SPEECHLESS GRATITUDE

speechless gratitude.
what more can i say?
so much more... yet i find myself unable to articulate our family's gratitude or find the right words to express it. we are incredibly grateful and appreciative beyond measure for the generosity of so many. to be the recipients of such generosity is a wonderfully amazing yet uncomfortably humbling place to be.

we are humbled,
shocked,
amazed,
bewildered,
excited,
grateful,
exuberant,
humbled,
and pretty much rendered completely speechless by the outpouring of support and kindness that has been gifted to us by our community, both friends and strangers alike...not to mention secret santas, Christmas angels and a few silly elves thrown in to the mix.

last week, we were blown away to be the recipients of some pretty amazing blessings - heartfelt gifts, food - lots of food (enough to feed a small army for the next 6 months!), even a costco size box of kleenex! (all of which has been needed to mop up my overflowing waterworks) on top of that, and astonishing to us, we received a donation of funds to help us with our ever mounting medical bills. this spear headed by parker and avery's teachers and raised by the faculty, the students and their families. speechless gratitude.

even taylor has been caught rifling through the gifts...this is a kid, whom from a toddler til present, could be trusted to not peek - so much so that i could leave unwrapped gifts hidden under a towel in my closet and not worry about him sneaking a peek...and now at 17, i caught him rifling through a bag of gifts, exclaiming over them with bewildered wonder and absolute delight. wow. speechless gratitude.

parker is at the age where one begins to question whether or not santa is real. naturally trying to explain to him how or why santa already delivered us our presents the week before Christmas proved to be ah, somewhat challenging. his questioning granted him a flustered and vague explanation from yours truly, "oh, well, i don't know why. dad just got a call and was told that santa had presents for us."

"really? did dad see santa or any elves?" came his skeptical query.

i tried to maintain some level of decorum while sweating bullets as i struggled to give him an answer that would not rob him of his loosely held santa belief but would also impress upon him the reality of the bigger picture here. how does one do that? how does one explain that the magic of santa is really the wonder and miracle of God blessing us through others?

finally, i just blurted out, "well, buddy, i think santa had a whole lot of help from God this year."

with eyes as big as saucers and wonder twinkling from his eyes, he reverently whispered, "wow! is santa a christian, mom?"

as i wiped my brow and wanly smiled in response, all i could think was how relieved i was that avery has not clued in to the fact that santa showed up early this year! ah, speechless gratitude!

so thank you, thank you, thank you to our community - the McNeely school faculty and families, the secret santas, the silly elves, and our Christmas angels. the gifts. the food. the snacks. the thoughtfulness, time, creative energy and care behind all of it has left us all profoundly humbled, completely overwhelmed and speechless with wonder.

we have always known that Christmas goes way beyond the gifts under our tree. along with the jubilant celebration of Jesus' birth and the eternal hope found in it, we are also blessed with a new hope - a sense of genuine community, love, support, care and concern...and the willingness of so many to come alongside us and walk this journey with us.

thank you to each of you who have kept the magic of Christmas alive for our kids. more than preserving the wonder of them getting their Christmas wishes granted, you have given so much more! you have imparted to them those qualities which are of lasting value - the gift of knowing that they are surrounded by a community of people who care and love them.

and that is a gift they will carry with them forever...