| bodyliu |
2007-09-28 02:34 |
There was a year when my wife, my daughter and I were all students in New York City. We were paying $30,000 for my tuition of the J.D. program, $ 30,000 for my wife for her MBA program, and some $ 10,000 for my daughter’s day care (you er yuan). We had to pay another $ 15,000 for our rent. We were left no extra money and we were not working and had no foreseeable income.
Before the Christmas, I walked in the Starbucks, my usual place of study by the Hudson River. It was about to snow but the lone Christmas songs made the indoor so warm. There was a sign “Toy Drive.” Underneath was a basket filled all kinds of sweet toys and stationeries, dolls, toy fire trucks… As usual, this green coffee shop was running a toy drive, i.e., collecting toys from the donors to give those children who would not have a toy over the Christmas. Most of these toys were new, and I later know people just bought from the toy stores, or they took only gently used toys from home, to give to those indigent.
With a lot of hesitation for two days, I finally picked one doctor’s set for our belated daughter, aged 3, with no new toy for the past half a year, from that warm basket filled with coffee scent. That was the Christmas present to this little girl.
I later learned that toys are not picked from stores. They are to be “driven” to each community that needs toys. I am sure there were people who needed toys more than I did. But that toy set, almost new, was a light in my heart and in the heart of our then only child.
When my wife started working a few years later, we dared to shop for toys and other modest clothes. Then we started to buy more toys for our children. However, the warmth from that doctor’s set has always been with us through these years, and now I started my own toy drive-that was where the idea of giving up my new and used toys came from. I feel so embarrassed that I did not have time to wash them before taking here. I am so thankful you like our toys. More importantly, you have given me the opportunity to give something back in return, though with very humble start. You all have made my life more meaningful and beautiful.
Adam
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