This Christmas story is what it was all about

Dear editor:

So this is Christmas...the Christmas that my family and I learned the true meaning behind the holiday. Without all the names and faces to be able to thank personally, we want to share their story, which is part of ours and thank our community, here in Mountain Home.

Let me tell you about my family. We have 2-year-old twins named Hayden and Hope, we also have 1-year-old twins named Max and Grace. My name is Heather and my husband's name is Kyle. Kyle is active duty Air Force here in Mountain Home.

Last year when our younger set of twins were born 9 weeks early they spent some time at the NICU at St. Luke's Hospital. After a 2-week stay they came home. Max, our youngest son, was still sick. He has respiratory problems and swallowing issues. He has been admitted to the hospital 24 times in the last year, 34 ER visits, 5 surgeries and has been seen in three different states for his medical issues. I also had surgery a month ago, and my husband is do to have surgery in January. Due to these excessive medical problems I have been unable to work as much as needed.

Now here is the story about our Christmas....

This past Saturday evening my husband, Kyle, received a call from the Mountain Home Air Force Base security police. They told him that the City of Mountain Home Police were looking for him and that he needed to call the police station. We called the number that was given to us and spoke to Sgt. Rick Viola, who is on staff at the Mountain Home Police Department. Sgt. Viola told us that there was a gentleman in our community who every year at Christmas wanted to help a family that had a particularly hard year.

This man had heard about our family's struggles both financially and medically and wanted my family to be the recipient of this year's gift. Sgt. Viola said that he was to give us the gift. It was $220--a blessing and an amazing answer to our prayers.

On my way home from work on Christmas Eve day, my husband called me on my cell. He said that Pastor Mike O'Neil from the Church of the Nazarene had come over and dropped off a bunch of food. He said there was a huge amount of food, enough for a Christmas feast and then some! Imagine a 20-pound turkey, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, veggies and desserts! There was enough food for us to eat for two weeks. Pastor Mike told Kyle that the food was from a class here in Mountain Home. They wanted to help my family in any way that they could, so they got food for our family. Again, I felt so much love.

Once I got home from work Kyle and I got the kids ready for the Christmas Eve service. All six of us piled into the car and got to church. Once we sat down, Shelly, Pastor Mike's wife, came over and said she had a gift for me. So I said that I would get it after the service.

The Christmas service was so precious, and after we had all sung our songs and blown out the last candle, we were on our way home. We had packed all the kids into the car and all of a sudden, we hear a young friend of ours, Eli, at our driver side window. "Hey! Don't leave yet! We have something for you!"

As I stepped out of the car I saw about 10 of my friends from church walking across the parking lot. They had gifts stacked in the arms of all different sizes and colors. Some had bags tied with bright ribbon, and other gifts had beautiful handwritten cards by children on them saying to whom each gift was to go to.

What was all of this? I felt my heart stop, my eyes fill up with tears as I realized they were walking towards me. These great gifts were for my family at a time when we couldn't afford to celebrate Christmas.

I asked Shelly what was going on and she told me that families from the Church of the Nazarene and some of the local schools had donated gifts to our family! Shelly told me that there were tons of people whom had gotten together and did this for my family. She would not tell me names, but that many people had helped out, and many people had tried their best to make sure we had a happy Christmas! As the tears rolled down my face a thought came to me --So, this is Christmas.

I felt every wave of emotion that one person can feel. I felt love, joy, happiness, peace, faith and amazement at the kindness of strangers. This is what Christmas is all about, not money, gifts, or food, but love, kindness, and sharing. I feel as if I need to thank many people, but I do not know who did this for us, except that it was a classroom filled with bright, hopeful little minds, friends from a loving church, and the warm heart of a stranger. I want to thank each and every one of them. And while I do not know where to start, right now I will start by thanking God.

Heather Urich