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Saturday, January 5, 2013

My Vist to "Narnia" part 2

It is Christmas eve and all is right. I have scheduled my self to take the next 12 days off. I have been off since friday and I have cooked everyday. Please hear me there is nothing
I dislike more than cooking but I love feeding my family. Nothing more satisfying than to see all my children around the dinner table. We talk of when they were little and my oldest Keila loves to remind her darling brother, of how he would tag along with her to girl scouts.

It is early and Keila continues baking. I am thinking of how I will sneak into her home to steal some cookies. These past two weeks I've shopped for so many families in need that I haven't made the time to shop for my own kids. My two boys and I plan a little outing to finish up with the small details before Santa arrives. Our shopping is done and we decide we deserve a Chick-fil-A lunch. As we are eating we receive a call. This Lifechanger informs me that she has extra boxes of food. I have families that could use them so we agree to meet at McDonalds and transfer the goods to my car. We head to United to purchase some extra hams and we continue to scurry about the day, boy what joy. I still have to finish the wrapping and then get ready for us to go to my sisters. We decide to head home and Jacob and I will do the delivering a little later. Tonight we will enjoy our traditional family Christmas Eve.

It is now a little after 5:00 my girls are baking, my son is with his girlfriend and my little one is making plans to go next door to see his aunt before we leave for my sisters. My honey arrives and we make plans to head out and deliver food. Again the phone rings and well long story short "A Santa" is wanting to provide a "Special Christmas" for a family in need. I send him two stories and ask him to pick one. He cant pick just one so he decides to help both.

This is a generous "Santa" and his wish is to fulfill these children's hearts desire. I tell him I will dream for them and the gentleman helps me dream. I ask "The Santa" for some kind of game system for each family. He doesn't want them to have to share. He decides to will buy  a system for each child. I have no words.  I call both families and inform them that "The Santa" has something special for the kids. We agree on a time to go drop off the gifts.

Jacob and I head to town, on a sleigh filled with food.  We look for the home in hopes of finding "The Santa" at the first families home. As we drive down the block we spot "Santa's Sleigh". We park and slowly climb out of the our sleigh.  The air is thin and crisp, the trees rustle gently as if they are greeting our arrival. We meet "The Santa" face to face and just then as if on queue, small tiny snowflakes begin to fall. It is a silent symphony of joyful noise all around us. We have encountered "Narnia" again. Nothing like that kind of Hope, Hope so tangible. I go to the door and ask if I am in the right place. It is hard to see as the sun has gone to sleep. A young man answers the door and follows me back to the car as his mother is working the late shift, at a nearby fast food place. He is thankful and even though the sun is sleeping there is a marvelous light all around. I look around and "The Santa" has disappeared.
We head to find the home of our next family. This is the family with the 9 year old boy and the 7 year old girl, we met them on our first visit to "Narnia".  We drive and the darkness surrounds us. Light is unable to pierce through the darkness. The darkness has won for now and it slowly consumes our surroundings. We navigate through a small and humble neighborhood. Ahead, at last yes, there shines a small light. We follow it as a guiding star and quickly arrive in front of a small one bedroom home. We climb out of our sleigh, once more and decide to invite "The Santa" in. He hesitates, as Santa is not to be seen. We make it to the door and the children's excitement can be felt outdoors. As we cram in the small living room we notice a needleless pine tree in the corner. The father notices our gazing at his tree. He begins "I was throwing out the trash and out by the dumpster, there it was a perfectly good tree with ornaments and all." I look again and spot a couple of gifts underneath. I explain to the family what "The Santa" has done and I wanted him to be blessed by meeting them. There is this different kind of love, in this room. We hug and no words have to be spoken for us to understand that this is our "Narnia".
The Santa departs and we sit and visit awhile. I hand a gift to the mother and another to the father. The children seem delighted at the thought that "The Santa" thought of their parents too. I hand the little boy a gift and the little girl a gift as well. She opens a Barbie and her eyes light up, so bright I am certain it lights up the whole neighborhood.
The boy is thrilled at his sisters gift and then begins to tear open his gift. He sees a game system and the light beaming out of him is uncontainable. He places his gift down and  begins to unzip his jacket. He is wearing a long sleeve white shirt with a tie that is two sizes to small for him. He begins to speak, "No lo puedo crea", "I cant believe it".
"Please don't tell me I am dreaming" as he rubs his eyes.
His father understands something we don't and he starts by saying " My son woke up this morning and got dressed up. I asked him why he was dressed up and he said because he just knew that today would be a special day." The father continued "last night before bed the children wrote a letter to Santa." They placed their letters in the tree and this morning they were gone." In the letters the little boy asked for a system and the little girl asked for a Barbie."
We all sat there in awe of CHRISTmas.
 “It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. ... ― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

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