A Secret Santa surprise for a single mother of 7 who was embarrassed at how she responded to a gift 9 years ago

The EastIdahoNews.com team is busy helping a local Secret Santa give $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho this holiday season. This is the ninth year the Secret Santa is blessing people in our community and every day, from now until the end of the year, we will post videos of the recipients being surprised with these life-changing gifts.

In 2015, Secret Santa asked us to surprise a woman named Lori. She had recently left an abusive marriage and was raising seven kids on her own. One of them had serious health problems and Lori had a lot on her plate.

A few weeks ago, Lori sent us the following email:

This email is going to be a bit strange but I have had this feeling I need to explain myself for quite a while.

The first year that Secret Santa started I was chosen as a recipient. I was given $2,000 for which I am grateful. When you all came to my home, my daughter had just gotten out of the hospital from having complications with diabetes. She was 2 years old and had been diagnosed that April. That year she was hospitalized 10 times. I had just gotten divorced the year before and we were having to go through a lot of court hearings. We had over a year of hearings and during the time that you came to my house, I had not told many people about my daughter being sick. I am sure you don’t remember me or my family but I wanted to let you know how sorry I am for being so bad at accepting the money. I’m sorry you coming to my home did not make a very good story. I had just had cancer removed right before my daughter was diagnosed Type 1 diabetic. There was so much going on and I am sorry I didn’t do well. I had seven kids at home at the time and was so overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do or just what I dared say when you came to my door. Just so you know, that money was a huge blessing. I am still single and have raised the kids all alone. It’s been a long rough road. There are now two left at home. Two are married, two grandkids and two on missions. One just graduated. My youngest, the diabetic, still has complications a few times a year but she is so strong and fights through it all. Again, thank you for choosing to help out a single mom.

Secret Santa asked us if we could visit Lori again to see how she’s doing and drop off another Christmas gift. Watch the surprise in the video player above!