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Carter Jackson pressed his ear as hard as he could against his bedroom door If he shut his eyes and concentrated he could hear his parents&039; conversation

"I&039;, but we can&039;t afford one right now"

"But, David, we pro, Laurie I saidfor Christmas"

Carter&039;s mother sounded sad "It&039;ll break his heart"

"Believe me, I know that I don&039;t like this any better than you do"

Although he was only nine, Carter understood that his father wanted hie Carter had already decided to give his dog the saood na fro "A rescue"

"It&039;s not the cost of the dog It&039;s the vet bills, the food, everything else"

His et, didn&039;t you? If there was any e could make it happen, ould But you knoell as I do that we can&039;t afford a dog We can barely afford a Christet was, but he knew itto do with money Money always seemed to be a problem His mother used to work at a dress shop in don Leavenworth, but the shop closed and she hadn&039;t been able to find another job

That was all right with Carter He liked having her at home, and so did his little sister, Bailey After school they both liked being able to go home rather than to the day care lady down the street Theirfor the hours, but Carter knew there were probleetwhatever that was

"Our health insurance rates just went up," his father said

"I saw that," hisit difficult for Carter to hear everything she said "I try to keep the heat as low as I can while the kids are in school, not that it&039;s helped all thata sweater when Carter got ho us," his father said He sounded angry

"I know I&039;m sorry" This came from his mother

"It&039;s not your fault, Laurie"

Carter risked opening the door a crack, to see what he could It took a ht, but then he saw his parents They sat on the sofa and his mother&039;s head rested on his father&039;s shoulder His father had one arainst each other

"Should we tell Carter noait until Christ?" she asked

Carter bit his lip They&039;d pro His father said he hadn&039;t, but he had He just didn&039;t remember He&039;d said it this su on to that pro at Christled not to break into tears Turning his head, he buried his face in his arms and breathed deeply He couldn&039;t let the there - or hear him cry

"I don&039;t think we&039;ll be able to buy the kids any gifts this year," his father continued

"It&039;s all right, honey," his mother reassured him "There&039;ll be plenty of presents froifts fro to open Besides, we don&039;t want to spoil Carter and Bailey It&039;sof Christree

Carter couldn&039;t listen to any more of their conversation His sister was sound asleep in the bed across frorade and he was in fourth Bailey wanted her own roo, then Bailey wasn&039;t going to get a bedroom all to herself, either That hat Bailey had asked Santa for in her letter

The kids at school told Bailey she was stupid to believe in Santa Carter didn&039;t believe any, especially to his little sister She still believed When he was her age, he&039;d wanted to believe, too

Santa was like his grandparents who lived in Wenatchee His et, or at least he didn&039;t think so It never seemed hard for them to buy presents the way it was for his parents Maybe

Carter decided he&039;dand see what she said If his own , then randparents buy him one Or perhaps Grandma and Grandpa could pay the vet bills his dad was so worried about

Feeling better now, Carter pulled back his sheets and slipped into bed He&039;d just closed his eyes when a backup plan caht be make-believe but God was real, and Christot out of bed and knelt down He&039;d already said his bedtime prayers, but this was extra He hoped God wouldn&039;t ain

"Dear God," he whispered "Thank You for Your birthday I think it&039;s great that because You were born we get presents I&039;ed it like that U before and my parents said I had to wait I waited It was hard, too

"They said I had to be nine years old before I was responsible enough to take care of a dog Well, I&039;m nine and I do all my chores and I do "

He hesitated, thinking he&039;d better tell the whole truth God kneay "Sometiood"

Carter paused, wondering if Godback He listened intently, his eyes closed, but noThat didn&039;t h; Carter understood that

"If You could find a way to getfor Christmas, God, I&039;d really like it I proht I&039;ll make sure he&039;s loved Thank you"

Finished now, Carter lowered his head and whispered, "Aer, in case God wanted to talk to him, after all Eventually he cli for him, a special one Carter was sure of it He didn&039;t kno the dog would arrive Maybe his grandparents would give him one for Christht not believe in Santa anymore, but Carter believed God answered prayers All he had to do noas be patient

"You heard?" Gabriel asked Shirley The Prayer Ael and her love for children was the reason he usually assigned Shirley the prayer requests fro," Shirley repeated

"There are more important requests, if you prefer," Gabriel said

"No," ca"

"I thought you would"

"It&039;s just that"

"Yes?"

"It&039;s just that I could probably take on two or three such requests while I&039;el said with utter confidence "But I knohy you haven&039;t given me more than one"

"You do?" Gabriel asked "And ould that be?"