Great Spark! Love David We were sparked this season. One of our children has been on a very challenging medical road for the past three years. Due to the nature of his illness, I had to leave my job to provide care for him and be with him each hospital or doctor visit. It has been a challenge spiritually, emotionally and financially. Last year our Christmas was very small yet beautiful. Our other kids, still young enough to whole heartedly believe in Santa began to question. They were not sad or ungrateful, just wondered since the bottom of the tree was pretty bare. My oldest has always said this season is not about presents, about being together, but we saw the disappointment in her face. This year they each asked for something very small and simple from Santa. The older kids had been so good this year through many hospital stays, challenges at home, nastiness for not wearing trendy things or being able to do dance class or other things they want to do since they arent in the budget. They rarely ask for anything so we hoped to make things special and saved where we could this year to do a little more. We learned a few weeks ago our son needed a test, one that insurance was not going to cover. It was going to be expensive. The next day my husbands truck broke down. As I wrote checks for our seemingly never ending stack of bills I just didnt know how what we wanted to do for our kids was going to happen. There wasnt a great deal of stretch in the blue collar budget for these extra expenses AND Christmas. Last Friday a friend from my old place of employment stopped over with an envelope. She said please not to be upset, but people just felt our situation was unfair and wanted to help but didnt know how. Inside were cards, so many words of encouragement for us at a time we needed to hear them and the money and gift cards to use as we needed, for the test, medical expenses, and Christmas. Then she pulled the gift our sick child had asked for from.Santa that we not only couldnt find, but was too pricey. This friend brought some gifts for the other kids as well, but the biggest gift was love and hope to us as parents who have been feeling so defeated and hopeless. I never knew what people on Extreme Home Makeover felt like, or why they cried. The happy tears of gratitude just didnt stop flowing. Any spark does make a difference. Sometimes you just dont know what someone is going through or how much it might mean to someone, this changed our entire season and let us breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy some happiness at a time of anxiety...the test results can change our life as we look to possibly head into a bone marrow transplant with our preschooler. This spark made me once again find strength to believe in miracles as this Christmas felt like one, a light in the darkness, a giant spark. Oh and with some of the extra, we decided we want to share instead of just putting it on our bills....Our next visit to the hospital our nurse will get some gift cards for the other parents with kids getting their infusions, enough for a couple cocoas or coffees at the coffee shop in the lobby. It may not be as much, but I know on our hospital days, if someone handed me a coffee, it would be a sip of heaven during a very long day. Thank you sparkers! Times are tough for so many, for so many different reasons, and yet, with a spark, you can find a smile again
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 20:00:02 +0000
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