Monday, December 19, 2011

12 Days of Christmas: 'Tiz the Season for Miracles

THREE LOVELY MIRACLES submitted by readers below, and all so amazing that it's too hard to choose a winner, so there's three winners today! ... Sharon, Billie Jo and SandyG265... if you can please email me by 31st December 2011, at needie35 AT hotmail DOT com with:
*  your postal addie
* the first name of the person for whom you'd like the book to be personally autographed (you or a friend?)
* and which book you'd like: Diamond Eyes or Hindsight....
* and the words Supernatural Winner in the subject line...


then I'll post them to you first chance I get!
and in the meantime, Merry Christmas everyone! 
May a miracle come your way when you most need it too!
:))

AMAZING!!!: This fan letter made me feel like Santa when it arrived with a bag of others through the normal postal system WITHOUT my address on it! LOL.

Post stamp and return addie had it coming from Canberra, Australia, which is practically 2 states and 1200 kms away (over 750 miles!) from my home in the Lockyer Valley... (which was devastated by floods from Toowoomba's "inland tsunami" almost a year ago. First anniversary is fast approaching in early January, and after such a rollercoaster year, I'm keen to muster enough Christmas spirit to get us over the line to a brand new year in 2012...

So to continue in my impromptu role as Santa for the SU Blog during the 12 Days of Christmas promotion:

"I'll give a personally autographed copy of my multi-award winning sf& fantasy thriller Diamond Eyes, to the blog visitor who can make me laugh, cry, sigh or be blown away by a minor/major miracle from their own lives. The funnier, weirder and/or more inspirational the better!"

Doesn't have to be recent or specific to Christmas. Miracles can happen anywhere, any time and relate to anyone amongst your nearest and dearest, (for whom you may prefer the book to be personally autographed?)

I've also donated a generically autographed copy to the big prize at the end of the week + 2 for the Books for Soldiers initiative, so stay tuned until the Big Day to see if you're a winner!

And to kick start the list: here's a few wonderful miracles from 2011: Year of Disasters:

* The horse that was rescued from rising flood waters (not far from my parent's house, near Lowood).
* The dog that was found on a roof at sea 3 weeks after the Japan Tsunamis.
* The human chain that rescued children from debris during the Tsunami


And please share any funny/inspirational stories with your friends!  
:)

10 comments:

Sharon Stogner said...

well...here is a very abreviated version. About 8 years ago my husband had a blood clot cut off his left coronary artery completely! He should have died. He ended up 2 days later at Duke University Hospital waiting for a new heart. He had just survived life saving surgery to implant an LVAD (external heart machine)The doctor told me it was a miracle he lived through it. He had to wait two weeks before he would be healthy enough for a transplant. 9 hours after becoming active on the transplant list he got offered a heart. 9 days later he was home. He has never had any rejection and nothing about his lifestyle changed. People have no idea unless we tell them .
Then...two years ago he got viral pneumonia, ended up on a ventilator and his chances weren't good. As in I was looking for grief counselors for my children. He recovered and it is as if it never happened.:)

(the donor's mother contacted us 4 months after the transplant. He was a 20 year old boy who fell out of the back of a jeep when it took a corner. His name was Brendan and he was a good kid. He had a black lab named Sincere.)

Billie Jo said...

My miracle is my kids. I know, I know that is every woman's miracle. But I wasn't supposed to be able to have kids. When I was 18 (yes I was married at 17), I wanted to be a mother. After 3 miscarriages, the doctor ran a bunch of tests and discovered that I would never have children. After 15 yrs of an abusive marriage, I finally got out.

I had reserved myself to never having children. I got on with my life. And after a few years, I finally found a man who loved me for who I am and didn't try and change me.

At 34 years of age, I was feeling quite bad and thought I had the flu. To my shock, the doctor tells me I am pregnant. Although I had a wonderful pregnancy, well as wonderful as being pregnant can be, I still had to have help to have my kids.

But now I have two beautiful children and wonderful man!!

My miracle is surviving an abusive dad, an abusive ex-husband and finally having a life that is happy :-)
Happy Holidays!

Kim Falconer said...

You guys, these stories are making me well up. Thank you for sharing. It
s so beautiful to hear of these miracles.

Vivien said...

