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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. Colophon
  3. ALSO BY RICHARD PAUL EVANS
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  7. Dedication
  8. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  9. Epigraph
  10. Grace
  11. THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL
  12. CHAPTER One
  13. CHAPTER Two
  14. CHAPTER Three
  15. CHAPTER Four
  16. CHAPTER Five
  17. CHAPTER Six
  18. CHAPTER Seven
  19. CHAPTER Eight
  20. CHAPTER Nine
  21. CHAPTER Ten
  22. CHAPTER Eleven
  23. CHAPTER Twelve
  24. CHAPTER Thirteen
  25. CHAPTER Fourteen
  26. CHAPTER Fifteen
  27. CHAPTER Sixteen
  28. CHAPTER Seventeen
  29. CHAPTER Eighteen
  30. CHAPTER Nineteen
  31. CHAPTER Twenty
  32. CHAPTER Twenty-one
  33. CHAPTER Twenty-two
  34. CHAPTER Twenty-three
  35. CHAPTER Twenty-four
  36. CHAPTER Twenty-five
  37. CHAPTER Twenty-six
  38. CHAPTER Twenty-seven
  39. CHAPTER Twenty-eight
  40. CHAPTER Twenty-nine
  41. CHAPTER Thirty
  42. CHAPTER Thirty-one
  43. CHAPTER Thirty-two
  44. CHAPTER Thirty-three
  45. CHAPTER Thirty-four
  46. CHAPTER Thirty-five
  47. CHAPTER Thirty-six
  48. CHAPTER Thirty-seven
  49. CHAPTER Thirty-eight
  50. CHAPTER Thirty-nine
  51. EPILOGUE
  52. A LETTER FROM RICHARD PAUL EVANS
  53. JOIN THE RICHARD PAUL EVANS MAILING LIST, GET A FREE GIFT AND HELP A CHILD
  54. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I believe there is a life after this one. I hope it is a place of second chances, a place where all things are made whole. That, to me, would be heaven. If there is such a place, I’d like to see Grace there. I’d like to see her without worry or pain. I’d like to sit with her and hear her sweet voice, feel her soft lips against mine and laugh until milk shoots from our noses. I hope to look with her into the flame of a candle and hear all about where she’s been and where the world is going. Most of all, I hope to tell her how much I love her still. I don’t deserve it, but I hope.

Maybe someday, through God’s grace, I will.

A LETTER FROM RICHARD PAUL EVANS

Dear Reader,

While the story you’ve just read is fiction, at this moment there are thousands of stories like Grace’s happening in real life.

Through the blessing of your readership and the help of many friends, I have been able to establish The Christmas Box International, an organization dedicated to building emergency children’s shelters and providing services for abused and neglected children. Since we started more than a decade ago, we have served more than twenty thousand children. Most of the children we help are young, sometimes just infants, and usually entering state custody or foster care for the first time.

With the release of this book we have launched an exciting new and massive project called The Christmas Box Initiative. Our goal is to help every youth in America who is aging out of foster care. Right now these youths face serious challenges including; crime, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, poverty, and suicide. With no one to help them, many of them return to abusive home situations or end up homeless and on the streets. We can make a difference. The Christmas Box Initiative is a four-phase plan:

Phase 1. Working with local child protective services, The Christmas Box International will provide Christmas Box Lifestart Kits to youths as they leave state care. These kits include simple but vital things youths need to start their transition to adulthood such as dinnerware, cooking utensils, a first aid kit, a tool kit, bed sheets, towels, and more, including important information to help these youths navigate life on their own. Giving these kits also connects us with these youths in a relationship of trust.

Phase 2. Assist communities in helping their own youth by creating local “Christmas Box Rooms.” A Christmas Box Room would consist of a room or space supported by community members and agencies that would be used to collect and store items needed by youth in that area.