Family View

 The following story was written by Heather Houck, my daughter-in-law, who I I so love and adore as if she were my own. I have the honor and privilage to live and be close to her and my three grand children.

To speek of a golden heart is not common these days, especially when it is only 8 years old. I hope that you will be blessed by reading on to recognise , besides the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, sent to earth for our salvation, one of the other true meanings of what "Christmas" really is.

As God sent and gave his own son,    blessed are they with a giving heart.

Your hostess,  "Kiki"

Dec 20, 2007 11:54 AM

I am a proud parent, Please read why

I am a proud parent of Three Beautiful Children. They each have a great view in life and they have really big hearts but my eight year old son has a heart of Gold.

I just wanted to share this story because I want people to know that no matter what happens in life you should never give up on living life to it's fullest.

My kids and I have gone through a lot over the last two years.

My husband Israel was the apple in my kid's eye and they loved him so much. We were all very close until my husband got sick one day and didn't remember who we were and couldn't speak any words.

He was taken to the Sonora Regional and there he was diagnosed with a blood infection they said he could have gotten anywhere. They took him by ambulance to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto and had to put him on life support.

He was such a strong and built guy. We thought he would live to talk about it but after three weeks of fighting for his life, his infection was so deadly it had reached his heart and in October of 2005 he passed away of a heart attack.

On October 17, 2005 he was one of the lucky ones who got to see our Lord Jesus Christ. My mom drove me home from the hospital that early morning. I was terrified to have to break the worst news to my kids.

We got home about 5: 00 in the morning and They were still asleep. There was about ten or more friends and family members waiting to hold me when I got home. I don't know how the news spread so fast but I was thankful to have the support I got at the worst time in my life.

We just let my kids sleep until they woke up on their own. Through my pain and my emotions I was feeling the Lord at my side and it was powerful that day. I was beginning to realize how awesome my family and my friends were that morning as my driveway was filling up with cars and people were everywhere to poor their Love on my family.

Now That Was Powerful!

My kids finally woke up around 7:00 am and we gathered them in the living room to tell them. Boy was that an emotional experience for me. I opened my mouth to say something but I got lost in my tears and I couldn't say anything. My father in law told my kids that their Daddy went to Heaven to be with Jesus and their little mouths dropped. Hannah, age seven at the time, ran to her room almost instantly. Clayton, age six, fell to the ground a cried and cried before he got up and ran to his room, and little Caleb, two at the time, looked at me while his little eyes just flooded with tears and somehow understood what was going on and little Caleb cried the longest.

By the middle of the day we had Cars and trucks bumper to bumper for about a half a mile down the street to be there with us.

Two days later was the viewing followed by the funeral. I couldn't believe how many lives he touched , Hundreds of people showed up to say their goodbyes and pay their respects. That day was extremely hard for us and very emotional having to say goodbye to my husband and my kid's daddy when I wasn't ready to let him go.

I remember several people told me that while I was talking to our family and friends and meeting new people my husband had known in the past, my seven year old son was standing at my husbands casket , telling him to wake up and trying to open it so that he could climb in to be with him. That sure did break a lot of peoples hearts that had to witness that.

I also remember during the funeral my son Clayton sat there and wiped my tears while I cried and cried and cried, then he would grab more Kleenexes and walk over to other family members and wipe their tears also.

Yes - my kids and I are still going through hard times and we still have our emotional moments, but we still have our faith in the Lord.

 I Love my three children with every fiber of my being and they all three have very loving hearts but my son Clayton has a heart of gold.

Clayton has always been such a giving child but the heart within that boy has been gold over the past year or so.

I call Clayton my little prayer warior because he will pray for anyone in need of prayer. He always thinks of other's before he thinks of himself. There have been many times he had money and he would always buy something for somebody else.

This Christmas his Pop-Pop bought him a metal detector and gave my kids each a $40.00 gift card to Wal-Mart. We took them to go and spend it.

Hannah and Caleb spent it on the things they wanted.

Sweet little Clayton spent his on others but got a little candy bar for himself.

His Pop-Pop took him around shopping and I took Hannah and Caleb. After everybody paid for what they wanted, we were walking to the car and my son Clayton gave me a little box, and said it was for me, for Christmas. I thought it was the sweetest thing and thanked him and gave him a very big hug. Then I asked what he got and he said " A Candy bar mom…. is that ok?" I said “well yes son, what else did you get?” And he said " Well I bought you something, and I bought KiKi something , and then I bought something for my teacher". I almost started crying I was so proud of him for thinking of others when he could have bought anything he wanted but chose to buy for others instead.

Today, Hannah and Clayton got a letter in the mail. When I opened it I saw that they were invited to “shop with a cop” this Saturday. When they got home from school I sat them down to tell them about it, but I also asked them not to say anything to their baby brother about it because he didn't get an invitation.

Cute little Hannah named off a few things she wanted and went into the house to watch the Disney Channel. Clayton said that he felt really sorry for his brother and said that he was going to buy him a remote control truck, then kept naming some things he wanted to buy for him. Then he told me about a boy from his school who he said was crying because he accidentally broke his moms umbrella , and said that he was going to buy him a new one so that his friend wouldn’t get in trouble.

God has given me the greatest gift in the world… and that is to be a mother to my three beautiful, adorable, sweet, Loving and awesome kids.

Heather Houck