Mom’s Ad Asks Family to Adopt Her, Son for Christmas
When mom Autumn Aviva-Keshet Mazzitelli allowed her daughter to spend the holidays with her “Papa,” leaving Mazzitelli and her son alone on Christmas Eve after having moved to a new town, she decided to reach out to strangers to ease their loneliness.
Mazzitelli posted an ad on Canada’s Craigslist on Dec. 4, looking for a family to “adopt” her and her son for Christmas. “Have you always wanted a daughter and grandson?” the Victoria, British Columbia, resident wrote. “Do you have a daughter and/or grandson, but they live too far away to return for Christmas this year? Do you miss the pitter patter of little feet and adorably mispronounced words of a three year old boy? Do you need a hand with dishes after sharing Christmas dinner with a (slightly?) eccentric 30 year old single mother?”
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She added: “I would love to meet some beautiful humans to share Christmas Eve or Day with, hear some stories, sing and eat and laugh, and actively choose not to be alone. I want something different this year so I’m just putting my heart out there!”
Mazzitelli joked that if she’s invited over for Christmas, the worst-case scenario is that she shows up under- or overdressed, the wine she brings tastes “awful,” and that she tries to help cook and ruins the food. But at least it would be memorable.
In her best-case scenario: “We have a blast and you don’t do dishes alone (or at all) and it changes the way humans do this whole Christmas thing,” she wrote. “People talk about this crazy thing we did and they too start to share their love and space and make friends, and the best part … in time there would be far less lonely hearts on Christmas.”
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Mazzitelli received heartwarming responses from strangers inviting her and her son to spend Christmas with them and posted an update on Craigslist: “I have tears in my eyes as I type this,” she wrote. “I am so grateful for the outpouring of love, the shares on social media, the PMs, email responses, text messages from friends who live far away. I have been invited to every kind of Christmas dinner you can imagine and even invited overseas! Most importantly, I received messages from people just saying that they now plan on reaching out, too, instead of spending Christmas alone.”
She added: “I am so moved and overwhelmed, I’ve not yet responded to the many messages and have yet to accept an offer because there are just so many I haven’t a clue what to do! I know it makes sense to take the post down, but it doesn’t feel right. I think it’s important to know that it’s okay to want company.”
(Top Photo: Autumn Mazzitelli/Facebook)
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