We have a story of love, kindness and hope to tell you about. Nine children in a two bedroom home is the situation a Montgomery family has been living with after a young mother’s untimely death six months ago. Her sister is now raising her own two children along with her seven nieces and nephews. Now two local organizations, That’s My Child and A Better Montgomery, are helping the family and encouraging others to do the same this holiday season.“I’m fighting so hard to get everything together and everything right for the kids so they don’t have to leave us and go into a foster program or a group home,” said Kirsten Johnson. Kirsten Johnson and her mother Juliette Johnson are raising her sister Lakeshia’s seven children after Lakeshia passed away last May from an accidental fentanyl overdose.“She was wonderful, and she was very creative, and she was a people person. Lots of people here in Highland Gardens knew her. I just hate the way she left us,” said Lakeshia’s mother Juliette Johnson. Kirsten supports the family by working part time at the Dollar Tree. But because the home that they’re living in only has two bedrooms, the family is in danger of being being split up. “By the state requirements, I’m required to have at least four bedrooms, so that was a struggle on its own. Just the financial means of trying to come up with that amount of money to get a home and to find a home so quickly,” said Kirsten.The four girls and three boys range in age from five to sixteen years old. When Charles Lee heard about the family’s plight, he asked Ashley Gilbreath to help him figure out a way to help the Johnsons stay together. The family will soon be moving into a rental house down the street.“They’re coming in this house with nothing, so it’s a four bedroom house that we’re hoping we can get them moved into that the family is helping pay for. We just need a sofa, we need a dining table, we need mattresses. Anything anybody could help donate would be so, so appreciated,” said Gilbreath, who is with a local organization called A Better Montgomery.This will be the children’s first Christmas without their mom, and nine year old Measia reminisces about some of her favorite memories with her mother. “My mama, she was a big, big, big Alabama fan, same as the whole family was. One thing about my mama is, she is a very kind person,” says Measia.“God just he doesn’t make mistakes, and all the strength that he has given me, I try to give it to the children so they will see that someone loves them. And we care about them. And we don’t want to lose them into the system because there are our family, and they are all that we have,” said Kirsten with tears in her eyes.“As you can see, it’s not a black issue. It’s not a white issue. It’s a community issue, and when a community comes together, a family definitely gets the support that they need, and so we are begging the community to come out to help this family,” said Charles Lee, founder of the non-profit organization That’s My Child.If you would like to donate items to help the Johnson family, you can email Ashley Gilbreath at or contact the non-profit organization That’s My Child at . A has also been organized by A Better Montgomery if you would like to make a monetary donation., We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us., Notice of upper level job openings were sent to historically black and female universities including Alabama A&M, Alabama State University, The University of West Alabama and Tuskegee University..