My story doesn't live up to these others, but it's something that has affected me.
My miracle is my husband. A few months ago, I got a really bad cat bite from a friend's cat. This bite was infected a mere 30 hours later, even after a thorough cleaning. Apparently, if it's a puncture wound, you should immediately go to the hospital. Trying to get this treated was a pain. I ended up driving to 3 different treatment centers. Between them not treating bite wounds, or it being 'too infected'. Finally arriving at the center, they tell me I have to fill out a bite form. This is an official form that requires all the information about the pet's owner and so on. Now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don't want to give any information about my friend's cat that will end up getting it euthanized. But at the same time, I need to get treated. It was bad. Swollen, red, hard, throbbing oozing pus. I couldn't walk. I had a fever, was shaking. I had no choice. Luckily, I had a really understanding DR that didn't take down any personal information about the pet, and I got the meds I needed eventually that night. Unfortunately, our friendship didn't last throughout. Everyone in our 'circle' turned against my husband and I, saying that we were going to get the cat 'put down'. Shock and hurt on our part. That is something I would NEVER consider, and had worried about while going though the treatment process. It's gotten pretty nasty. Something that happened to me turns into a complete loss of friendship. Everyone. The people we hung out with daily. I'm not a spiteful person. I tried to avoid this from the start, yet the outcome is the same. Unfortunate. I can't say it hasn't affected me. I'm an emotional person who relies on friendship. This cut me. I still have bright purple scars to remind every day too.

SandyG265 said...

I used to be on my town's rescue squad. One day we got a call for a chain saw accident. It turned out that a man was cutting wood and the saw went through the log and into his leg. His friend panicked and ran out into the street. The man was lucky because his friend ran in front of a police car. If the officer hadn't been right there and grabbed laundry off someones clothsline to tie a tourniquet the man would have died. As it was we were able to get him to the hospital and they were able to save his leg.

alainala said...

mine isnt really a miracle.. just kind of made me believe that there is more after death.. My grampa died suddenly.. at his funeral, it was pouring rain, windy as heck.. when my gramma went up to say her last words.. the winds died, the rain stopped.. until she stepped down.. then they started up again.. it was like he was there and wanted to hear her and for her words to be heard by all (and yes, im crying as i write this.. lol)

alainala AT hotmail DOT ca

Bonnie said...

I really don't have a miracle or inspirational story but I love reading everyone elses.

donnas said...

Thank you everyone for sharing your stories.

Mine is probably something that hits me harder than it would to others but I had a really bad thing happen to me when I lived out of state from my family. It was a death and thats really about as much detail as I want to go on that. But they were 6 hours away by car and when I called them drove all night to come up to where I was. It was raining and everything else where they were but they didnt wait and drove though it. Its still just the most amazing thing anyone has done for me.

AA Bell said...

For Sharon: HOLY... COW!!!

For Billie Jo: Wow!!... Definitely Inspirational! One of my dearest friends lived through something very similar with 13 miscarriages, including the tragedies of 2 stillborns and one strangled during birth before the last 2 finally resulted in the miracles of successful births, and we know all the heartache she went through despite an otherwise happy marriage, so I know exactly where you're coming from. Seems like Fate had the right time reserved for you too!

For Vivien: Yikes! What a terrible situation! A miracle definitely needed here, so I'm sending all my warmest thoughts your way for the new year. May an opportunity soon arise for your ex-friends to finally realise that if you'd wanted their pet put down, then it would have happened already.

For Sandy: A definite miracle here! On a rescue squad, no doubt you see people in need of miracles quite often. Yet, like the birth of a healthy child, it never ceases to amaze me just how lucky we can be, sometimes, when we really need it. So lovely to hear!

For Alainala: You gave me shivers! Something very similar happened at my grandfather's funeral. Gave me shivers then too, so very sincerest thanks for sharing.

For Donna: sincerest sympathies. For someone to die on their way to help you when you're in trouble... you must ache every day for things to have gone a different way. At the same time, to deserve such devotion, you must be a very special person yourself, and no doubt as generous to your friends as they've been to you...

For everyone: Miracles continue to amaze and inspire me. Large or small. We may never understand why some lives are touched while others aren't, but in either case, we can take the opportunity to appreciate all that we had, and still have... and be amazed that they still happen.

Just this morning, I heard of another miracle:

* Girl found alive 7 years after the Aceh Tsunami!

http://m.news.com.au/TopStories/fi937006.htm

So please feel welcome to continue to share your miracles, even after the prize has been drawn... and in the meantime, wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Billie Jo said...

Thank you Ms.Bell!!!!!! You made my day :-)

I am a believer that Fate was definitely waiting for the right time for me. And it arrived in wonderful packages.

Have a great HOLIDAY!!!

Billie Jo