Many times as a little girl a magazine from the American Girl Doll Company would come in the mail. I remember it usually being around Christmas, but it could have been any time during the year. Oh, this magizine, it was wonderful! And I don't remember wanting a whole lot as a little girl, but yes, oh yes! I wanted an American Girl Doll. Samantha, to be exact.
I would spend many a minute with that coveted magazine, circling little items, imagining, wondering what it would be like to have her...just her. The bed, the clothes, all the accessories, those were, I knew, just pie in the sky dreams, but the doll....that was possible....though she was ever so expensive, it was possible.
Christmas' came and they went. I did get the doll that had the hair that would grow when you touched her hand to a plastic butterfly in her hair. Santa even left me a note that said I would have to wait for the rest of the accessories. One day poof! everything was there on my bed.
And that bike I got for my birthday one year. My first one with brakes on the front. Yeah, that was pretty cool.
And for some holiday, or birthday, or maybe it was because my mom wanted to get me to stop asking about Samantha, I recieved a look-alike Samantha doll. And really, she was good enough. She was enough to make my heart sing a little. Her hand did fall off once which may or may not have caused a major dramatic episode in my little life and heart. But you know, my mom, she just sewed it right back on and that doll, she was as good as new.
Then came the days where basketball dreams filled my life and heart and dolls, well they were left far behind. I'm not even sure what happened to that longed for doll.
And it seemed that I blinked my eyes and I was newly married with two month old baby and her first Christmas. Just this young girl, I was, a babe really with a newly birthed babe celebrating the God-fleshed babe lying in a manger for the first time with her new Love as husband and wife. Us, the two of us, sitting on the floor of my Grandparent's little home with my mother looking on as I unwrapped the gift that I felt I had waited my entire life for: my Samantha doll. She was the real deal this time. From her perfectly perfect skin to those little black loafers on her feet. Oh, and that dress and bow. Could she be any more adorible?! She was real. And I was stunned.
"You can give that to your daughter, when you feel she is ready for it," said my mother with tears in her eyes.
You see, I'm not very good at waiting. Maybe terrible would be a more fitting word here. But that gift, that moment, was everything that I had hoped and waited for.
And isn't that true of all gifts? The good ones...they are worth waiting for??
We wait nine months for a baby. We wait for a delicious meal to be cooked. We wait for our children to grow (though that waiting doesn't seem to take as long.) Maybe we wait, for the one that God is going to send, that someone that we will marry...someday. We wait to be healed. We wait for that someone we love dearly to be saved. We wait and we pray though we are not very good at it. We wait for Christmas to come. We wait for these gifts and much more don't we?!
We wait and sometimes the news is not good, but we KNOW, yes, we know that the LORD, whom we waited on....and have waited since the dawn of creation... since Eve and Adam bit of the fruit in the garden, we have waited for the promised Savior to be born a babe.
And though he is not exactly what we thought he would or should be: He is God. Coming to this dusy round earth ball flinging through the sky....leaving his place on high. There wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. That, my dear ones, is the good gift worth waiting for!
766. an inspiring conversation on giving via Facebook of all places
767. gifts already given
768. good gifts given and remembered always
769. the gift I call mother
770. the ladies in my life that I love and see God working with in. It's inspiring!
771. a message about pressing on....and on...
I would spend many a minute with that coveted magazine, circling little items, imagining, wondering what it would be like to have her...just her. The bed, the clothes, all the accessories, those were, I knew, just pie in the sky dreams, but the doll....that was possible....though she was ever so expensive, it was possible.
Christmas' came and they went. I did get the doll that had the hair that would grow when you touched her hand to a plastic butterfly in her hair. Santa even left me a note that said I would have to wait for the rest of the accessories. One day poof! everything was there on my bed.
And that bike I got for my birthday one year. My first one with brakes on the front. Yeah, that was pretty cool.
And for some holiday, or birthday, or maybe it was because my mom wanted to get me to stop asking about Samantha, I recieved a look-alike Samantha doll. And really, she was good enough. She was enough to make my heart sing a little. Her hand did fall off once which may or may not have caused a major dramatic episode in my little life and heart. But you know, my mom, she just sewed it right back on and that doll, she was as good as new.
Then came the days where basketball dreams filled my life and heart and dolls, well they were left far behind. I'm not even sure what happened to that longed for doll.
And it seemed that I blinked my eyes and I was newly married with two month old baby and her first Christmas. Just this young girl, I was, a babe really with a newly birthed babe celebrating the God-fleshed babe lying in a manger for the first time with her new Love as husband and wife. Us, the two of us, sitting on the floor of my Grandparent's little home with my mother looking on as I unwrapped the gift that I felt I had waited my entire life for: my Samantha doll. She was the real deal this time. From her perfectly perfect skin to those little black loafers on her feet. Oh, and that dress and bow. Could she be any more adorible?! She was real. And I was stunned.
"You can give that to your daughter, when you feel she is ready for it," said my mother with tears in her eyes.
 |
| I told Jordynn when she learned to read she could have Samantha. She recieved her on her 6th birthday. |
You see, I'm not very good at waiting. Maybe terrible would be a more fitting word here. But that gift, that moment, was everything that I had hoped and waited for.
And isn't that true of all gifts? The good ones...they are worth waiting for??
We wait nine months for a baby. We wait for a delicious meal to be cooked. We wait for our children to grow (though that waiting doesn't seem to take as long.) Maybe we wait, for the one that God is going to send, that someone that we will marry...someday. We wait to be healed. We wait for that someone we love dearly to be saved. We wait and we pray though we are not very good at it. We wait for Christmas to come. We wait for these gifts and much more don't we?!
We wait and sometimes the news is not good, but we KNOW, yes, we know that the LORD, whom we waited on....and have waited since the dawn of creation... since Eve and Adam bit of the fruit in the garden, we have waited for the promised Savior to be born a babe.
And though he is not exactly what we thought he would or should be: He is God. Coming to this dusy round earth ball flinging through the sky....leaving his place on high. There wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. That, my dear ones, is the good gift worth waiting for!
766. an inspiring conversation on giving via Facebook of all places
767. gifts already given
768. good gifts given and remembered always
769. the gift I call mother
770. the ladies in my life that I love and see God working with in. It's inspiring!
771. a message about pressing on....and on...
And to help inspire you to give good gifts this year. You know the ones that last? Here is the good gift list from last week...right here...just a click away. Would you take a peek? Each organization has a Christmas catalog and each are committed, first to sharing the Gospel as they know that healing the spiritual and physicial go hand in hand. You'll be amazed just how far a dollar can stretch!
I'm sure there are more. I know there are, but these are ones that I can suggest as we have delt with, read extensivly about and given to personally (or have a close friend or family member that has.)
A couple years ago, I gave my Samantha doll to my daughter. She takes very good care of her. :) Samantha and I had the same birthday, so that's why I knew she was "my" doll. ;)
ReplyDeleteHeidi! See we would be great friends...ha. Hope you are feeling well. Thanks for stopping by. I always love hearing from you. Merry Christmas girl!
Deletesuch a beautiful post. i had a samantha doll. i loved her and i still have her.
ReplyDeletewon't be long, amy and you'll be sharing her too :)
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