Editor's Note: Each year our online news partner The Charlotte Observer sponsors the Empty Stocking Fund. All the money readers contribute to the fund goes to the Salvation Army's Christmas Bureau, which buys toys, food, clothing and gift cards for families in need. The story below is one of many that Observer writers will feature this holiday season.
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By Mark Price
msprice@charlotteobserver.com

Andre Carter with, from left, Ross, 5; Mya, 4; and Precious, 6. Carter, in the middle of divorce proceedings, lost his job in September. Todd Sumlin - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com

Andre Carter was laid off from his job as a maintenance worker in September, and things are starting to unravel.

A single father, he's in desperate need of a car, a new job and rent money, having already gotten two late notices for October.

Yet none of those things top his Christmas list this year.

"I just want to see a smile on my kids' faces on Christmas morning," says Carter, 42, who is raising three children, ages 4, 5 and 6.

"I just hope that they get to experience what I did growing up. I'm going to make that happen, even if it means missing a payment. No way are they waking up to nothing on Christmas morning."

Carter's family is among the 7,000 who registered this year for help from the Salvation Army's Christmas Bureau, a program seeking to fulfill the holiday wishes of 13,701 children from low-income families.

He admits there are times when fathering alone can be a little heartbreaking.

He separated from his wife 15 months ago and says he has taken full responsibility for the kids until a divorce is worked out. His mom, Linda, is helping as much as she can, along with his church. But two of his three children are girls and there are times when only a mother will do.

"I'm trying to fill that void, but they miss their mom," says Carter. "I brush their hair and do ponytails or pigtails, but they know I'm not any good at it. They tell me: 'It doesn't look like mom used to do it.' But I tell them it's the best I can do."

It's the other moments that keep him going. The seemingly inconsequential ones filled with corny jokes, squirt guns and little girls stumbling around in high heels and play makeup.

"Sometimes I'll come to the dinner table and my food will be gone and they'll all be looking at me, laughing," he says. "Or I'll be taking a shower, and this hand will slip through the door and turn out the light."

Moments like that, he knows they're happy, and he realizes being a father is the greatest job he'll ever have.

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