"Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime." Herbert Ward
At This Place: A Christmas Story
By K. Kringle
Once upon a Christmas, a special kind of spirit was in the air. This was more than the usual holiday spirit we find at seasonal parties or on a snowy street where shoppers bustle from store front to store front wishing one another a Merry Christmas. No, this was a different kind of spirit and a different kind of place.
This was a place filled with love and care; a place where, no matter how bad things got, people never gave up. There were children at this place, many whom had never before experienced the warmth, the joys and the traditions of the holiday season which so many of us take for granted. Some of these children had come to this place from homes where Christmas was just another day, often a day that brought even more pain and anguish into their young lives. For these children, there had never been presents under a brightly lit Christmas tree...in fact, in many of their homes, there wasn't even a tree. Santa Claus never visited their homes on Christmas Eve.
And for a few of these children, the holiday season had become a virtual nightmare. While other, happier children lay sleepless in their beds on Christmas Eve, unable to sleep because of the anticipation and excitement of Christmas morning, these children, too, lay awake in their beds, though not because of excitement. No, their sleeplessness came from fear; fear that if they dared to close their eyes, they might once again fall victim to the horror which all too often reared its ugly head. Certainly, Santa Claus never paid a visit to their homes. In fact, the only legendary character to ever visit their homes on Christmas Eve was the Boogie Man.
But, at this special place, here was a chance to change all that. Here was a chance to show these children what was possible. Yes, at this place, things were different. At this place, caring people were ready to help these children discover what the holiday season COULD be, what it was meant to be. And so, at this special place, children had a chance to not only experience a holiday filled with love and care, but to come to an understanding that the pain and fear which had filled their lives was NOT their fault.
"I think the reason Santa never came to my house was because I wasn't a very good girl", said young Emily. "Maybe that's why my daddy kept hurting me so much."
This place would help Emily to realize that Santa's absence at her home on all of those lost Christmas Eves wasn't because of anything she had done. This place would help her to realize that Santa WANTED to come to her home...but that Santa can only enter homes where the holiday spirit is strong, where Christmas is all about the love of children. This place would help her learn that Santa can only exist with loving, believing hearts and healthy, caring souls. For most of Emily's young life, the homes in which she had lived were inhabited by broken hearts and wounded souls, so there could be no Santa.
But at this place, Emily would finally get her first visit from Santa on Christmas Eve. And at this place, Emily would finally learn that Santa is so much more than a man; that Santa is the embodiment of love and care, a spirit that cherishes the welfare of children. But she would also learn that Christmas is so much more than a visit from Santa.
Certainly at this place--- for the first time in her life--- young Emily would have gifts on Christmas morning. But the most important gifts she would receive would NOT be the ones that would be wrapped in boxes with bows under the tree. Because, at this place, for the first time in her life, Emily would feel the holiday spirit grow within her. She would learn that, in spite of the pain inflicted upon her by one or two ill-thinking adults, people were inherently good at heart. She would learn that it wasn't her fault. She would learn that, with time, with love and with care, she would heal. And she would learn that this place---Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home---would always be the home where she finally discovered Christmas.
And at this place on that Christmas morning, she was overhead to say, "Until I came to live here, I never knew that people cared about me so much."
If you were touched by this story and would like to ensure that this spirit lives on at Tennyson Center for Children, please consider making a tax-deductible donation (any amount of $5 or greater) by clicking here. Thank you for your generosity.
http://www.childabuse.org/
