And they can’t get any better.

“I wouldn’t call it a nightmare,” Debbie Stanton says of a situation that would test the best of families. “It’s been such a blessing. It caught us totally off guard.”

The Stantons, who include 2-year-old son, Jeffrey, have been caught off guard in recent days, weeks and months by the generosity of people.

It has come from the congregation at Organ Lutheran Church, where Debbie sings in the choir. It has come from her Sunday School class.

Neighbors and total strangers deliver it daily. It came Wednesday night in a wagon wrapped up in a bow.

“We’re going to have a nice Christmas because of so many people,” Debbie Stanton says.

About eight months ago, Mark Stanton severely hurt his back in a stormwater subcontracting job for the City of Charlotte.

A construction foreman, Stanton was coming out of a hole one day when the sidewall collapsed, leading to ruptured discs on both sides of his spine.

Stanton required 10 hours of surgery in June, and his family has had no income since his injury while waiting for workmen’s compensation from his former employer.

Debbie Stanton says the small construction company fired her husband “for getting hurt” and has been uncooperative in the workmen’s compensation claim.

But that’s a whole other story, she says.

“We didn’t think it would be this long of a period of his being out of work,” she adds. “... We were totally dependent on my husband, only because my health is bad.”

Debbie Stanton, 38, has had multiple abdominal surgeries, with one more pending. She says she also has had “an ankle fusion that won’t fuse.”

The Stantons considered themselves a middle-income family and were in the process of buying a house when Mark, also 38, suffered his injury.

Sharon Sapp learned of the Stantons’ hardships and made others aware of their plight. Soon, people were showing up at the Stantons’ door, volunteering to mow their expansive yard.

People came by with diapers for Jeffrey. Others brought them enough money to keep their light bill paid. The Stantons disconnected their telephone, but neighboring Brown’s Nursery allows them to use a portable phone off its line.

When Debbie’s mother became seriously ill two months ago, friends provided the money to get her home to upstate New York just before her mother died.

On Wednesday night, Al Jentry showed up at the Stantons’ door with a wagon full of toys for Jeffrey. He also left the wagon, which he had refurbished.

The Stantons still face medical bills. Mark is able to walk but remains on pain medication. He starts physical therapy next week.

“We have hopes,” Debbie Stanton says.

The whole experience, as trying as it has been, has shown Debbie Stanton what trust in God can mean. She’s trying every way she knows how to thank people for what they’ve done.