The Kansas City Star

The Tiny Envelope

A family in the midst of tragedy is reminded of the real meaning of Christmas Perry Bice turns off the van’s engine but remains behind the wheel. His shoulders begin racking with sobs. The van doors swing open and two children scramble out. “Why is my daddy crying?” asks 9-year-old Branson Bice. Parked in the […]

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The Circle

It was the night before Christmas Christmas 1998.  Josh Bailey, 10, stared in awe at the stairwell leading up to his bedroom. When he, his brother, Jake, 5, and his sister, Miriah, 4, left hours earlier, on Christmas Eve, their two-story duplex had only two bedrooms, both on the first floor.  Now, 540 minutes later

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Michael’s Mountains

Elves move mountains for a boy with a brain tumor There’s something about mountains, he told his mom. Michael McMahan, 10, kept asking about the colors of mountains: the blues, the browns, the purple majesties. He stared for hours at pictures of mountains. Why does a child growing up in Kansas obsess about mountains? A

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The Promise

An unfulfilled promise to his children is kept Josh Bailey used to daydream with his father about how theyʼd work together, fixing the upstairs of their house so the 10- year-old boy could have his own room. They started their planning a year ago in April, because their family was outgrowing their small house on

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