Christmas and miracles — those surprising, unexplainable events that take your breath away — are eternally attached. Aiken County is filled with Guardian Angels. Every year, this community supports us with enough funds and volunteers to take many children shopping for warm clothes in Aiken and North Augusta. Those Guardian Angel Program gifts have often sustained our program’s operations for another year — a 50-year-long miracle.
Beyond that sustained miracle, I witness many other miracles, some small and some life-changing. We have received unexpected deliveries of food just when we are meeting grandparents who just added three grandchildren to their family and need everything, a gift of funds just before short payroll, or an extra gift of toys arriving that matches the exact ages needed for a family who lost all of their gifts in a break-in.
Last year’s Christmas miracle was a series of small miracles that became truly life changing. We were working with a young mother of two small children living in a cramped trailer with her husband. As we learned her story — the death of her mother when she was young and years of abuse by her father — we understood her hopelessness. As counseling and support strengthened her, she told us her husband was drinking and using drugs and was at times. She decided to move out, and life was harder trying to make it on a small amount of money. She couldn’t cover necessities, much less celebrate Christmas. She told us how special Christmas was to her. It brought back memories of a time in her childhood when her mother was alive, when she was safe. She would sit watching the lights on a Christmas tree and it was magic. She wanted to give her children a nice Christmas. She wanted them to have a tree, but it would have to wait for another year.
It was still going to be a nice Christmas; her children were safe, no longer living in violence. Both children were going shopping with us for new clothes and shoes. Each child would receive a book and a toy. She would make that the Christmas celebration. In the new year, she was going to find a better job. She still longed for the tree. Maybe after Christmas she could find some decorations on sale.
Then came the Aiken Christmas Miracle — the life-changing miracle. Her family was adopted in our small Hope for the Holidays Program. This program helps our neediest families with a small boost at Christmas. Families identify their biggest need and, if adopted, that wish is granted. She had wanted the wish to be a tree, but she changed that to job interview clothes for herself. At first, she didn’t ask for the clothes because she felt she was putting herself before her children, but with her Family Counselor, she came to understand the clothes weren’t just for her but were for a brighter future for her children.
It got even better — a Christmas Tree with lights, garland, and decorations arrived at Children’s Place. Could we use it? YES! But where would we put this full-sized tree? It had to stay on the porch; there was no room anywhere inside. BUT YES! We really wanted it and we knew where it would go. Between her part-time jobs and part-time babysitters would we reach this mom in time? Would the tree last overnight on the porch? All were moments where this miracle could fall apart. It didn’t! Our young mother was beyond thrilled. She was overcome with joy, but she was made strong by the many gifts from a host of Guardian Angels throughout our broad community. As she tried on the clothes her eyes shone bright with tears, so grateful, so pleased, so safe and warm. She knew they would make it.
Today, one Christmas later, she has a better job and a bigger home and has even gone back to school. She still has that tree, her symbol of joy, strength, and her community’s support —
an Aiken County Christmas Miracle.
310 Barnwell Ave NE, Aiken
