Well it's Christmas Day time for all who are Santa to rest and enjoy the happiness they have given to others and also the great happiness their acts of generosity gives to them.

The family that is Operation: A Cajun Christmas came together from across the country. This was a family comprised of many races, many religions, back grounds and cultures. A truly diverse family picture coming together out of true compassion to just help our family in the Gulf Coast as to their needs. With no judgment, no prejudice or personal agenda other then true compassion and respect for fellow beings in need we working as a community, a family to brightened the lives of people who lost so much.

This idea, this plan was first conceived while in the comforts of vacation with friends in their beautiful home in Cape Cod. We watched as the lives of countless thousands were changed for ever by the first storm, of course we could not know in only a short time the second storm. We looked into the eyes of sadness, despair the look of people who did not know what would be next in their lives.

I knew of all the hard times ahead for families the holiday times would be most hard. All who became part of Operation: A Cajun Christmas knew few things could be harder for a parent then to have to look into the eyes of a child who has lost their home, school, toys, pets and perhaps friends and family and tell them the person who comes every year to every child will not come to see them this year.

Today is Christmas day, this Christmas morning a child will open a special gift thanks toy our kindness. A child will feel loved and remembered, he or she will feel safe and a feeling of normalcy in a life that is still so confused and the gift you gave this child you have never meet is the reason for their happiness.

Your gift is the reason parents and grand parents, foster parents and friends can look into the eyes of their sweet ones with a feeling of ease and comfort not known in some time.

Because of your kindness and gifts we who made the trip and our people in La like Mom Macie to name just one were blessed with seeing the faces of 135 happy foster care children who were all taken from horrible situations. The joy and ease in the faces of the foster parents.

Because of your kindness and gifts we who were there saw parent after parent thank us with tears in their eyes saying they had no hope of giving their children a Christmas until Operation: A Cajun Christmas. This includes Luke and Erline Suire who now have 11 children living with them after taking in children left homeless from the storm.

Because of your kindness and gifts we who were there entered the poorest and most dangerous and depressed housing project I have ever seen with a trailer filled with gifts for the 60 waiting sweet little faces. Each child received 3 gifts as we handed them to them they all did the same thing, they hugged these toys to their chest as if they were golden said thank you and ran home. They did not care if the gift was the latest electronic gadget, did not care how much it cost or how in fashion it was, it was a gift, a doll a car, a game. It was proof that they were valuable, they mattered, proof someone loved, respected and cared for them.

Because of your gift mothers stood there with tears in their eyes saying food and survival is their main goal, toys are a luxury. They all thanked us and spoke of having no hope of this, yes strangers from around the country banded together to give gifts to the forgotten.

Because of your gift a child maybe only one or two, who can know for sure; will walk away from the drugs that plague their area, they will remember strangers cared about them. These children will grow not only to do good things, they will grow to do something great, all because you cared about "strangers".

Because of your kindness and gifts we who were there were blessed to see the joy in the faces of a shrimp boat family when we gave their children gifts and then food, blankets, clothing and the most simple needs of a family. A family who now live on their humble fishing boat as their home was destroyed in the first storm. A family who that very day lost the motor in their boat and had to cut their nets watching them fall to the bottom of the ocean just so they could limp into shore.

This is what your kindness did

** a special note, yes I do smile, I really do***
The stories really are endless and most none of us will ever know, but what you can know when you wake this Christmas morning is well over 7000 children from the Gulf Coast woke wide eyed and ran into a special place in their home and yell with great happiness "Santa was here, Santa was here, he did come, I knew he would come."

That Santa, was you.

There are far to many people to thank and I wish I could thank you all, each and everyone of you who did so much. I know my inability to mention every name and personally thank you all is dwarfed by the feeling you have this Christmas morning knowing because of your act of love and compassion people are happy, and you have changed the world for the better.

May you all have a wonderful Holiday and may all beings everywhere be well and happy, free and safe.

Mark, Kelly and Azurah

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." ---- [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]

Santa graphics courtesy of: The Santa Lady http://www.santalady.com