A few days before Christmas 2012, I found myself in Walmart. It was the last ____1____ I wanted to be, especially during the chaos of last-minute Christmas shopping. It had been a little more than a month since my husband was laid off.
The school my kids attended asked if we needed help for Christmas, and we ____2____. If not for them, our kids would not have had Christmas gifts.
My children were with me that day at Walmart. Our cupboards were bare, and I had only eighty dollars to ____3____ a family of six for a week. It’s not impossible to ____4____, but certainly not comfortable. It leaves little ____5____ for anything extra. Yet, it was Christmas, and my kids asked if they could buy a present for their dad. How could I say “no”? I found a gift box of their dad’s favorite cologne and hoped I could ____6____ it. Lucky for me, my husband doesn’t have expensive ____7____.
My husband worked very hard to ____8____ for us, and I stayed home. It wasn’t by ____9____. Having two children on the autism spectrum makes it difficult for me to work. Doctors’ appointments, therapy schedules, and school meetings make it near impossible to ____10____ a regular work schedule. So, when he was laid off, things got very ____11____ quickly. He wasn’t without a job long, but the ____12____ of income for a couple of weeks certainly put a stress on our family.
As I chose my groceries, I kept a running total in my head. As my cart (手推车) filled, my ____13____ rose. The more I thought about it, the less ____14____ it was that I would be able to buy a gift for my husband.
When I went to the checkout, I set aside the cologne gift box. My kids ____15____, but I didn’t have much of a choice. My heart ____16____ when the grocery total was indeed too high for us to buy the gift, but an angel was waiting in the wings.
What happened left me speechless, and being the ____17____ type, speechless is rare for me. A man ____18____ us, put four twenty-dollar bills into my hand and happily exclaimed, “Merry Christmas!” He left so fast that I didn’t ____19____ have a chance to say, “Thank you.”
A wave of emotion came over me as I ____20____ the cologne gift set to the belt. We were thrilled, and my husband had a Christmas present. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.