Christmas Morning Blessings

Until my son was 5 years old, I was a single mother. I had escaped an abusive marriage, and it was now just the two of us. The emotional, mental, and physical abuse had been happening for years. Once I had given birth to our son, I kept him close and never alone with his father. However, one time I asked my husband to hold his son while I ran to the bathroom. It was early on a Saturday morning, and most of the lights in our apartment were off. On my way back, something told me to look before reentering the room. There, my husband held our crying nine-month-old son.

He begged him to stop and then hit him across the face. This enraged me. It was one thing for me to be abused, but a grown man hitting an infant was beyond unacceptable. I ran into the room and grabbed my son, letting my husband know that was the last time he would hurt our child. With no means or place to go, I continued to live there a while longer. Thankfully, my parents came over with garbage bags while he was at work to move us out.

It relieved me to escape that relationship, but was a shell of the person I was when I entered it. I could not look in a mirror without crying. It has taken many years of consistent therapy to feel like me again. I now try to help other women that feel lowly about themselves and help teach them to accept compliments without deflecting them. I can recognize someone that has survived horrible treatment walking around like a ghost of their former selves because I had been that ghost myself.

My son and I lived with my parents for a while and then, after I had been working at my new employer for several months, got a place of our own. I realized I was at the lowest point of my life. I moved into a trailer park and rented a two-bedroom single-wide with my four-year-old son. The only thing that kept us above water was my full-time job.

A family lived next door, and we noticed that they had three little girls who wore the same dirty, tattered clothing every day. My son and I talked about it, and even though we had little, we wanted to do something nice for these children. We put together a box of toys, mostly from the dollar store, and placed it on their porch Christmas morning. We waited inside and watched for them to open the door. When they did, we were so happy to watch the surprise and delight on their little faces. My son learned a lot about doing something kind, just for the sake of it. It was so much fun bringing even a small bit of Christmas joy to our needy neighbors.

I am thankful that twenty years have now passed. I am married to an amazing man that treats me like his treasure. I feel like my prior life was an awful movie I saw once. My new husband adopted our son when he was six years old and helped raise him into the man he is today. Our son will become a father himself this May. My husband and I look for ways we can bless others. I am thankful for his kind and generous heart. I often wonder how life turned out for those three little girls. I hope that they are having a happy and successful life and can bless others in small and large ways.