I got my Christmas heart present.......it took 22 years to get!

Well this Christmas story starts 22 years ago, when I was a newer mother and had my son in local day care when I worked and lived in Spokane.

I remember about his second Christmas and his daycare provider coming to me with a request.

She was watching also 3 young kids ( a middle boy and a younger and older girl)from a rather nasty home experience,

domestic violence between the

parents and so forth, a sad situation.

The father got arrested for abusing their mother etc. that Christmas.

My babysitter informed me that she didn't think those kids would have any Christmas to speak of and asked if we ( my then husband and I) could help out.

So with her help, knowing the kids clothes sizes etc., I set out to buy each of them some clothes and a toy or two.

To this day I remember the scene of that house when we drove up to deliver the items.

The barely there Christmas tree near the front window with no gifts under it, the hardly any furniture etc.

I remember the look of that mother's face and the tears that came to her eyes and mine as I gave her the wrapped gifts. The best feeling in the world filling my heart !

But then a few days after Christmas my babysitter told me the rest of the story.....

The oldest girl had wanted a Barbie doll, that is all she wanted.

I did not know this before shopping but...

I had given her a Barbie doll.

When I heard this part of the story I broke down.

And to this day we have always given to charity in some way or another at Christmas time, it isn't always as much as I would like but it is what we can do.

I had always thought about and prayed for that family, always wondered how things turned out for them etc.

Well.........This year I got another heart present from God , because of facebook.

I found my old babysitter on facebook and I asked her what became of that family if she knew.

So my heart has peace knowing that things turned out ok for those kids. They might have forgotten that bad time in their lives or the gifts someone they didn't really know gave them, but I never forgot them.

And God answered my prayers for them!

And here is her reply....

"Yes i know. The kids are in town grown now and the older girl and the boy are parents. They graduated from Shadle with my daughter-in-law. The girl was actually a good friend of hers and they keep in contact. The mom went back to school and is teaching at risk kids in one of the districts special programs. She does a lot of volunteer work with women's crisis shelters and support groups. The image of those kids that never fades for me is serving them fried chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed (corn, green beans, carrots, peas) veggies and having them ask me what everything except the potatoes were. Also, the boy would hide food under his pillow and mattress when I kept him overnight because he couldn't believe there would always be food at my house.My kids learned early to share too and always have even when things were scarce here. "

May God answer your prayers and fill your heart this Christmas and in all of 2010!

The Queen family