Christmas Miracles!

I have felt overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude during this Christmas season. As you count your blessings, they seem to multiply right in front of your eyes. My last post came as a result of difficulties we were facing and wondering how I was going to provide Christmas for my children. We were definitely feeling a financial pinch and I didn't know what to do to make this Christmas special for my family. As I was writing, I knew that I had much to be grateful for anyway, and I decided to focus my attention on everything I have instead of what I don't have. I have been richly rewarded for that decision.

November was a short month as far a work goes. Doug's job does not consist of holiday pay and we get paid twice a month. Normally, his second check of the month has at least 11-13 working days. We received his paycheck early because of the holiday and he had only worked 8 days which is a huge chunk of money gone at Christmas time. When we got that check, I was really wondering how we were even going to pay our bills let alone give our kids anything for Christmas. We also hadn't had almost any cleaning jobs for during the month of November. Miracle #1 happened, the day before Thanksgiving as we got 5 unexpected phone calls, jobs all to be done that weekend. Every penny of those wages that we would normally have earned were made up with a little bit extra for Christmas presents.

Miracle #2! One of the jobs we did was for a dear friend of ours. This is a friend that has done so much for us. Doug was so willing to help him out and didn't want to charge him anything for it. Our friend, however, had other ideas and promptly sent me a Christmas card with $500 in it. The job was probably at most only worth $150. We had never mentioned that we were having any financial problems at all. Sometimes the generosity of others is simply overwhelming.

The 3rd Christmas miracle came this last Saturday. Another one of our friends is moving next week and called us to ask us if we would like a trampoline. The house they just bought has a slopped yard and they really can't use it anymore. Now, the amazing part about that is the timing. All year I have been wanting to buy a trampoline for my children for Christmas. I priced them out sometime this summer, but I never felt like we should spend the money to purchase one, but it was definitely on the top of my Christmas wish list. Our friend's said that we were the first ones they thought of and again we never told them that we wanted a trampoline. In fact, I have never even been to their house, nor did we know they even owned a trampoline. Someone was communicating my secret Christmas wishes to them, but it wasn't me.

The 4th and 5th Holiday miracles happened in the last two weeks as I was able to attend the sealings of two beautiful families to their children. One family went to the temple for the first time, as she just got baptized a year ago. Doug and I were able to be the children's escorts. What an incredible experience! Those children were just beaming!

The second sealing was actually a family sealing, as Doug's brother and his wife took their two little girls to the temple to seal them to our family forever. They have waited a long time to have daughters, and after 13 + miscarriages, they decided to foster children. They received their first daughter when she was about 6 or 7 months old. This poor little baby had been severely abused by her mother. Her mother went to prison, but not before she was pregnant again. So, six months later, my brother and sister-in-law were going to the hospital to pick up a brand new baby girl. Now, these beautiful girls are 2 and 3 and they were officially adopted on National Adoption Day, sealed to their parents on December 6th, and given and name and a blessing this last Sunday. During their oldest daughter's blessing, the words were spoken that "early in life you were surrounded by angels that protected you, so that you might be able to fulfill your mission in life". I have never felt the spirit so strongly during a baby blessing as I did at that moment. I know that angels were protecting that little girl because she really could have died and to look at her now, she seems to have almost no ill affects from this extreme abuse.

The Lord really is watching over each one of us. He loves us, he knows our needs, he knows our wants, and he even knows our secret Christmas wishes.