STOOD STILL...
Well, it didn't take me long to know i needed to leave...my son was into drugs and being chased home by boys with chains...and I had to work long hours and they had no direction but me .� I couldn't do both so I made the choice...My children came first and that is what God wanted me to take care of in this world.
A girlfriend ,of mine from North Carolina, called me and stated they had really low price places to live there so in a matter of a few months I was on my way with a broken down station wagon and three kids ,and pulling the smallest of trailers the u-haul had to offer.
We hit� North Carolina and moved straight into a trailer that was on the outskirts of town.� It wasn't much , and sat in the middle of a soybean field.� It was furnished with the barest of necessities, but we made due with what we had.� School came around and the kids went with torn sneakers and clothes made for the northeast.� It was a good thing this was redneck country , and they weren't the only children with next to nothing .�
After a few months of working(convience store) and barely able to feed us..my soon to be ex-husband cut us off to no money at all cause he was pushing for the divorce to go through so he could marry his new girlfriend.� He made the kids and I go and have to live on $108.00 a week.� We ate macaroni and cheese and went without heat at times.� They shut off our phone and were ready to shut off the lights...When that feeling of God's hands coming into our lives again...Maybe my prayers ... But things started happening...
Christmas that year was going to be the worst.� I had only dollar store presents for the kids , and how could I explain that Santa didn't have enough toys for them.,(Tony -15, Sarah-9, Trisha-6).� One night when I was working at the store I got the strangest phone call, it was from the ladies of the Civitian Club here in town.� They asked me if I would let them help me for Christmas, they had learned about us from Trisha in her class.� My pride tried to fight it but I accepted after some coaxing by them stating you are trying to do it all by yourself without the help of welfare -let us help you with this burden.
Christmas eve the snow started(mind you they hadn't had snow in many years and nothing like the likes of the oncoming storm anyways), the civitian club called and stated they wanted to meet me at the store at the top of the street because the roads were getting bad and they wanted us to have some food for Christmas day.� The snow kept falling and the roads got real bad .� The few toys I had gotten were over my girlfriends' house on the other side of town.� I had to tell the girls that Santa would not be able to come that year cause of the storm.� Sarah wrote a letter "DEAR SANTA,� MOM SAID YOU WERE NOT COMING BECAUSE OF THE SNOW STORM.� BUT I BELIEVE IN YOU AND YOU WON'T LET US DOWN.� I LOVE YOU, SANTA. SARAH AND TRISHA"
Tony became mad and went out for a walk in snow.� While he was gone my girlfriend's husband ,Merle, called stating he had been looking for someone all day to bring us the presents but everyone available was helping get cars out of ditches.� Then he said but I found this one guy ,Don Wittich , who had been helping the sheriffs dept. getting cars out of the snow all day.� He told me he had a truck and would be happy to be Santa Claus.� I could never tell this man how much it meant to us . God put him in the right place at the right time.
I told Tony and he was so excited he started digging a path with a small shovel through the snow for the truck to come through.� He was working so hard I didn't have the heart to tell him what he was doing wasn't going to work so I stood out on the porch and watched him dig.� I remember that night not only cause I was slowly learning that there are nice people out in this world who do things for others because it makes someone else happy but for God...You see that night I stopped watching Tony for a minute and looked up...there was the brightest star shinning above us...right over our heads...Tony looked up that night and stopped to stare at it as I had done.� It shown so bright that it was lighting the way ..�� like the star of bethelhem.� Merle came with the presents and brought even more with him that carolyn and he had gotten for the kids.� We still didn't have any water the next morning so we cooked with snow.� But it was the start of many years to come...
