Yes, I believe

Last year at Festival 2007, there were two 4 foot trees that had not sold on the last day and I decided to purchase them. There was a shoe tree and a bear tree. When we got them home it was amazing how much we enjoyed the trees, the stories about the trees and all the little extra that came with the trees but you could not see at festival. The shoe tree had children’s names on the soles. According to the description of the tree, the names belong to children who passed away. All last Christmas my grandchild would ask me to read them the names off the shoes. They would say cute things like: Where is Jessie’s shoe? Is Casey a boy or a girl? Who is Emily’s mom? Why did Ryan die? The names on the tree became part of our Christmas. This year as I sat in a board meeting Karen asked for volunteers for the decorator’s open house. I was asked to demonstrate the wiring. I decided to bring my two trees for my demonstration. Both trees were shrink wrapped and when we unwrapped the shoe tree several shoes fell on the table, which was good because it helped me with my demonstration.
The open house was a huge success with many people coming. I had a crowd around my table the whole time. But towards the end there was a young women standing by the table listening to me. She picked up some of the shoes. On the sole of one of the shoes was her nephews name. She asked me if we were just trying out different fonts and I explained how I got the tree. She said this was her nephews name and he had died two years ago and she was here at the open house because she was doing a tree for him this year. Her sister had told her that some one had donated a shoe with his name on it last year but they did not know anything more about the tree. Well, sitting right there in front of her was the tree and in her hand was the shoe donated for her nephew. By chance, I don’t think so.
I told her to please keep the shoe. I knew she was suppose to have it. The shoe had traveled a long way to get back to her sister.
She sent me an e-mail last night thanking me and telling me how much the shoe meant to her sister. She asked if I would take a picture of the tree and send it to them. I thought I am going to do that as soon as I write done this wonderful festival story. Already my Christmas experience has changed yet again thanks to festival. It is a small world made up of miracles.