Years ago, I saw a little girl at one of the area schools. There was something about her I have remembered to this day.

For some reason, the sadness on this little girl’s face was etched in my memory. It still is. I am probably overstating the situation but the little girl looked lost. She never smiled. It looked like she did not have a friend in the world. I always wondered what could cause a little girl to be so sad.

Over the years, I watched for this little girl when I went to the school. Would things get better for her? An incredible transformation was taking place which fascinated me. The little girl, so sad, was beginning to blossom. She started to smile. Who doesn’t want to see a little girl smile? Who wants to see any child unhappy?

It turns out the little girl was placed in a local foster family. I knew the family caring for her. Without giving too much disclosure, I will leave it at that.

As the girl grew up, I met her from time to time in my travels. It was so uplifting to see her always smiling, enjoying life. Today, she is a different person.

This is one of several tremendous success stories of how a foster family can change a child’s life. It is the ultimate success story to give a child a second chance.

And succeed!

I finally got up the nerve one day to talk to the parent and thanked her for the amazing job she has done.

“All she needed was a little love,” the woman said, or something similar.

This girl didn’t receive a “little” love. She received a whole lot of love!

Foster families are some of the biggest success stories in our society. I am no expert on the rules governing discloser of names, so I tend to shy way from feature stories. It is too bad, because there are so many loving, caring people willing to open their homes to children and those less fortunate. They are truly treasures among us.

Many of us should realize how lucky we were to be raised in loving homes. We should not take for granted what was afforded to us but we usually do. After all, being raised in a loving home was normal, right?

Sadly, for too many, it is not.

The most basic right of a child to have a loving and caring family is not the norm for far too many. Society should be lucky there are so many families willing to foster children and given them a second chance.

God knows they deserve it.

“All she needed was a little love,” the woman said.

Like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, which sprung to life after being given Linus’s blanket, both are now shining this Christmas season.

“I never thought it was such a bad little tree,” says Linus. “All it needed was little love.”

There is nothing that lights up a room like a smile from a little girl. Thanks to a local foster family, her lights shines bright, and her life is finally beginning in a way it should have started in the first place.

A second chance at life for a little girl, or a child. It doesn’t get any better than that!