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Puppy love: Kansas twins get pet after man finds balloon with wishlist 650 miles away

WICHITA, Kan. — You’ve heard of a message in a bottle. Twin girls from Kansas enclosed a wish

list to Santa Claus in a balloon. Last week, a stranger made one of those wishes come true, presenting the girls with a puppy.

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On Dec. 1, 2020, Luna Gonzalez and her sister, Gianella Gonzalez, released a balloon from their home in Liberal, which contained a letter and five wishes, KWCH reported.

“It was something different for the girls -- a memory they could keep after a rough 2020,” the 4-year-old girls’ mother, Leticia Gonzalez, told “Good Morning America.” “It was just so cold and windy. I didn’t expect them to go that far.”

The balloon traveled more than 600 miles, where Alvin Bamburg found them while hunting near Grand Cane, Louisiana, according to KWCH.

“I was on my hunting lease. I was deer hunting,” Bamburg told the television station. “I went to my other stand to check it out and I saw a balloon in a treetop.”

Hoy le mandamos carta a Santa Claus 🎅💝⛄🎁🤍❤️ 12/01/20 Today we sent a letter to Santa 🎅

Posted by Leticia Flores-Gonzalez on Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Bamburg found the Christmas lists and decided to be Santa’s helper. He posted a photo of the balloon and note in a Facebook post. That led to Bamburg contacting Leticia Gonzalez, and they decided to begin gathering gifts and mailed them to the twins, KWCH reported.

“I just thought it would be exciting and different for (the girls),” Leticia Gonzalez told KSLA. “I had family in Mexico and I had seen them do this last year, and I always had it in the back of my mind, ‘Oh, that would be something so super to do with the girls.’ But I never thought something like this would happen.”

New Update: I’ve talked to the mom! What we decided would be best is for anyone who would like to send gifts, send me...

Posted by Alvin Bamburg on Saturday, January 2, 2021

Leticia Gonzalez had taken her family to Mexico for the holidays, and she learned about Bamburg’s Facebook post about the pink, star-shaped balloon.

Bamburg was able to fill the girls’ list, and brought the biggest prize himself. He and his wife drove from Shreveport to Liberal to surprise the twins with a puppy named Max, “Good Morning America” reported.

“If you can make one person smile -- trust me, not only will it help them, it will make you feel so much better,” Bamburg told “Good Morning America.”

Bamburg is more than Santa’s helper. He is a new friend to a family miles away.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” Bamburg told KWCH. “This world is crazy right now. People just need kindness.”