Here is a short story that only gets better as it goes on.
Co-written by my teammate and friend, Kacie Price.
Read about little chickens, an Abuelita (Grandma), and the gift of receiving and giving love.
The real life – Chicken Soup for the Soul!
We recently celebrated Kacie’s 25th Birthday. We gave her chickens – little chicks! Among other gifts, we thought it would be a great surprise to have 3 little chickens running around the backyard. What’s better than live animals? And they only cost 60 cents.
It was great. Her face was lit up in happiness when she saw these chicks.
As Kacie puts it, “Cheep cheep!” what’s that? I look down and there were 3 baby live chicks running around in the piles of woodchips. LIVE ANIMALS FOR MY BIRTHDAY??? I was literally so overwhelmed that all I could do was sit down in the cushiony pile of woodchips and laugh into my hands. They got me baby chicks! They really do love me.”
The next morning though, we asked ourselves – now that the party is over what do we do with these chicks? We decided that we don’t yet have the facilities to care for them properly. And instead of returning them to the shop, it was put into our Spirit’s to give them to Grandma. Yep, Grandma. Wonderful Grandma that sells little chicklet gum on the sidewalk day after day.
Kacie picks up the rest of the story from here…
“Que Chula!” she always says when I come in close to get a kiss and a hug from her thin little frame. Abuelita is a street vendor who sells gum, assorted candies, and nuts to passengers about to get onto the chicken busses to travel to surrounding cities. What I love about her is that she always brings two small stools with her to work; one for her to sit on and another lays open next to her, welcoming guests to have a seat and enjoy a conversation or two.
I love taking her up on the invite to sit and chat. She tells me about her large family, how she still takes care of them. She talks about the misfortunes that life has brought her, as well as the triumphs that have come her way.
She travels an hour to work, just to sit on the street corner to sell gum to pay for rent and food, then packs all her treats back up and travels an hour back.
All of this she does with a smile. I love being her “chula”.
(a picture of me and sweet Abuelita)
Whenever it was time to decide what to do with the sweet baby chicks, we immediately thought of Abuelita and how much she might like them. Javier (my Guatemalan brother) and I packed up the chicks in an egg carton and headed down to the street corner to meet Abuelita.
“Que Chula!” she said whenever we walked up. Two kisses. One for me, and one for Javier.
“Abuelita, we want to give you chickens. Do you want them?”
Her face lit up like it was Christmas in August.
“Yes, Yes!” she nodded. Her face radiated joy and she smiled so big that I saw every last tooth. “Gracias, Chula!” More kisses.
I remember her telling me about where she lived. She shared a small apartment with 7 other women, and she only had a corner of a room to herself to sleep. The thought popped up into my head, Where is she going to put the chickens? She doesnt have a yard to let them roam free. What is she going to do with them?
So I asked. Abuelita, “What are you going to do with these chicks?”
Then she smiled with wide toothy grin and held out her hands. “When they are THIS big, Im going to eat them with tortillas!”
My birthday chicks were going to be her dinner soon. The thought almost made me cringe because I had named them and everything. Then I thought about that sweet baby chick that pooped all over me. I thought about sweet Abuelita and her thin, frail frame. Then I felt peace that settled so thickly over my Spirit. For my birthday I was blessed with baby chicks and in turn, I can turn around and provide food and bless sweet Abuelita.
The Lord spoke to me yesterday and told me that I was going not only going to receive gifts, but He wanted me to also give for my birthday. Through the heart posture and the act of giving, He was going to bless and give me even more, because He trusts me with His gifts and His blessings. We are never meant to hold onto what He gives us, but instead He wants us to turn around and share with others.
I now have a new birthday tradition. I want to give gifts instead of receive them.
“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20:35
