Pray for family at Christmas

By Lisa Giffin

For the Appeal

Well, it was the first Christmas after 9/11. I was working as a dealer at the Carson Nugget on Dec. 24, day shift.

It was pretty slow, when out of the blue, my niece pops up in front of my table and says, "Hello, Aunt Lisa." I was so happy to see her because I hadn't seen her in a year or so. Then my sister Charlee walks up. Her mother, who lives in Gardnerville, shows up. I guessed my sister just picked her up from the airport for a Christmas visit.

After I said my hellos and planned a time for us all to get together, my son, who is in the U.S. Navy, pops up and says, "Hey Mom."

You see, I hadn't heard from him since before the 9/11 attacks and knew he was in Japan somewhere. So needless to say, I couldn't hold back the tears, nor could anyone who heard me scream with joy.

That was the best Christmas ever, and today he leaves for Iraq. He is a corpsman in the Navy and attached to a group of U.S. Marines out of Twenty-Nine Palms. They are leaving today for somewhere in Iraq, so this is going to be the hardest Christmas of all for me. Please pray for him. His name is Austin Thomas Smith.

God bless you all.