Yesterday morning we loaded up Brenda’s suburban and drove the near seven hours from West Texas to Paradise and then to Hurst for Thanksgiving. It was a smooth trip. To save time we packed sandwiches and drinks and ate on the go. We got into the thick of the Metroplex right at 5:00 p.m. and navigated the traffic until we finally came to Carolyn Sreet where we were reunited with Brenda’s youngest two sisters and their families along with Brenda’s mother.
Brenda’s sister Dianna has kept a Thanksgiving tradition for many years. The tradition dates back to the three Ortiz girl’s living in government owned housing where the rent was made affordable to a single mother trying to make ends meet from week to week. Brenda and her two sisters grew up in government owned apartments. They were all abandoned by their father when Brenda and Dianna were teenagers and while their mother was pregnant with Jennifer. Jennifer did not even meet her biological father until she was twelve years old.
Times were tough. My mother in law worked two and three jobs to provide for the girls. She did not let the girls play the victim though. She showed them a strong work ethic and encouraged them all to get a college education which she had not been able to do. The house was kept clean and the girls wore the best clothes she could afford for them until they got old enough and to help buy their own clothes. To this day she is one of the best money managers I have ever met. She learned the difference between wants and necessities.
I am not sure how old the girls were when the church they were attending started a food drive to help people out with food for Thanksgiving. The girls were excited when they returned home and opened the pantry to share what they had with those less fortunate. Times were tough but the girl’s mother who has always been a giver gave permission for the them to gather food to take back to the church.
A few days later someone knocked on their apartment door. It was a lady from the church bringing Thanksgiving food to their family. Brenda, Dianna, and Jennifer did not know they were the less fortunate. God has brought all three of those girls a long way from that apartment. All three are married, two have children and Jennifer is pregnant with her first child.
Dianna started the tradition of taking a Thanksgiving meal back to the residents of that apartment every year since then. She tells the story of how they received that blessing many years ago and then give bags of groceries filled with all the ingredients to make a Thanksgiving feast. In all the years she has been doing that only two years have the same residents been living in that apartment.
This year it worked out for the first time for Brenda’s mother and her three girls along with all of our families to join in on this tradition. Brenda’s mother commented that there were a lot of good times in that apartment and some really hard times too. Each of our boys and their cousins carried bags of groceries as we walked up to apartment 1972-A. True to history the door was opened by a new family who had not lived their last year. Dianna told the story and then each of us presented our groceries to an overwhelmed lady. She had not bought anything for Thanksgiving lunch and was grateful to receive the food.
I was asked to pray over the home and over the lady’s three children. One of my brother in laws actually had coached her sons when they were younger. It was a great time of giving. I am glad my boys got to experience that. It is good for them to know where they have come from and to know how faithful God has been to get them where they are today. We all need to stay in touch with our roots.
As we walked back to the cars I was walking with Jennifer and her husband Paul. Jennifer is like my flesh and blood daughter because she came to live with Brenda and I when she was fourteen. God simply spoke to my heart back then and told me to be a father to that hurt, confused, and angry little girl who had never known the love of a father. That is what I did and our relationship has a special bond. I walked her down the aisle at her wedding and then turned around preached the wedding the ceremony.
As we were standing on the sidewalk last night I put my arm around her and told her God had moved her a long way from that apartment. I was not talking so much about physically as I was spiritually and emotionally. I told her that never again in our families would any have to live at that level of poverty. The chains have been broken and God has provided hope with bright futures for Brenda, Jennifer, and Dianna. This little talk took on added significance for me when Jennifer and Paul told us over dinner that Jennifer is pregnant with their first child and they just bought their first house. Jennifer is a teacher and her husband is a physical therapist for Flower Mound High School. Dianna is a radiologist and MRI technician. Her husband John is a coach history teacher and together they have been blessed with two girls. You already know about Brenda and her four boys.
What a joy to return to apartment 1972-A in Bedford, TX to give and to remember all God has done for us. All of us are a long way from that apartment. God has been faithful to each of our families. My boys and their cousins do not have to live that way any more. I am grateful that this Thanksgiving my boys got to see how far God has brought their mother and aunts from apartment 1972-A.
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