- Courtney Ellis is a 42-year-old mom of three in Mission Viejo, California.
- She found a used train set online and agreed to buy a quarter of the set.
- When she went to collect the set, the seller gave her the entire set for no extra cost.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Courtney Ellis , author of Looking Up . It has been edited for length and clarity.
Ten years ago, my husband and I moved with our 2-year-old son from Wisconsin to California to work at a church. My husband was finishing a Ph.D., and our only source of income was a pastoral position at the church, which we split between the two of us.
We were eating through our savings just to make ends meet, living in a tiny condo, and hoping that in time, we’d both be able to take on more hours at the church.
Our first Christmas in California , I wanted to make our son’s Christmas special despite the stress of money and budgeting. Retrospectively, I can now see he would have been just as happy with a cardboard box, but at the time, as his mom, I wanted to be able to give him the world.