When Penni and I first got married we occasionally talked and dreamed about a special gift we might receive one day, maybe for a birthday or even as a Christmas present. She liked to play the lottery when the stakes got real high. She loves to play a game of sorts. In her game, she would ask, “What would you do if we won the big one?” I didn’t have anything in particular in mind; the odds of winning were nil to none. She on the other hand had a fine house picked out and the perfect neighborhood we would bring our family up in. Even though the odds were against us she always dreamed it might be possible.
One day while playing the silly game of dreams, the phone rang. When I answered, a very polite gentleman on the other end started to talk. I thought he was one of those sales guys that seem to always interrupt a family moment. Seemingly out of breath he quickly squirted out “Sir, you and your wife have just won a gift, a special item chosen just for you”. I quickly hung up after a short goodbye.
The next day the phone rang again and the same guy on the other end pleaded for me not to hang up. “This is not a joke sir, this is for real” he stammered. After a deep sigh on my part I decided to give him a minute of my time. He continued to explain. “I am a representative of Yo- Basti manufacturing out of High plains. “Where?” I questioned as I was still quite skeptical. He replied with a hint of pride in his voice, “You know where the mountains reach the sky”. He then snickered, almost childlike and said, “Our Motto is we are closer to Heaven than anybody else.”
As this started sounding like a joke I kindly hung up on him again. I told Penni about the call and she had the nerve to be mad at me. She started jumping up and down and cried out excitedly, “this could be it; the one in a million chance of getting that special something we have always dreamed about”. I on the other hand was still not that excited but my interest had improved.
As you guessed (sigh) he called back the next day. This time we had almost become friends. I even knew his first name which was Swen. I guessed the company must have been international because his name sounded Finnish and the company name sounded Italian. I told him this time, “we” would love the gift to be sent. He didn’t give me much information but told me the gift would take some time to get to us. “It has to travel a long distance” he explained “but the wait will surely be worth it, I promise”
About three months after the original call from Mr. Swen, we decided to call the number he had given us if we had any questions or concerns; it was the number to their shipping department. When a lady answered in a sweet voice her tone quickly changed when we gave her our name and asked if the gift was on route to our home.
The lady stuttered, “well,ah…..” and then quietly told us “I think someone might have dropped it”. She continued by saying “As it was getting packed one of the quality control guys saw a flaw”. We, being reasonable folks, told her that was ok and to just go ahead and ship it anyway. We were starting to get a little anxious with the thought of our prize gift being damaged.
With Penni’s prodding, a month later we called again. This time the lady said “unfortunately the gift was looked over and set aside but it is still on its way to you. Would you like us to cancel the delivery?” I told her no. She then continued almost apologetic “It’s ok, it happens all the time. I recognize your voice from before and I know you have been waiting a long time. We can make you a new one and send it on its way”
“No, no we will take it just as it is, we don’t mind, it’s probably nothing you can see that is obvious anyway” I replied even though I was getting more concerned.
About a week before Christmas we got a call from the local warehouse.
“What?” I eked out as I heard. “The box is damaged” the local warehouse guy repeated with ice on his breath. “We will still take it” I sighed, but this time I was a little more than just worried.
The day before Christmas the package was finally set on our front porch. We all ran to the door as soon as we saw the delivery guy walk up to the door. But before we could thank him he quickly ran away. As soon as we opened the package we were not surprised to see it had obviously been through a lot of trauma. At that moment we knew what had to be done. So we immediately took the gift to the local repair shop. It was in such bad shape we thought any handling of it would surely bring it to its demise. And I mean after all this waiting I guess we could wait a few more days.
Again it was months before it was returned to our home. This time we had to go get it to bring it home. It still had tape holding parts together as we took our first look-see. The fixer of the gift, who thought of himself as a doctor, told us to keep the tape on it for another few days so the repair could totally take effect.
As I had a little time to finally inspect it I noticed a few flaws amongst its being. It had small pin holes all over it. It looked like someone had poked it with a needle. There was even a spot that looked like it had been burnt.
Once we were able to start slowly using the gift it didn’t seem to work quite right. Since the gift was damaged, part of the warranty with YO-Basti manufacturing was to send a representative to teach us how to use it. She came out one day. She told us her name was Claudia and her job was for special needs of families receiving the gifts when they were not perfect. She reminded me of my kindergarten teacher. She showed us so many things that it could do. Penni and I were so happy to learn. When she held the gift she held it as she was holding her own child. She would even talk and sing to it. You could tell she really loved her job. Penni and I had never had a gift like this before so we were very naïve about the whole experience. I told Claudia I was so thankful Yo-Basti had sent her out. “You seem to make it come to life,” I said with a tear in my eye. She jumped up off the floor but not before setting the gift on a small blanket and said “what did you say”? Sheepishly I repeated with my head bowed, “Yo-Basti has been so good about everything”. She shook her finger and said in frustration, “The name is not YO-Basti . The company seems to always get things backwards.” She told us to look at the print on the original box, which we had kept in case we wanted to return it. She then instructed us to stand up and read the inscription in the mirror. Penni and I both stood together in front of the mirror, held up the box and to our great surprise it read correctly. It revealed the secret about the gift, “It’s a boy”.
Yes, the odds of winning the lottery or having a boy like Evan (our gift) is not likely, but the joy that he has brought is also one in a million.
Scott (Evans dad)
(epilogue)
This being the time of giving and receiving, I thought I would share this story of our gift of Evan. He was definitely not in the odds. In fact his heart disease alone is 5 in one million births. He was not delivered in the usual way and had been damaged on the way to us. (252 days in the hospital) We looked so forward to his coming when we first found out about his delivery. He was not what we expected, having multiple disabilities, but his life is one we will always cherish. And a special thanks to Claudia, Evans “early on” teacher. Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy every gift God has given you. There is definitely joy in all things made by Him. And the odds of that are 100 percent.
