Parents of 12 Weep With Joy After East Idaho Secret Santa Gifts Them New Van

The parents of 12 children, many of them adopted, burst into tears of joy after a new van was delivered to them, courtesy of a Secret Santa in east Idaho.

Misty and Ben Ashley love kids, and the family they've created ranges in age from 1 to 17. Both Ben and Misty work long hours. Ben wakes up around 4 a.m. and often doesn't get home until after 10 p.m. Misty works nights and returns home around 1 a.m.

But they don't complain, even after the 15-passenger van they purchased from a junk yard gave up the ghost and has been marooned in their driveway for months. 

Enter the Secret Santa who donates hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to residents in need.

The EastIdahoNews media site helps select recipients and delivers gifts for him. The native Idahoan, whose identity remains a mystery, has been anonymously aiding fellow residents since 2015.

"Secret Santa has a big gift for this next family and when I say big, I mean big," the news agency's Nate Eaton told viewers as he prepared to knock on the family's door. 

First, Eaton presented the family with a $10,000 gift certificate to buy much-needed furniture for the enormous tribe. "Holy friggin' crap," uttered a stunned Misty. 

Then, Eaton led them all outside to show them their brand new, white van. Ben was speechless. Overcome with tears, the hard-working dad covered his face with his T-shirt. The couple's children clambered aboard, delighted to know that for the first time in months, the entire clan could go somewhere at the same time.

"We couldn't find a more deserving family," Eaton told the ecstatic family.

"Thank you," a weeping Ben was finally able to muster.

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