Not Every "FWD" Is a Hoax

Call me skeptical. Call me a pessimist. Whatever you want to call me, go ahead. Just don't call me heartless. In one of the "feelgood" stories of the season this one got to me. In part because I am one of those people who harps on people for continuously forwarding those e-mails saying we'll all get money from Microsoft if we just forward this message. Or how about the one's where you will win a trip to Disneyland? I always check it out at www.truthorfiction.com...and tell people when they are forwarding hoax's. All that being said, this is just a reminder that every once in a while, it's not a hoax. Every once in a while a little effort can go a long way...

130,000 wishes come true
All the the teen wanted for Christmas

CANTON, Georgia (AP) -- Christmas is still going strong for 14-year-old Nick Waters.
When the boy's church asked what he wanted for Christmas, Nick, who cannot talk and was born with no arms, slowly typed his reply with his feet: Lots of Christmas cards. Ten thousand of them.
More than two weeks after Christmas, he has more than 130,000 cards -- and they are still coming. They line the halls at his home, along with the living room, and the kitchen, and every other room in the house.
"To see him the month of December, it was like a different child. His color looks good. It was the best Christmas ever," said Nick's mother, Penny Waters.
Nick has Holt-Oram syndrome, a rare, inherited disorder that causes heart abnormalities and birth defects of the hands and arms. This was the first Christmas in several years that Nick did not spend in a hospital, and no one in his family wants the season to end.
As the cards poured in, Nick's family -- including father, Charles, and sisters Tabitha, 19, and Kasey, 13 -- filled in a map, marking each state where a card had been mailed from. South Dakota and Alaska were the last postmarks to pass through the door.
Cards also have come from Ethiopia, Israel, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Ireland, Australia and Canada.
Nick also received a package from the Secret Service, with photos of President Bush, Air Force One and White House pets Barney and Willie. He has cards from the Wake Forest basketball team, the NBA's Orlando Magic, the University of Georgia, Miss Utah and Elvis, who confided to Nick he is still alive and in hiding.