December 11, 2014
Dear Santa Clause
How my life has changed in the past few years. I still love Christmas but it’s different
than before. I love getting gifts for
others still but it’s different. I love
the lights and decoration but it’s different.
I love the music—well that hasn’t changed. I love shopping but it’s different too. Sometimes I think I must be sick when I go to
a store and come out with an empty cart.
It’s different because I’ve spent much time in a different
part of the world where people don’t have the things like we do. People are poor. Santa Clause doesn’t come to many homes
(unless it’s WestJet’s Blue Santa and what a blessing that was for some of my
friends). For Christmas people just hope
they can be together with their family and share a meal.
Here’s my Christmas
List for 2014. Thanks for sending some
of your helpers to make it happen.
1.
Nothing
for me please. I would love for
beautiful 17 year old Patricia to get a new leg. Santa, she is so young and has her whole life
ahead of her. What a wonder to wake up
on Christmas morning and know that so many others cared enough to share with
her this Christmas. www.youcaring.com/newlegforchristmas
2.
I would love for Luis
and Katherine to get a new home. They share
a tiny room in his mom and dad’s home but it would be great for them to start
making a life of their own. They have
given so selflessly to help our foundation grow in the Dominican Republic. No Santa, nothing for me please. Bless the lives of those I love. www.youcaring.com/luisandkatherine So grateful for your helper, Bruce and Joan
Harker and others who are working so hard to make this happen.
3.
It would be wonderful
to get a new home for Rebecca and her mom and brother. They have only one bed to share—Maria,
Rebecca and Gerson all share. Many days
they have no money to buy food. Thanks
to my sweet sister, Marilyn and her family who are Christmas Elves this year
for this family. Even though Marilyn is
a widow herself, far too young in this life, she is willing to give of herself. www.youcaring.com/ourstarfish. No Santa. Please don’t bring gifts to
me.
4.
Santa, do you know
about Anny. She is 15 years old and
living in the Pink House in Santo Domingo to help her get well. Now she is too old to live there because it’s
for children. Do you know Santa, that
she has no place to live? Please no
gifts for me this year. Anny needs a new
bedroom and she wants it to be pink.
Could you help us with that Santa, please? Thanks to Gloria, Margaret and Jeanne and
others who want to be your Christmas Elves.
www.youcaring.com/anny
5.
My list is getting
long Santa—just like when I was a little girl.
It’s different now Santa. Please
no gifts for me. I’m sure you know Kate, Santa because she is
such a good girl. She is 23. She’s still so young to be doing all the wonderful
things she is doing in the world. I’m
sure you know that she started a school to help Haitian children in the
Dominican Republic. Now there’s almost
200 of them. She even has some of the
homeless children stay with her at the school.
We want to make her a home where she can stay so she doesn’t have to
sleep on the floor of the school on an air mattress. There are some other very good girls that
should be on your “nice” list. Their
names are Zoe and Gemma Palmer. They
live in Edmonton. They are only 12 and 9
years old. They are your helpers this
year to make Kate’s new home. www.youcaring.com/kate Their big sister Barbara and her friends are
helping too, plus some university students in Lethbridge and others. Do you know Karen Wojtowicz, Santa? She’s been helping too. She even hosted a big fundraiser cabaret in
Lethbridge this year to help and she hasn’t even met Kate yet. You have so many people on your “nice” list
this year.
6.
No, nothing for me
this year Santa but could you help Jose Fernandez? He’s such a nice guy, you must know him. He has built two schools in the Dominican
Republic where children can go to school that may have never had the
opportunity. He also gives them a hot
meal each day. We’re sending money every
month to help feed the children but it’s certainly not enough. If you could help him or get some more elves
on this project, wow, that would be a great Christmas for me.
7.
Santa, you don’t forget
the old people right? I hope you can
help the ones in the senior’s home in Puerto Plata. It’s so, so sad Santa, the conditions they
are living in. We are helping to pay
their rent so they have a roof over their heads, such as it is. We want to help so much more. Could you send a few of your elves our way
for this project. Send the ones who
especially love the old people and who are so blessed to have their family in
great places to be cared for. www.youcaring.com/seniors
8.
Well Santa, the list is long. Plus all this, I hope you can help us get the
3 houses built that we are working on now, and the 2 that we’ve raised the
money for that haven’t been started yet.
Thanks to the helpers, Toni
ZoBell, Zoe and Gemma Palmer, Lisa and Bob Hunter and others who humbly don’t
want recognition.
Yes, Christmas has changed for me this year. I am so happy to be home with my wonderful 8
children and 32 of the best grandchildren ever.
We have so much and we are so blessed.
Part of my heart is many miles away in another land, where people don’t
have what we have and I so want to share.
Love, Louise (or Luisa as I am called there)
