Angels Online

There are a small circle of them that watch over us. They have very terrestrial origins though, there is a school teacher from California, the stay at home mom from the United Kingdom, the glamorous mom from Germany, the self described "wierd lady" from Oregon, the budding professional photographer from Canada, the two expats: one in Ireland and one in France, the harried mom of 4 children, two of whom are handicapped but never anything but happy and loved, the mom struggling with Lupus, the happily married mom from Jersey taking care of her son who was born premature, an unexpected diverse group of women who would soon become my angels online.

We were a small American family living in New Zealand when my husband lost his business. With the loss of his business the government denied our visa application and ordered us to leave New Zealand. With the loss of his job we had no income and after months of losing money and unable to work due to the rejected visa application we had no where to turn. We had no income and were unable to leave New Zealand. We faced arrest or deportation. I thought we were finished. That is when the Angels Online stepped in. They came together in one accord to help a family they had never met in person. Only another lonely voice crying for help from the internet. Hardly any of these Angels are extremely financially secure themselves but with no hesitation they pulled together enough money to get us extra food we needed and necessities as well as setting up donation sites and having photography donation sales. The energy of these women was amazing. How they managed to do this will always stagger me. How they could show so much love and kindness for a family they never met I will never understand but will always be grateful for. Through their efforts we managed to even get a wonderful person to lend us the money for plane tickets back the United States. They saved our lives.

We arrived in the United States and we still haven't been able to get back on our feet financially. Neither my husband or I had managed to find any kind of full time work and Christmas for my daughter was looking pretty grim. I had decided to ignore Christmas this year because I didn't want to get my daughter's hopes up and just look forward to a better next year. The Angels Online stepped in again. We will be able to get groceries and a present for my daughter. There is so much more. The feeling of relief I feel can't be described. How can I tell them how I feel? How can I let them know how much this all means to us? How can I repay them for the kindness they have shown my family the past few months? Even simply being able to tell my troubles to someone was a godsend but they went the extra mile and gave us hope, love and a life.

Thank you, Angels. I hope someday I can do for you what you have done for us and all I can say is Thank you, I love you all. You listen to me when I am down, you try and help me in everyway possible, you are generous and kind, I wish with all my heart I could do something for all of you, wish I could share some of the Christmas magic in my heart with you. I hope other people will read this and realize there are still true hearts out there and Christmas Magic will find you when you least expect it. If you help someone else in need, it will never be a bad investment.

Merry Christmas!