Facebook post sparks Christmas miracle for Cape Coral family

The joy of Christmas for many, especially kids, is seeing gifts under the tree, but for one Cape Coral family, they couldn’t afford not only presents but the bare necessities.

That’s when they found a Christmas miracle within their community. It was one social media post that started it all.

Three-year-old Kingston smiled as he watched his mom light the candles on his birthday cake.

Bella Banik told us her son couldn’t wait to open up his presents.

“He was happy, and he was excited to have something,” Banik said.

If only little Kingston knew the strength his mom had to muster up to make his day.

“I didn’t want to make that post. I don’t really want to ever ask for help,” Banik said.

Banik did ask for help after she saw a post on Facebook in the Cape Coral residents group.

Banik for Kingston and for her daughter Willow asked for the bare minimum.

“I needed anything. I needed diapers, I needed wipes, I needed clothes. I needed anything, literally anything even used. I get food stamps. I’m a young mom, and it’s been more than rough. I lost my job two weeks ago,” Banik said.

Melody Woodsum saw Bella’s request in their Facebook group and decided to buy Bella everything she asked for and more.

“There was a time in life when my husband lost his job when we had little kids, and you just don’t know where, then, what the next things can hold for you,” Woodsum said.

“She ended up buying my son two different pairs of Spider-Man pajamas because he’s very into Spider-Man and Hulk Smash right now, and she got him a Spiderman robe. She got him this huge kinetic sand thing, and he has a lot of sensory needs, so that feeling of the sand. She got him this huge thing, and then even more came. It was amazing,” Banik said.

This single mom is grateful her kids will have the special holiday they deserve, but she told us she feels guilty.

“You tend to compare yourself to other mothers, or even what I had last year, and what I have this year is very, very different. I had everything last year; my son had a great Christmas, and this year, not so much, and you know the emotional toll? You just kind of sit and cry some days. You have that mom guilt of, like, I didn’t get that for you,” she said.

Woodsum told us she was happy to help because she believes everyone needs help at some point.

“We’ve all had different times in life when we’ve struggled, and right now, we’re very blessed, and we were able to go ahead and do something for this family, and then on top of it, for a little child to have a birthday in December, right before Christmas. Sometimes those seasonal birthdays kind of get overlooked a little bit, so we wanted to be able to help,” she said.

Woodsum wasn’t the only person who reached out to help Bella. In fact, Banik got so many gifts.

She’s giving some away to other moms to make sure they can give their kids a merry Christmas, too.