Christmas of Giving

You ever witness a moment that completely moves you? I experienced one of the most amazing moments tonight during our Christmas of Giving event. It was one simple word that almost brought me to tears. I will explain the moment later on. First I want to tell you about this event we put together. The Dallas Cowboys Wives bible study (and with a tremendous amount of help from the Wittens) orchestrate an event every holiday season called the Christmas of Giving. This past Monday a bunch of wives met at Toys R Us and shopped for little kids who are living in a Domestic Abuse shelter with their moms. On Wednesday we all got together at the Wittens and wrapped the gifts for a few hours. Well all the hard work paid off tonight as we pulled off a special treat for 68 kids and 30 Moms. The families were bused to the Speed Zone (an awesome arcade in Dallas) and had no idea what was about to happen. When the they arrived they were told that the Dallas Cowboys and their wives were there and that they would be spending the evening with them. The first hour we played games with our families who were at our table. Then everyone was ushered into a large room where carols were being sung and yummy pizza and warm cookies were waiting for us. After dinner we continued to get to know our moms and their children at our table. We sat with a 12 year old boy named Tristan and his mom Kari. We also had another precious woman and her two kids 7 year old Rocio and 4 year old Rafael. Tristan was very standoffish when he first arrived but warmed up right away when he realized who he was in the presence of...football players :) He spent the night asking a billion questions and taking pictures on his cell phone. Yes he even got one of little ol' me and Lyla. His mom kept saying over and over how she hasn't seen him this happy and smile this much in a long time. Rocio and Rafael were the most precious children ever. They were so polite with us and with each other. I seriously could have taken both of them home. After dinner was cleaned up the kids all came back into the room and had no idea there was another surprise...Santa Claus and his two elves were here with gifts for the children and their moms. All the kids sat down as we delivered the gifts. This was by far one of my favorite parts of the night. To see these kids eyes light up as they opened up their remote control cars, baby dolls, and ipods was just precious. And now for that moment that just moved me...literally to tears. Rafael, the 4 year old, came over to us to give us high fives and I asked him what he got...his response in the most excited and joyful tone was....EVERYTHING! He got probably three gifts totally around one hundred dollars but to this child it was more than he could of ever wished for. I then looked at his mother who was watching her two kids open their gifts and she was beaming ear to ear with tears rolling down her face. She was experiencing so much joy through her children's happiness. It's so easy during the holiday season to get caught up in buying gifts, wrapping gifts, finding the perfect Christmas dress for your child, taking the perfect Christmas picture...etc...etc...etc. Tonight I witnessed the magic of the Christmas season...the joy of giving and realizing how incredibly blessed we our in our lives. God has been so good to us and we give all our glory to him and hope that we live a life that would glorify him. How blessed we were tonight to be a part of this magical event. My hope is that you all take a minute out of this busy Christmas season to thank God for the many blessings he has bestowed upon you this past year.

p.s. Wish I had pictures to show all of you but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take pictures since these were families who came from some awful situations. Hopefully my blog was written well enough that you all could get a good mental picture hah!