Military Family Receives the Ultimate Christmas Present

Army combat medic Jared has enjoyed the holidays with his family. This season has been extra special because he won’t be here next Christmas.  He deploys in January for a year.  Jarod is quick to point out that he couldn’t do his job if it wasn’t for his wife ashton taking care of their four children back home.  

Jarod says, “I’ve never had to worry about the kids at home. I’ve always known in my heart and soul that they are completely fine and she is doing a great job taking care of them, which is the biggest relief for especially a soldier in the Army.”

The couple has managed fine on Jared’s army salary.  They live debt free and always budget to give to others through their church. But that would change when they learned that some good friends were having legal trouble and needed Jared and Ashton to take in their two children until they sorted things out.

Ashton says, “The boys needed a home immediately. We had to decide in that moment or else they were going to be put into the foster care system. We knew the boys and we did not want that to happen. We loved them.”

It was a stretch to make it work with 6 kids. They had to begin buying necessitates on credit.

Jarod says, “It was very hard on our paycheck. We were trying to figure out well, how much money do we need for groceries. I mean, some days we were sitting there going, are we going to able to feed everyone today.”

After several months, the children were able to move back home but by then, Jared and Ashton had thousands of dollars on credit cards. They prayed about a strategy to pay off the debt.  For starters, Christmas would be very lean.  

Ashton says, “There is nothing that Jared and I can do about it except pray.  And I have total faith in god that he is bringing us out of it right now.”

Jared says, “God is always going to provide for us. And he will always make sure that we make it to the next step. Especially with our finances.”

Their situation took a turn when their church bethel community teamed up with CBN’s helping the home front to bring in some holiday cheer. Pastor Ricard Dixon told them CBN was going to help.

Pastor Richards says, “They really want to bless you. You wouldn’t believe how much they want to bless you. They want to give you $6,000 to pay off the debt that you guys incurred.”

Jared and Ashton reply, “Oh, my gosh.  Oh, my gosh.  Wow.  That’s a lot.  I don’t even know what to say to that.  God is good.  That’s amazing.”
And pastor Richard told them CBN was also taking them shopping to buy Christmas presents for their children.

Jarod says, “Thank you.  Thank you, God. God is good.  This is going to change everything for us.  Even last week we were talking about how we were going to get out of this credit card debt. This is going to fast-track us to where we need to be so that we can get right back on to giving to others.

Then it was time to go shopping.  Jared and Ashton are forever grateful for helping the home front getting them back on track.

“This is going to change everything for us. This is going to set us right back on course to being completely debt free. I’m so thankful for CBN and all they’re doing for us. This is really going to change our lives.”