This Christmas, Arik Morgan says she is going to be particularly grateful that her children won't find presents from Toys for Tots under the tree.

"Toys for Tots was a very helpful stepping stone for me, but this year, thank God, I no longer need it," said Ms. Morgan, a single mother of eight children who lives in North Braddock.

For the past two years, though, Toys for Tots and the Goodfellows Toy Fund provided crucial support for Ms. Morgan, 40, as she labored to rebuild her life after 11 years of addiction to crack cocaine.

"My kids got what they needed, and Toys for Tots got me over the hump," she said, noting in particular a set of "invaluable" Fisher Price toys that helped her developmentally advanced 3-year-old son work on his fine motor skills. "And because my kids were grateful, I was grateful."

"She struggled for years with her addiction," said Michele Chisholm, director of women's and children's programs at UPMC Braddock, which includes House of H.O.P.E., a shelter for pregnant women with drug problems.

"During her time with us, she took advantage of everything we offered to help her kids and put it to good use. She has never hesitated to pick up the phone and ask for help."

Project H.O.P.E.'s letters stand for Honesty, Openness, Patience and Effort -- qualities that Ms. Morgan embraced with determination while she worked to beat her drug dependency, Ms. Chisholm added, noting that when she achieved sobriety three years ago, she never looked back.

Even this past year, when Ms. Morgan's grandmother and mother both died, "she stayed clean and was there for her kids," Ms. Chisholm said.

"When you're trying to live on welfare, or just trying to pay a bill, and you have to choose between gas and buying a toy, unfortunately the gas has to come first, and Toys for Tots lessened the burden a little bit for her."

Not only that, after Christmas, Ms. Chisholm would receive thank you notes from Ms. Morgan's children, "which amazed me. Not everyone is so grateful or so good about making sure their kids express gratitude."

Today, Ms. Morgan's life is a far cry from the days when, homeless and on drugs, stripped of custody of her children, "I was going from pillar to post."

To get her life back together, she relied on House of H.O.P.E. and Bridge to Independence/Families First, which helps recovering addicts pay their rent. She enrolled in a job skills training course at Community College of Allegheny County. And at the crack of dawn each morning, she'd take a bus to drop her younger children off at day care; get back on the bus to go to school; then return on the bus to the day care center -- at the other end of the city again -- at day's end.

"It was grueling," she said, but it paid off, and she was hired to be a shift manager at a restaurant.

Ms. Morgan hopes to graduate in 2008 with a degree from CCAC in business management and is working on another part of her dream: opening a faith-based rehabilitation center for female addicts that not only focuses on healing but also on children and their needs.

"We have to heal as a whole family in order to move on," she said.

Six of her eight children live with her -- three of the eight are grown -- and she's just purchased a home in the Braddock area.

"Every year since then has been one step up and another step up and another step up and now I'm financially secure and now I don't have to worry about whether I can afford gifts for the children, because I can."

This year, her 12-year-old daughter wants a Nintendo, "and by the grace of God, she'll have it. I will be able to provide for my children this Christmas, and it will be a merry one."

The Goodfellows Toy Fund, working with the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, will deliver thousands of toys to needy children this holiday season.

Contributions to Goodfellows are tax-deductible. Every donation is acknowledged in the newspaper. You can make a contribution online at www.post-gazette.com/pgcharities.