Children have been hard to come by in my family. I personally went through twelve years of infertility before my children were all here.
My younger sister only has one child. She had to try for a while before she was able to get pregnant. Charley is five and they have been hoping for some time for another baby.
My older sister, Heidi is fertile. But she was born with a weak heart. After her second baby she went into heart failure and had to have artifical valves put in. When she found out she was pregnant with her third baby, the doctors reccommended she abort the pregnancy. She would not survive. But this is not something she could do. It is not how we were raised. It is not how we think in our family.
Heidi survived her pregnancy, (barely) and so did her baby. We gave praise to God and sighed with relief.
Heidi wanted lots of babies. She is a big family sort of gal. She likes a full house. She was heart broken that she would only have three.
So they decided to start hosting exchange students. To date, they have hosted four students. They have enjoyed every one. But there is one kid in particular that they all fell in love with and adopted as their own.
Ondra Troup was a boy from the Czech Republic. He became a part of my sister's family. She went into mourning when he left to go home.
Ondra's real mother is a phyician with an amazing talent for decorating gingerbread. She sends my sister a collection of cookies every year. I've drooled over these cookies every time they arrive and finally I just flat out asked for my own. I offered to pay. She wouldn't hear of it.
This is what arrived in the mail.
I am humbled that a woman I don't even know would be willing to spend so much time to do this for me. I can't even imagine how long it takes her.
The Bird and I had so much fun unwrapping each cookie. They were like tiny little gifts. I need to figure out how to display them. We can't eat them. We just can't.
Děkujeme vám za kindess. Cookies jsou nádherné. Moje sestra má to štěstí mít takové krásné kamarády jako vy. Doufám, že máte velmi hezké Vánoce a Šťastný Nový Rok!
Hodně lásky,
April Meeker
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