Angels became a huge part of my life just a few years ago. Failing health, and a move to North Carolina from Texas made it increasingly difficult to earn a living. Feeling pretty sorry for myself, I spent a lot of time in my tiny "Home Office", lights dimmed and the TV droning.
It's said that God doesn't give us more than we can handle, but I was beginning to doubt. If I couldn't leave home to earn a living, what on earth was I going to do to pay the bills? It was very frightening & depressing.
So I sat ... and dispaired ... and prayed.
Preparing for Christmas, I found among our treasured assortment of ornaments, the most recent tree-topper
...our first porcelain tree-topper Angel.
I had gotten her so many years earlier ... at a time
when I really needed an Angel.
When I first bought her years earlier at Wal-Mart,
she was dressed in white satin ribbon, with quilted gold wings, wired with tiny little Christmas lights and cost a huge $19.95 ... at a time when that was serious money!
But I needed that Angel!
Over time she'd changed a lot . I added a halo, and a golden cross... a locket... Each Christmas, I added something new and special to the Angel ...
Before the move to Carolina, I added a small satin bag. Inside the bag, I put many special treasures ...
small reminders of the things in my life
for which I am most grateful.
Most importantly, she carries a scroll, upon which a special prayer has been inscribed ... a prayer which empowers her to watch over me.
After Christmas that year, rather than return her
to the storage room along with the other ornaments,
I moved her to my "Office". That's when the Angels began to take over my life. I began to gather Angels
... and Angels began to gather around me.
Since then, I have collected an uncounted number, of
so many different kinds of Angels. They're hard to resist.
Not every Angel I saw spoke to me ... there were some
that didn't even whisper ... but those that did, I collected.
Under the soft light of a torche lamp, she seemed to take on a special mezmorizing glow. I spent a lot of time
just gazing at her ... letting my mind wander ...
as it's inclined to do.
One of the best things about letting the Angels run the show, was discovering there are SO many wonderful, caring and supportive people in this world
with a belief in God and his Angels.
Having always felt possessed by an artistic spirit, I've tried dozens of crafs. My shelves are full books and tools for LOTS of different crafts. Although my desire to be wonderfully creative is great ... sadly, my talent is lacking. Even though I tried practically everything,
I still couldn't re-attach buttons or sew split seams.
But suddenly I was designing and sewing
... and each new Angel was more beautiful and
stronger than the one before.
After redesigning her gown and adding wings, made with real feathers, I put her back in her place beneath the lamp. She was so beautiful! God must surely be showing me that I could indeed do something else with my life ...
I could design Angels!
Angel surfing brought me to Diane Guinn, Master Dollmaker ... a wonderful living Angel. She gave me tons of information on learning to make porcelain dolls, and encouraged me to learn to paint my own porcelain.
She put me in touch with Charlotte Casperson, a highly-skilled doll maker in Cary, NC.
Char is amazing! She has taught me so much,
and has made me recognize a talent I never dreamed I had. She has literally taken me under her wing, and has become good friend.
To pay for lessons and equipment, I began selling "One-of-a-Kind" porcelain tree-topper Angels (very selectively) to friends & family and finally over the internet. Just when things were going very well, the Angels took over again, and sent me on another path.
By the time I'd completed a special Angel in memory of her precious grand daughter, Samantha, it seems I had developed a good friendship with another Angel...
Samantha's Angel was amazing!
Her gown was made of satin, adorned with tiny hand-sewn pearls. I think Samantha would have been greatly pleased, as her Angel truly was a work of art! Her struggle for lfe, caused me to wonder how hard it must have been for her family to her lose her battle.
Samantha kept drifting into my thoughts
... especially when surrounded by my Angels
... day-deaming.
The last Millennium was fast approaching, when
I began to feel Samantha's spirit very strongly. In her young life, so many of her so few Christmas eve's
had been spent, in battle with her weakened body.
I started feeling an over-whelming sadness and concern for sick children, like Samantha, who would be spending
what might truly be their very LAST Christmas,
lonely and fearful in a cold hopital
... on the night Jesus was born.
So the Angels, who now seem to be running my life, decided I should build some of my special "one-of-a-kind" porcelain Angels to watch over those children who would be stuck at Duke Children's Hospital over Christmas.
When I explained to Children's Services at Duke Hospital that I wanted to donate these special Angels to the children at Christmas, I thought there would likely be as many as a dozen. I had no earthly idea how large an undertaking this would be! I couldn't imagine how sick a child would have to be to remain in the hospital at such a time?
To make this long story short ... the person who would be in charge of distributing the Angels said there might be
as many as 70!
On Christmas Eve 1999, 72 porcelain Angels were delivered to Duke Children's Hospital. I still don't know for sure why I had included two extra
... except they were needed.
As it turned out ... there were exactly 72 Children
that final Christmas Eve of the last Millennium.
I took that as a fairly strong hint that
I was meant to make these Angels!
