Around February, my daughter Emma asked me if she could celebrate her 9th birthday with a few friends. I agreed and _________ to make the arrangements. So I dragged my feet and _________ to start phoning around by the end of March, but then COVID-19 happened. We had to wait and see what would happen in the next month. It was not long before I realized her _________ might not become reality.

I _________ my plan that we just made her a theme cake to keep it simple. She agreed. While _________ the theme cake, Emma changed her mind. She said, “Mom, please forget the cake and use the money to buy _________ for children who don’t have, such as toiletries, sweets, chips and chocolate.” I, with my _________ thoughts, almost tried to _________ her, but my mother called her and my _________ was interrupted. She went out and this gave me time to __________ her idea.

The next day I got to work and called my best friend Mrs Cathy for __________ and ideas. She told me, “Don’t worry. I will __________ and have a few things she could use.” My __________ was how and where I could get all the money with this child’s unusual request, but putting kids first, Mrs Cathy did what she always did best—she provided everything.

Then came the day of her birthday, but my heart __________ having to wish my daughter a happy birthday without a gift or even a birthday cake. She __________ wanted nothing. My heart was heavy but so proud of her and her birthday gifts to others.

Follow Every Rainbow

Shirley Allen loved to sing and play the piano. She studied music in college and her_________was to become a concert pianist or blues singer.

Everything_________when she was 20 years old. She became sick with what doctors_________was typhoid fever (伤寒) and she almost died. Doctors gave her medicine to help her get well, but the medicine_________her to become totally_________. She could no longer hear the music which she had always_________Shirley would never give up playing the piano,_________she did decide to change her_________. She went to Gallaudet University and studied English. In 1964 Shirley graduated from Gallaudet and looked for_________. She wanted to be__________and work full-time.

For three years, Shirley worked as a clerk in Washington D.C.__________, in 1967 she was asked to work at Gallaudet University as a dorm supervisor (宿舍监管员). Shirley supervised young women who__________in the university during the school year. She also taught English. Somehow she found time to__________graduate school at Howard University in Washington DC. In 1972, Shirley received her MA degree.

Always__________a new challenge, in 1973 Shirley became a professor at National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), which__________deaf and hard-of-hearing students technical and professional training. This__________woman became the first black deaf female in the world to receive her PhD. She made__________in 1992，__________she received the highest degree in education from the University of Rochester in New York.

Dr. Shirley Jeanne Allen has traveled many roads and__________many rainbows searching for her dream. With courage and__________, she never gave up.

It was unusually quiet in the emergency room on December 25. I didn’t think there would be any________, sighing about having to work on Christmas. Just then five bodies________at my desk, a pale woman and four children.

“Are you all________?” I asked. “Yes,” she said weakly and lowered her head.

But when it came to________of their problems, things got a little strange. Two of the children had headaches, but they didn’t show any________of headaches at all. Two children had earaches,   but only one could tell me which ear was affected. The mother________of a cough but seemed to work to produce it.

Something was wrong. Our hospital policy,________, was not to turn away any patient. I explained it might be a little while before a doctor saw her. She responded immediately, even a bit________“Take your time,” and then added, “It’s warm in here.”

Then, I checked their registration form out of curiosity. No address—they were________.The waiting room was warm. I went back to the nurses’ station and mentioned we had a homeless________in the waiting room. The nurses, complaining of________on Christmas, turned to sympathy for a family just trying to get________on Christmas. The team went into action, much as we do when there’s a________emergency. But this was a Christmas emergency.

We were all________a free meal on Christmas Day, so we took back that meal and prepared a big dinner for our________.We needed presents. We________from different departments candies, fruits and other things________that could be presents. As seriously as we met the________needs of the patients, our team worked to meet the needs of a family who just wanted to be warm on Christmas.

____, as the family walked to the door to leave, the mother came______back, gave me a hug and whispered, “Thanks for being our angels today.”