Angels I have heard on high~

The Holidays.....my mother loved the holidays.  It was a time to decorate, cook, sing, get stressed and prepare for dysfunctional family gatherings.  However, the holidays, no matter which way you cut it, it is a time of reflection. To reflect on the old, the new, the forgotten, the mistakes, and the angels that God places in your life.

When I look back to when my mother had her first cancer, I was oblivious to the responsibilities of parenthood. Having two children of my own, I now know that my mother, on top of her cancer, was more concerned about providing a holiday season for us than battling her inconvenience.  My mother was one that liked to go all out for the holidays.  Thanksgiving was a feast fit for an army.  Down to the homemade gravy, to the plates, napkins, all was dressed in a spectacular display of how she envisioned the rich to celebrate.  Christmas.  Wow is all I can say.  I believe this was my mothers favorite holiday.  The inside of our house would be transformed into a winter wonderland and over the years it exploded into a kids dream of wonder.  Only I was already older by the time it hit this, but I know my children would have relished in it.

I remember this was the first time that our family was sponsored by a family that could afford to provide for us as well as their own family.  These are some of the angels I was talking about.  I remember my mother was very weak from her radiation treatments.  I remember coming home from school and she was on the couch and looked upset.  I remember her telling me that she tried to go shopping with this husband and wife and she just could not do it.  She got a few things in the cart and had to leave or pass out.  So this family shopped for her.   They took time out of their lives for us.  To spend money on us.   A woman that they did not know, with cancer, with three children who they had no clue what we liked.  For them I will always be grateful and it is because of them that I believe in doing the same.  To give to those in need.

But the Angel that came to us that winter was not only this family, but a family that I would always be in debt to.  My stepfather and his family.  Although he was not my stepfather til years later, he stayed.  He began to date my mother not too long before her diagnosis.  He was a man, with no children of his own.  Dating a woman with three!!! children and a woman who was just diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian and uterine cancer.  Not only did he start to date her, but he stayed with her.  And he stayed with us!  I was not raised with grandparents due to my mother was an immigrant from England over here on a work visa.  But I never knew I  could be loved so much by strangers. They took my mother everyday to her radiation treatments for six weeks, 5 days a week.  They gave to us as if we were there own.   I remember this Christmas clearly.  For it was filled with family, not by blood, but by love.  It was filled with strangers who gave to our family.  To make sure my mother did not have to worry, to make sure we had presents, to make sure we had joy.  For God knows what He is doing when He places people in your life.  He may not give you the answers or the test results you want, or the possessions you want.  But He gives to you in unspoken ways that will always permeate through you.  For He gives you angels on this earth.  I am thankful for these angels and I will never forget, and I will always give back in the spirit that was given to me!