We planned our work and worked our plan. Gary and I took Garrett and Fiona shopping and let them pick out presents up to their allowed amount. We had a nice time shopping.
Then we came home, and the little girls came running out to the car, all excited. They were shouting, “Mommy, Daddy, come look at our tree. Cece brought presents! Come and see!” So we went inside and this is what we saw.
We got the little dolls you see in the pictures for the little girls. They’re only $5, and they play with these little baby dolls a lot. But all of the presents wrapped in blue paper were from our church. They brought a present for each one of us in the family. Now we’re all excited about Christmas morning. We don’t know what’s in those packages.
Usually we take the younger children to pick out what they want, because I don’t want to get things for them that they won’t like. Then I tell them to forget what they’re getting for Christmas. They try really hard to forget, but you know how that is. Sometimes, I will buy extra things that I’m pretty sure they will like, so they can have a little bit of surprise. This year, since our budget is so limited, I won’t be able to do that. But our church family reached out to us in love, and now we have surprise presents to look forward to on Christmas morning. Even Gary and I have gifts under the tree. I wonder what’s in them!











"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller







Awww…isn’t it great to have such a wonderful church family! God is good!