Christmas Miracles Are Real. Just ask Helen.
When 5-year-old Helen Berence Reyes Cardenas released two balloons into the sky on December 2nd from her Auburn, Washington yard, she hoped they would catch a breeze and continue their journey straight to the North Pole. With the balloons, Helen released her silent hopes for a better year for her family.
Times had been tough. Helen’s brother had passed away years ago on that very day. Her mother Rosa was still recovering from a torn ligament from a fall down the stairs, and was unable to work. The hard economy had also cost her father his job for most of 2011 - he’d recently managed to get another, but Helen’s family was awaiting his first paycheck, and the bills had been piling up.
Despite the balloons taking a far more southern course than hoped, one of the two Christmas lists Helen Berence Reyes Cardenas attached would appear to have made its way into Santa’s hands anyway.
In the ranch town of Laytonville, California, Julie Sanders and her son were out on their quad runners when they came across one of Helen’s now-deflated balloons, and the note. “The fact that she asked for a doll, some pants, boots and nothing materialistic,” said Sanders to ABC News, told her her all she needed to know about Helen and her family, over 700 miles away. “I just knew it was a family in need.”
Sanders (pictured above with family) called the phone number Helen had listed in her note, and discovered the issues leading to the family’s financial hardships. A family friend of the Sanders stated that Laytonville was a mill town, and had known hard times as well.
The Sanders traveled over 50 miles to the nearest mall, to purchase Helen some special outfits and toys to enjoy, shipping them “from Santa,” just in time for the Reyes family to place them under the Christmas tree.
Helen Berence Reyes Cardenas will open her presents tomorrow with the belief they came from a miraculous place. As I write this, I realize that Helen would be right.
Images courtesy Daily Mail, UK
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