An Unforgettable Xmas: Imagine This Child’s Excitement To Find The Only Gift He’d Ever Wanted…

under the Christmas tree

As you grow older, the relevance of the modern-day Christmas with all its commercialism, tends to fade into oblivion.

The actual coming together, and sharing our blessings I will always endorse, but the overindulging of our children leaves me a little cold.

Take time to reflect on one Christmas Day in particular, and I’m pretty sure, amidst the frenzy of overindulgence, you will be able to recall huge overwhelm amongst the children…too many gifts means that children go from one gift to another, ripping off ribbons and paper, taking little in, and the giver is left there wondering why they even bothered.

We adults can take a bow for that.

We are the ones totally responsible for the indulgence. The excitement that children had looked forward to, never stacks up…yet I don’t believe many adults learn from that.

So today I decided to share a beautiful story with you. It is very much based on a true story, but I have massaged it into a tale that negates consumerism, one where, instead, the perfect Christmas gift arrives.

I wrote this for all the mothers, including myself, who have lost babies, and those who, whilst lucky enough to have one child, might wish for more.

Though we have the most wonderful daughter, we always wanted more children. Clearly that wasn’t in the grand plan.

Christmas is a time when I am personally reminded of loss, more loss than I care to think about, and when families collect in their hordes, that loss is amplified.

Of course the feeling is brief, but it’s there all the same, so I determinedly brush off my what could have been thoughts, and opt instead for what I have, rather than do not.

Because the reality is this. Behind my sadness many other much sadder stories are playing out too.

Fortunately, sometimes sadness can magically turn to something incredibly beautiful, as is evidenced in the story I am about to share with you.

It’s the story of a boy who desperately wanted a sibling.

It’s about a couple who miraculously (in the sense that they were told they would never have children) managed to have one son.

And it’s the story of a young woman, pregnant, and in no position to have a child, who chose the couple to parent her baby.

But back to the son

As with my daughter, he often asked his parents for a brother or sister. Though most ‘lone’ children manage their singularity well, there are moments of regret that others around them have siblings, and they do not.

As we did, this couple also looked into fostering, but realized they would not cope if they had to give the child back.

Adoption would be a better option, not easy, because there is always a huge demand, the odds very much stacked against them.

Still, they opted to go through with it.

One thing they decided on was not to tell their son about their plans, just to shield him from disappointment.

Time passed. Time always passes, an agonizing slow passing of time, but then, out of the blue, something miraculous did happen.

They got the call that would alter the trajectory of their lives.

A young pregnant girl, who just wasn’t able to keep her child, had chosen them, from many profiles, to be her daughter’s parents.

Still at university, she just couldn’t see her way to fit motherhood into her life.

Can you image the thrill? From so many possibilities, they had been chosen!

Moreover they were able to spend time with this young girl before the birth, were with her during delivery, and tearfully took the little girl home from the hospital on Christmas Eve.

But how to tell their son?

Their son had been spending a few days with his grandparents, a plan they had come up with, and was due home that evening.

What better gift than to find his new sister under the Christmas tree!

And that’s exactly what happened.

They wrapped her up carefully, laid her under the tree, and waited.

I’ll leave you to speculate on the joy of that Christmas, for one whole family in particular, but especially for one little boy.

There is much spoiling at Christmas time, and the spirit of giving is lost in the fog of over-the-top spending, much of it not really appreciated.

I imagine that presents were left unopened for this young boy, for a few days at least.

I can imagine no better gift than your very own sibling, at any time, but especially at Christmas.