My husband was seriously ill for many years.  The costs not covered by insurance drained our savings, caused me to sell everything we owned.  Prior to that, we made a very good income.  I had 18 horses (a breeding/showing operation), huge house, 2 cars, truck, horse trailer, and the five kids had pretty much everything they wanted.  Christmas was an orgy of overindulgence.

The year things were the worst, I had sold everything but two horses and the truck.  We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment, all five kids and myself.  Even sold my dishes.  So Christmas was coming, we had been eating noodles with tomato paste for a week, all 3 meals, and I had not one gift for my kids.  Well, I took my show colt to a sale barn.  Got $200 for him, but I was able to get the kids some gifts.

When my children found out I sold Buddy to get their gifts, they gathered them up, and the 2 oldest kids returned them all.  They did this without my knowledge.  Then they gave me the money  and told me to go get Buddy back.

A gift of love from my children that I will never be able to repay.