In a belated Christmas miracle, a 4-year-old girl’s letter to Santa Claus was discovered some 650 miles away from her home after she sent it off in a balloon.
Leticia Flores-Gonzalez and her twin daughters Luna and Gianella, 4, spent Dec. 1 writing messages to Santa ahead of Christmas at home in Liberal, Kansas, according to a Facebook post.
Each girl posed happily for a photo while holding the red, star-shaped balloons that contained their letters, and excitedly jumped up and down before they released the balloons into the air.
“It was something different for the girls — a memory they could keep after a rough 2020,” Flores-Gonzalez told Good Morning America. “It was just so cold and windy. I didn’t expect them to go that far.”
Despite all odds, though, they did, and on Jan. 2, Alvin Bamburg discovered Luna’s letter while hunting in the woods in Grand Cane, Louisiana.
“Would love to know when it was launched. Looks like it traveled over 600 miles,” Bamburg wrote on Facebook. “I was hunting and found it. This letter and balloon was made with love. The note was folded and it was sealed with a single red star. I just think something special will come out of this.”
Thanks to the power of social media and many shares, Bamburg was able to track down the family, who live more than 650 miles away, and talked to Flores-Gonzalez to work out a way to arrange for people to fulfill the wishes put forth in the Christmas lists.
Luna asked for candy, a Spider-Man ball, a Frozen doll, a puppy and a My Little Pony, while Gianella wanted candy, stickers, flowers, earrings and a My Little Pony, too.
Flores-Gonzalez wrote on Facebook that she’d clued Luna and Gianella in to the incredible discovery — and that they knew a special elf named Alvin had found Luna’s letter after Santa dropped it.
“Never did it cross my mind someone would find my twins letter to Santa,” she commented on Bamburg’s post. “Tomorrow is not granted and I try my best to do such little things with my girls so they one day look back and have beautiful memories with their mommy.”
Bamburg wrote that he and the “kind and loving” family had forged a special bond thanks to the fateful find, and that he was “thankful” they were now in each other’s lives.
“I believe that we don’t meet people by accident,” Flores-Gonzalez told GMA. “I feel like we’ve made friends for a lifetime.”
She added that any gifts on the list sent along by Bamburg and others who heard about the story on social media will be donated.