A Hard Christmas, Becomes A Hartl Christmas...

A Hard Christmas

Becomes A Hartl Christmas...

          This story begins months ago, with continued illness in the family and limited funds from the one job supporting our family.  Coming home one day I found my wife barely able to stand and so I put her to bed, and then fed the kids so full of energy yet worried about their mother.  With all the stress I forgot to take my medication for several days and so a day after helping my wife I crashed, full of depressive and rage like feelings I hid away from the children in my bed, praying for calm. It was just the week before that our car blew its head gasket and possibly the head also. So item, upon item, straw upon straw, our lives became more difficult.

          As time went on we survived for 3 months without a car. With the kindness of friends I made it to work and back, but under the stress my depression not completely able to be controlled each step in the day was like lifting emotional lead.  But we still walked and worked on.  With great faith we never gave up but at times we were in tears, mine usually alone so that I do not upset my wife and children.

So Thanksgiving happens, turkey is cooked and then eaten and the time goes on. I begin to get better but worry about the Christmas that is coming up fast. Friends from church one who has lost weight gave me some clothes, he trying to be frugal, not realizing that his pants and coats are the first new ones I have had this year, they are blessings all the more so because of that.

Our finances are getting worse, mostly from being low income and having to buy the medications for my wife and kids.  A light in the tunnel, the church intervenes and pays several months rent, soothing the Landlord whose top was threatening to blow. 

A box from my Mother-in-law arrives full of gifts for the children. My daughter prays at night saying thank you to Heavenly Father ,"We thank thee for all the wonderful presents we will receive on Christmas, remembering all the children who do not have as much, and some not at all." As I hear this I am proud of her and at the same time my heart is breaking because I know we don't have anything to give them ourselves.

A bright surprise, my sister arrives from Alaska, needing medical care she came stateside, and was near so she visited. She loved seeing the kids and was a great emotional boost. After she flew back home she emailed us with a gift certificate for the kids to get books and asked us for t-shirt sizes... The shirts arrived Dec 21^st.

Blessings begin to multiply; another box arrives from another sister she in California, again things for the kids. And I find myself able to buy a DVD I know the kids will like so I give it to them early so they have it over the weekend before Christmas.

But stress's added to stress's and my wife is so ill she calls the Dr. office on the 20^th, and they say sure come in, BUT only if you have cash, and I didn't get paid till Friday the 21^st. They say they are sorry.  Soon she is so sick she can not do dinner or be out of bed for more then a few hours a day.  We begin to pray for her as a family and I invite my online friends to add their faith to the effort, as my worry greatly increases because by Christmas Eve afternoon she has only been out of bed for ½ hour.

Sunday night Leslie is able to be out and about for a couple hours, eats then heads t bed when the kids do.  I get the box's of presents from our family and set up our little 3' tree with candy canes and then laying out the packages around the shelf the tree is on top of.  Please I am with the sight of enough presents to not make the kids feel the lack... I write a note from Santa letting the kids know that some gifts I ordered from signing up in a "of the month" club will be arriving but that Santa knew about them.

*****Letter From Santa*******

Dear J, M and S,       December 2006

Your Mom and Dad have for you 4 DVDs' that are coming in the mail; they just are not here yet. (I always know what Parents are getting the Children, so I know what else to get them.  But in your family I can see you have a lot of Great and Wonderful things.)

You have parents that love you, and teach you about Jesus, our Elder Brother.  You know it is his birthday we are celebrating.

You also have great love for each other, and even when one of you annoys the other, you still love them. This is amongst the greatest of blessings, to be able to love one another.

You have toys, books, and animals and these are all things you can learn from.

Toys teach you about fun and sharing.

Books teach you about far off places and great inventions, and even imaginary planets and people.

Animals teach you about the process of life, eating, growing, and breeding, and they give you the opportunity to learn patience and being kind to lesser creatures.

And Best of All you have parents that love each other and Love Heavenly Father and they strive to live and care for you the way he wants.

Heavenly Father and Jesus are very proud of all the good you have been doing,

God Bless you and Merry Christmas.

                                      Love, Santa's Helper, Jonathan

****End Letter from Santa****

By morning Leslie was much better, and the kids got up and looked at the presents and then read the letter "from Santa" and then came to our room.  My daughter said, "Santa left a note telling about the DVDs and he said he wasn't leaving any additional presents because he feels we have enough." That was the synopsis of the letter Santa wrote that they gave me, they gave me.  Then Sam our youngest child with speech problems came to our room and said, "Dad, you need to come to the living room because we have to open the Christmas presents." He said all that without a problem... another blessing. As we opened presents our children acted as if they were being given gold, they were excited and happy with all they received, and didn't say "is that all".  After we were done opening the presents my daughter said, " This is the best Christmas Ever, because I get to spend so much time with my family." I nearly cried.  Later when the kids were playing and watching a DVD "CARS" my sister had sent, I heard a knock at the door, and we opened it to find our Neighbors.  Our neighbors who themselves are not rich in money by any standard, brought gifts for each one of our children, handed out by their daughters.  I have a gift for them, but alas it is with the DVD"S on the way as are the ones for my kids...  Still they are a Blessing or a light on a day that might have been cloudy otherwise.  Blessings...

Then again as we were discussing the fact that we had not done enough shopping food wise thus we would be having turkey each night for three nights (we were given 3 turkeys, 2 from work and one from church) but not much else... Then a friend called and said they were dropping off a ham into our mailbox because they had been given three. So we had ham sandwiches for Lunch. Later that evening again the door was knocked upon again, it was the neighbors again with a pan full of freshly BBQ ed chicken thighs and legs... hot and smelling great. 

So this "Hard Christmas", turned into a blessed Christmas because of the hearts of so many that remembered what the Season was all about, and acted on that spirit. I am grateful for friends, for family, and for Christ our savior, I would have been had the day gone worse, but I am thankful for the blessings of today and the kind angels that made it so beautiful.

I named this article "A Hard Christmas, Becomes A Hartl Christmas..." in honor of our Neighbors who were such a part of the blessings, Tammy and Ritchie Hartl, and their daughters.

© Dec 25^th 2006 by M. Emmett Townsend