My eyes danced around, gazing upon all the presents under the tree, relieved to see that there would be a Christmas after all.  The were presents of all sizes, shapes, and colors.  The way we were able to get these presents, is the way Christmas is supposed be.
    

It began August 14, 2013, at our friend’s house .  Today also happened to be our friend’s birthday.  A few hours after the party, at around 8:30, my 4 year old brother realized he had left the prize he got at Chuck E. Cheese’s, at my cousin’s house.  Upset that he couldn’t have it, my dad offered to drive down the road on his Yamaha motorcycle, to go get the toy.  A few hours my mom got a phone call and we heard her crying outside.
    

“Dad was just in an accident,” she said through her tears.  My heart sank. 
    

“What happened?  Is he okay?” I asked in confusion. 
    

“I don’t know,” my mom managed to choke out, “but you’re going to stay the night at the Ott’s house.”  Confused and wondering if he was even alive, we drove down a few blocks to their house.  When we got there, we found out he had through a witness, that he had gotten T-boned by a driver with no headlights on at 9:00 at night.  We would find out later that when he got hit he jumped off the bike and into a lightpost on the curb.  He would then be taken to the Emergency room with broken broken foot from the crash.  My mom’s friend later described it as an angel carrying him off as he went into the sky and onto the grass
   

Flash-forward to December 18 that same year, my sister was just born in Carrollton, Texas.  We did not know it, but my mother had preeclampsia, making her very sick.  She gave birth to my sister 7 weeks early.  Thank the Lord, my mother was healed and was no longer sick after she gave birth. 
   

After these two events had transpired, we were left impoverished.  We could not afford any presents for the upcoming holiday, Christmas.  I was saddened, not just because there would be no presents, but for my parents and my newborn sister, who was still in the NICU.  By e-mail, our old church in New Jersey, told us that they had heard of our misfortunes and wanted to buy us presents, so that we could have one thing happy happen in this depressing time.  Our hearts filled with joy and hope. 
   

When my brothers and I woke up that Christmas day in 2013, we were so lit up with joy, that we were brighter than the tree.  We saw presents in different wrapping papers; there were some in gold, in white snowman, and red Santa Claus paper.  My brothers were extremely excited to have a Christmas after the past few months of suffering. 
   

I was just as excited about the presents, but I was also excited to see that we had people who were there to support us during that difficult time. When I saw the presents it reminded me that Christmas is a time of giving and getting those presents reminded me that there are people who care.