Mom Discovers Son's Heartbreaking Letter to Santa Asking for 'Good Dad' After Fleeing Domestic Abuse

By Kayla Kunkel December 21, 2019 at 12:17am

Millions of children around the world carefully plan and pen their wish lists to send to Santa, but 7-year-old Blake from Texas’ letter is a little heavier than most.

While most children innocently request stuffed animals, dolls and train sets, Blake instead asked for a “very very Very good dad” after he and his mother sought shelter at a domestic abuse shelter just after Thanksgiving.

“Dear Santa,” Blake’s letter began. “We had to leave our house. Dad was mad. We had to do all the chores. Dad got everything he wanted.

“Mom said it was time to leave and she would take us to a safer place where we don’t have to be scared. I’m still nervouse. I don’t want to talk to the other kids.”

Blake and his mother arrived at SafeHaven of Tarrant County, a domestic abuse shelter in the Forth Worth area, just before Thanksgiving, according to CBS News.

The mother found the heartbreaking letter in her son’s backpack a few weeks ago, according to a viral Facebook post by SafeHaven.

Even though it had been an emotional holiday season, little Blake continued to give Santa his wish list in hopes that the big man in the red suit would still come.

“Are you going to come this Christmas?” he asked. “We don’t have any of our stuff here. Can you bring some chapter books, a dictionary, and a compass and a watch?”

The last item on Blake’s list, however, is what makes his list so heartbreaking.

“I also want a very very Very good dad,” he wrote. “Can you do that, too?”

Micah Thompson, SafeHaven’s director of marketing, told CBS News that letters like Blake’s aren’t uncommon for the kids at the shelters.

She explained that the shelter decided to share his letter on social media because it “was an emotional mix of a normal kid asking for his wishes from Santa but also explaining what it’s like to be a child who is away from home in a scary place for the holidays.”

Even though it’s difficult for children to not be home during the holidays, the nonprofit organizes events to make it less so.

It also accepts donated gifts to ensure that kids at the shelter still get Christmas gifts.

“This year we received more than 10,000 donated gifts, so rest assured that Blake is going to have everything he asked for and more for the holidays,” Thompson said. “In the same program we set up a store in shelter where the kiddos can shop for their mom!”

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