. San Antonio [was able] to do that for her.”
Izzy Berry, a San Antonio balloon artist, confirmed up with a handmade Barbie-doll cake and hundreds of balloons in her package, prepared to placed on a present and create regardless of the youngsters needed.
Freya was stunned to see the cake and sat subsequent to it carefully after it arrived.
“The reason I got into this job was to make kids happy,” Berry mentioned. “If I could give great childhood memories to other kids, that would be great.”
“There’s beauty in humanity,” Fox mentioned. “There’s more than the everyday hustle and stress. No one is dealing with the same things. Everyone is in some struggle in some way, shape or form. It doesn’t have to be financially, there’s other things that go on in people’s lives. And it was just beautiful [that] a couple of people didn’t forget that and gave what they could give.”
At her get together, Freya mentioned she received to dance along with her mates — identical to she needed.
