Humbled

Christmas 2010

We had a visitor come a little early this year.

He came bearing gifts from ward members.

More than the gifts we have felt an overwhelming feeling of love.

Back in November we received a call from our Elders Quorum President asking if they could buy some gifts for our family. He said, let me know about two or three items each of your children would like.

So, we wrote the list. We asked that two of the items for each kid be clothes, and then one toy each. If we had the money to buy Christmas presents this year that is probably all we would have done. We try to keep it simple.

When Santa came, we were shocked at the amount that was brought.

We were humbled that others cared about us to do so much.

Believe me when I say we feel so loved.

We would like to thank everyone for making this Christmas a very memorable Christmas.

The kids were so fun to watch.

They were bouncing off the walls with excitement.

Then they just stood there staring at all of the gifts.

David asked Emma to slap him in the face.

Emma did.

Papa was about to correct her behavior until he found out David asked.

David just could not believe that Santa had come and that he was given so much.

They kept saying, "we must be the best kids ever!"

In my eyes, it isn't the presents, it is the love that has been felt.

Thank you.

There was a gift bag that was not covered.

It had 4 dresses in it.

I picked up the first dress.

The one that is pictured above.

The hanger had Cinderella written on it.

I felt like this was a fairy tale, I couldn't hold it in any longer.

I began to cry.

I can't even imagine the price on this dress. It is beautiful.

Jacob saw me crying.

I pulled myself together and Jacob asks me to cry some more.

For some reason he really wanted me to cry.

Emma naturally thought that a dress so beautiful would be hers.

She tried it on, and while it looked nice and seemed to fit her well.

It wasn't hers.

Abby puts it on and dances with Jacob.

Emma puts on another dress and dances with David.

Like a fairy tale.

David Just couldn't believe all that was his.

Emma's dress.

At this point we felt like our living room was overrun with gifts.

But then two days later...

We had two groups of people show up. With baby shower gifts.

(A Sister from church asked if I would like her to throw me a baby shower. I said no because I don't like the attention.)

She was the first one to show up. As she was walking in the door, she said, "I don't take "no" for an answer, so I brought the baby shower to you."

She had me open one of the bags of gifts right then.

About 5 or 10 minutes later we had some more people show up to bring more.

Just from the "baby shower" we received,

865 diapers

1600 wipes

blankets

outfits

cloths for the older kids

shampoo's

tooth paste

tooth brushes

soaps

razors

and so much more.

I feel so overwhelmed.

Sometimes I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

My emotions are WAY out of whack already!

I wish that I could thank everyone individually for their kindness.

A lot of the gifts were given anonymously.

I am truly grateful.

I hope that one day soon we as a family can do this same kind of thing for others.