Miracle In A Raindrop

Miracles in a Rain Drop, By MileStoneCoins.com

The rains were here. Hurricane Alex was pounding the shorelines of Texas. Inland, in San Antonio, it was creating downpours. Because of strong winds, there was a slight delay in landing, but our flight from Chicago arrived without incident for the 75^th International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Our immediate destination after deplaning was the tent city “Sober Ranch” downtown. Here we would share hopes and dreams (our MileStoneCoin Vision) with comrades. As we jumped into the rental car trudging the Happy Road of Destiny, Mike and I discovered the location was in the historic River Walk District near the Alamo. It was Wednesday, June 30^th and the plan was to stay in Texas until July 5^th on a mission to put MileStoneCoins on the map as a Sobriety Coin company.

Our medallions are like no others. We use the minted year of a U.S. half-dollar to commemorate and celebrate the beginning of your journey. We believe there are 2 important days to remember. These are the day you asked for help, which starts your sobriety year, and today.

We found Sober Ranch and our MileStoneCoin tent. What a sight, there were over 80 thousand members for this most special anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous. 5 trips to Akron Ohio for “Founders Day” were little to prepare us for a celebration of this magnitude.

We set up shop next to The 12 Step Ball (.com) tent and we met the ball’s creator, Amy. She is true, a South Texas Girl. We were instantly impressed by both her and her product. It was not long after we started building our coin displays that the rains hit heavily. During this deluge, a woman approached with trepidation into our tent. Even soaked to the bone, she could not have been over 90lbs. With disappointment in her voice, she stated that none of the other vendors had an anniversary coin for her.

Mike inquired as to what she was looking for. She responded that she had quit drinking two hours earlier after spending her last dollar on a pint. That all the other vendors could offer was a 24-hour coin.

We gave her a 2010 MileStoneCoin, explaining that this could be the only sobriety coin she would ever need. We told her MileStoneCoins celebrates the year when one asks for help to stop the insanity. There was sunlight in her eyes on this cloudy and rainy day. There was a ray of hope. There was more than just rain running down from her eyes. This was what I had come to witness.

For the next 5 days, we worked as hard as we had ever worked anywhere. When time allowed, Amy stepped up and helped us tremendously. We made so many global friends and heard many more wonderful stories. We were all exhausted by our last day. To our surprise while closing up shops, the very same yet now confident young sober woman came strutting up to us and to deliver hugs, professing 5 days of sobriety. She introduced herself as Maria and praised us for selfless generosity and kindness. We had witnessed a miracle.

When a drop of rain lands it has reached its so-called bottom. This fall does not facilitate the end of the raindrop. The action of the fall creates an opposite and equal reaction with the raindrop now reaching for the sky. With a spirit greater than her, Maria’s time had arrived to be on a similar journey.

Today July 1^st, 2011 we received a letter and surprise check from Maria to let us know that she now celebrates 1 year of continuous sobriety with the same coin she used to celebrate 2 hours.

As I get ready to celebrate this year’s Independence Day, I look at my sobriety coin and see “IN GOD WE TRUST” and think how fortunate it is for me to be a part of A.A… I thank its membership for changing my perception of the journey.

THANK YOU,

Richard Thomas,

MileStoneCoins.com