Our Christmas Miracle

I don't recall if I've ever officially written this story down somewhere, so I'm going to take the opportunity to do it while it is fresh on my mind.

Christmas 2007 was an exciting time for us. All within one week, many milestones were happening: Derek turned 30, we had the ultrasound for our 3rd baby and discovered it was a she, Derek was graduating from Boise State and finally, Christmas with my parents in town. It was a beautiful week and we were very excited about upcoming events in 2008.

The ward we were living in at that time was fortunate to be sponsored for Christmas by a more well-to-do ward in a nearby city. The Relief Society president would submit a list of families who needed extra help for the holidays and then "Santa's helpers" would gather the items and deliver them to the homes. We had family in the ward that year who were on the sponsor list because of hard times, but somehow the sponsoring ward was given our phone number accidentally. The "helpers" called my house and asked when they could deliver our Christmas items. I was confused because I didn't think we were on the sponsor list and no one had asked me for any information, but stranger things had happened before so I just went with it and told them when to bring the stuff over. As soon as I hung up I realized, duh, it wasn't for us but for our relatives, so I got in touch with the Relief Society president so she could iron it out with the sponsoring ward.

A few days later I got another call from Santa's helpers. They apologized for the mistake but said I had sounded excited on the phone and still wanted to do something for my family. I protested, because we were doing very well and there were many others who needed more assistance than us. But she was also very persistant so I decided if they wanted to serve my family, I wouldn't be a scrooge about it. I gave her some information about my family and she said she'd call me in a few days. They delivered a few bags of things and I still felt silly for receiving the help, but it was apparently no skin off their noses so I just decided to roll with it.

The day after Derek graduated he was at work and had a minor incident that he had to report and had to come home early for the day. Two days later--Christmas Eve--he was called into work and fired. We were devastated. We anticipated some kind of consequence but nothing like this. Just days before we had been full of hope and excitement for the future and it suddenly came crashing around our heads the day before Christmas. What should've been the climax of our year suddenly became a bad dream.

However, after getting over the shock of being fired on Christmas Eve, we realized how blessed we were. Since Derek was out of school he could search high and low for a job, and it turned out we could quickly take steps with help of the union to get his old job back, including back pay. But the special attention we received from the sponsor ward made the biggest impact of all. Of course, we didn't care so much about the things we recieved, but knowing complete strangers had pulled something together for us on such short notice was a very humbling and touching experience. Knowing Heavenly Father was watching out for us and supplying our needs before we were aware of them was a great blessing and I'll never forget how much this experience touched my heart.

All in all, in 2008 we started the year unemployed and ended the year in our first house. We are extremely blessed and I just hope I'm deserving enough to pay it forward.