Caroling

"God bless us, Everyone"

The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is to sing outloud for all to hear. (Don't you love Elf?)
Last night was amazing. A group of us came together to surprise a family who lives in the same subdivision I do. Their incredible, beautiful 6 yr old son has cancer. His name is Carter. When I first heard about Carter, I prayed. My family prayed - we still do. I read his father's blog every time he adds to it. You can tell that he has a very strong faith. His writings are wonderful.
At the beginning of this school year I heard that Carter's mother was going to join our church's Young Mother's Bible Study group. I was very happy that she was going to join. We are a great group - very supportive of each other. I had the pleasure of finally meeting the mother that I have had in my prayers. I also finally got to meet Carter a few weeks ago. He came down to Children's Liturgy on a Sunday I happened to be one of the "teachers" for. He looked at me and asked me if I was the one that brought him downstairs (he is in a wheelchair) and I said No, but I would stay next to him. He reached over and grabbed for my hand. I held his hand and at that moment gave thanks to God for letting me be there at that moment and finally meeting this amazing little boy. When Children's was done, I stood with Carter and waited with him. A few of my children were downstairs with us and so I introduced them to Carter. They were also very thankful for getting to meet the little boy we pray for at night.
So, back to the surprise...At one of our Bible Study meetings one of the ladies brought up caroling - another suggested doing it for Carter and his family. From there, it took off. Fliers were made and me, my son Brandon, and four others went around the entire subdivision and put the fliers in every single home's mailbox. We went back to one of the lady's homes and went over what songs to sing. Phone calls were made, emails were sent, and the news spread quickly. Yay Bible Girls! We anticipated a huge group. My husband went and made 500 copies of the song sheet. I don't think I've ever been so excited about the night of December 23rd before.
Last night the weather decided not to cooperate. It was miserable out. It was icy, wet, and windy - but that didn't stop a big group of us, including Santa Claus himself. There was a fire truck, police cars, and an ambulance with their lights flashing. There was a photographer there from one of the newspapers too. Santa led the way as we all walked to Carter's home singing Rudolph. Carter and his family were very surprised. We sang for about 30 minutes - which included singing The Chipmunk Song twice (Carter's favorite) and then we headed home. Once home, we laid out our soaked clothes and made hot chocolate. Then I went on Facebook and read that Carter and family were interviewed by a news reporter and were going to be on the 10:00 news. Today one of the radio stations called Carter's mom and interviewed her. There are going to be many more people out there that know about this beautiful little boy and his family, which hopefully means more donations towards their medical bills (who needs to worry about stuff like that) and definitely more prayers. This would be a great time for one of God's gracious miracles.
Today we are getting ready to go to Christmas Eve mass. Our son Ethan is in the children's choir. We will have to arrive 1 hour before mass - we'd have to anyways to get a seat for all of us together.
Tonight we will make more cookies, read some Christmas books, eat a special dinner together, put reindeer food out, and track Santa on the internet.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.