No Christmas Stockings

2009 Christmas was very different. This year. We all bought our tickets to Hawaii and flew in, at different times, to Oahu. Sean picked us up at the airport and a wonderful time ensued.
After collecting together, Sean and Tiffany and Jaiden drove us to the other side of the island to our "villa"...provided by a fabulous Marine base. Apparently Pres. Barak Obama and his family were on the other side, like us, also. Sean worked out with him and Michelle. He said that Michelle did some upper body strengthening exercises he had never seen before. And Sean is a workout workaholic! She was focused and determined. Obama, on the other hand, stayed on the eliptical machine, focused as well.
Anyway, Christmas Eve, we got our paperwork and drove over to the women's shelter where we were to serve the homeless families. Amazing. they look just like you and me...a next door neighbor...a traveler...a stranger...a person. We drove into a garage after calling so they could open the iron security gate. Hot and muggy, the garage was filled with odds and ends...chests filled with blankets, boxes of toiletries, packages of diapers, etc. We filed into a hallway, checked in, received our badges and were summoned upstairs. We packed into a service elevator and rode to the second level.
There, we were greeted by more folks who worked there. We were divided into two groups. One group fed the children, and one group fed the adults...mostly women.
The children had big smiles on their faces and all of the women were most grateful, happy and said "thank you" when receiving their plate filled with stew, a cup cake, bread, pears and rice. The aroma of the beef stew permeated the large cafeteria room. It smelled delicious...like a home cooked meal. Our mouths watered!
The early evening of service didn't last long enough. We enjoyed ourselves so much this Christmas Eve. Because of Obama's motorcade, our travel was lengthened and we were a few minutes late for the 5 o'clock assigned dinnertime. Never the less, we were able to serve the second group that came in.
We were able to chat with the workers who so gratefully thanked us. How small I felt as it was not me to be thanked. These volunteers did this day in and day out for breakfast, lunch and dinner...seven days a week. Wonderful people. These are the people who don't get recognized. They work their miracle each day in quiet love for the less fortunate. What a blessing it was to "rub elbows" with these humble folks who love mankind and make a difference in this little part of the world.
Jaiden Lily, 10 months old, was in a backpack with her daddy, Sean, as her served the meals, too. What a wonderful example she was to us, as she spent her first Christmas Eve, serving the loving people in the shelter. And, the next day...
Christmas Day we ate our breakfast as each of us woke up and tried to leave the villa by 11 a.m. We packed into the two cars and drove thru the mountains onto the other side of the island...again. Sean and Tiffany had chosen a park for us to walk.
Previously, a few of the kids had decorated brown lunch bags. Stickers, felt tip markers wrote "Mele Kalikimaka", "Merry, Merry", etc. They were stuffed with items like, cotton swabs, toothpaste, lotion, tooth brushes, McDonald's coupon booklets, candy, chocolate, soap, shampoo, razors, kleenex (tissues), etc. My good friend sent me with many goodies to pop into the bags, as well. What a blessing that was, too! ;) (You know who you are, gf!)
We split up into a few groups...there we all were on Christmas Day...Val, Traci and Chris, Gina, Hollie, Gina, Ashley, Tiffany and Sean and baby Jaiden in her stroller and Pickle...going up to perfect strangers whose homes we invaded...and handed them a brown bag and simply said "Merry Christmas". It wasn't gold, incense or myrrh. But, it was more precious than that day for us.
And to our wonderment, there was a man wandering the park with a cooler on wheels. He would go from person to person and scoop out some hot soup in a paper bowl for all of the park dwellers. One soul, one cooler...feeding a population. What heart-warming visions we carry in our memories from the Christmas Eve thru the Christmas Day in the year of 2009 on Oahu, in Hawaii. It will be a memory forever. One of love and compassion.
Val and I loved so much to watch our children interact in a way that really matters in this world. We got so much more than we gave. We received so much observing the sweetness of love for others...all based on the Christ child and his life upon this earth. How we love our Saviour and King...Jesus Christ. This was a truly blessed time in our lives.