Wednesday, January 2, 2013

We BELIEVE

There is a darling little one-year old girl in our ward named Brooklyn who has a rare form of cancer called ATRT. It has been absolutely heartwrenching to watch as she has gone through Chemo/Radiation and about a million other things. Her mother is an inspiration to everyone and has been so strong through it all. Our ward members have been amazing and have gone above and beyond to babysit her other children, bring meals in, and just be there with love and support. Another friend of mine in our ward put on a big function right before Christmas to raise money for little Brooklyn. (This girl is also an inspiration to me) She arranged to have Santa there and since she's a photographer she took all these pictures for free...and just had people donated what they wanted to for this family. This pictures are absolutely priceless to me, not only because of the expressions she caught on each of their faces,(Cash whispering in his ear is so incredible) but because it was really special for me to be able to talk to my kids about this and then have them want to come up with their own money to donate. This wasn't the only opportunity our kids had to do something for others this season. Honestly this was by far the best Christmas we've had in teaching our kids about the importance of serving others not only at Christmas time but throughout the whole year. Elle and Cash were very involved in their school and dance coat drives, food drives, and charity fundraisers. I was very proud of them for going through some of their toys and donating them too. Also, as a family, we decided to pick a couple of families that we could do something for anonymously. I loved watching the excitement on their faces as they contributed what they could. I know it was sinking into them because in their prayers they would talk about how they hoped it would help and how they wanted to remember the "true reason for Christmas." What little angels. I want to be better at doing this stuff at EVERY opportunity we have...not just one month out of the entire year. At the end of my Dad's Christmas Eve lesson he gave each of the kids five 1 dollar bills and challenged them to find someone who needed it more than they did. A couple days after Christmas as we were walking through City Creek Elle spotted a woman sitting on the corner with a cardboard sign. Immediately she said, "mom I want to give my money to her!" Both her and Cash reached in my bag for their envelopes and ran to give it to this sweet lady as they told her Merry Christmas. My heart swelled. I was so grateful for the opportunity to teach them what the warm feeling was that they had inside and told them we needed to do this more often. Whenever I look at this pictures I'll think of sweet Brooklyn, as well as the friend that put this event on with all else she had going on this busy holiday season. THIS is what Christmas is all about. WE BELIEVE in Santa Claus. WE BELIEVE in CHRISTMAS. WE BELIEVE in our Savior Jesus Christ. How grateful we are for him, his sacrifice for us, this gospel, and for the opportunity it gives us to be together forever as a family. There is NOTHING I want more. MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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