An hour before dawn this morning, in a pouring rain, wounded Iraq war veteran Dan McKinney returned to his old law enforcement job at the Port of Miami, and received a hero's welcome. The many hugs, handshakes and warm wishes were a far cry from the reception he endured 37 years ago when he also returned injured from Vietnam, and was cursed by angry crowds. On tonight's broadcast, you'll get a chance to meet McKinney and hear from one of the many people at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who took extraordinary steps to support and protect him this time around.

Nearly two years ago, the now 55-year-old McKinney was called up by the Army Reserves, and was sent to Iraq to train policemen. But while he was taking a lunch break at an Iraqi compound, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman walked in the door and set off a deadly explosive. Two Americans were killed, and four were injured. McKinney suffered a severe abdominal injury. He would spend the next year and a half in treatment and rehabilitation facilities.

I met McKinney a few weeks ago, with the intent of using his story as part of a larger report on wounded vets supporting each other at a conference in Orlando. But, I quickly changed my mind and decided to feature him on his own after he gave an extraordinary account of all the people who had rallied to help him. He insisted this outpouring actually accelerated his recovery.

He told of incredible support from his boss, Thomas Winkowski, who went to see him at the Walter Reed Army Hospital promising that no matter how badly McKinney was hurt, no matter how disabled he was, he would always have a job at the Port of Miami. Jose Ramirez, the CBP port director, also pulled out all the stops, calling the hospital daily to make sure all was well. CBP officer Stephanie Mays, a close friend of McKinney's, was actually assigned to be with him at Walter Reed.  She says the first thing McKinney did when she saw him all broken up in the hospital was to apologize for getting hurt.   

As he recovered, McKinney was flooded with cards and letters from CBP officers and their families from around the world, too many to thank individually. Even schoolchildren wished him well. One of them wrote, "You're not lonely, you have friends here in Florida, and I hope you get better." Even for a tough old soldier-cop, it was powerful and emotional tonic.

This morning, McKinney finally came home again, well enough recovered to arrive for his first day back to work. He found himself surrounded by a crowd of blue uniforms -- officers young and old who had each played a role in bringing him back. When asked how he felt, he said simply, "I feel very humble." 

What would you do if somebody walked up to you, handed you a $100 bill, and then walked away? Feel pretty lucky, I imagine. Until earlier this week, I probably would have agreed with you. But it turns out the guy who handed you the money is really the lucky one.

On Monday Kevin Tibbles and I were fortunate enough to meet a Kansas City businessman by the name of Larry Stewart. Stewart has made millions in telecommunications over the years, but there was time when he wasn't so fortunate. He's the subject of our "Making a Difference" story tonight.

Once homeless and hungry himself, $20 from a diner owner changed the course of his whole life. He vowed if he was ever in a position to do the same for others he would. Eight years later, Stewart was having a tough time once again. He lost his job just weeks before Christmas. Even though he only had $600 in his bank account, he took out $200 in $10s and $20s and started handing them out to people. Kansas City's Secret Santa was born... and Larry Stewart's luck started to turn around. By January he had his job back. Three years later Stewart was a millionaire and Secret Santa switched to $100 bills. Since then he's handed out more than $1.3 million. Handing out $100s to strangers was Stewart's Christmas gift to himself every year.

In the '90s, Stewart began inviting members of the local media along on his "sleigh rides," just as long as they agreed not to reveal his identity. He wanted to learn about the people whose lives he was changing. For more than a decade, trying to guess Secret Santa's identity has been a parlor game in Kansas City during the Holidays.

But the secret is out. Since coming forward last month, Stewart's been speaking to community groups about the power of random acts of kindness. He's even been signing up other Secret Santas on his Web site.

Stewart's also preparing for one his greatest challenges. In April he found out he had esophageal cancer. Even worse, the cancer has spread to his liver. He begins chemotherapy in January, but vows this won't be his last Christmas.

By coming forward and telling his story, Stewart hoped to teach people a lesson about the power of giving, especially during the holidays. I know he taught me one.

The good thing about this job is that every so often you really win one. Far from the unpleasant scenes and long hours we sometimes face, a few of us spent a spectacular day boating across Florida Bay in search of roseate spoonbills. Those pink and white wading birds with their odd-shaped gray bills have chosen a remote island near the Florida Keys as their winter nesting site. Audubon scientists took us along to watch them count nests and eggs. The sun was high, and the water was as smooth as glass, making it a very nice day at the office.

On tonight's Nightly News broadcast, we'll show you some of the pictures from our trip. They're part of a report we've done on an increase in wading bird populations in the Florida Everglades. While many credit this increase to favorable weather conditions, some say it's in part due to a successful attempt by biologists and Everglades water managers to create better feeding and nesting conditions. Working together, they're trying to make sure that water is where it's needed, when it's needed. It hasn't always been that way.

For decades, the Everglades have been a huge man-made plumbing project, with canals and spillways controlling the water flow from Lake Okeechobee southward through the River of Grass. Wading birds are very sensitive to that flow. There needs to be a lot of water in the summer and fall, so fish populations can grow. And the area must be dry in the winter when the birds are nesting, so they can easily feed on fish now trapped in small pools. In the past, when water management led to flooding and drought at the wrong times, the birds suffered, and the populations dwindled.

No one is saying that all the problems of the Everglades are being corrected -- far from it. We heard impassioned complaints from environmentalists that the federal government is falling short on its commitment to help restore this valuable and unique wetland. But, we did see the apparent results of a nice first step, and we talked to a lot of people who truly care about the health of birds and their nesting grounds. Heading back from the remote island with the sun beginning to set, it felt as if we'd experienced reason for hope.

Editor's note: Mark and his NBC News crew captured some of the beautiful sights and sounds from their reporting trip and were kind enough to put together a natural sound tour of the Everglades. Click here or on the image to watch.

HAVANA - Tonight on Nightly News we'll take a look at the politically-complicated efforts to restore the Cuban home of famed American writer Ernest Hemingway. Reporting this story gave us rare access to the fascinating place known as Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm, which sits on a hill overlooking Havana. Hemingway lived and worked there for 21 years, from 1939 to 1960, and it's where he finished "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and fully wrote "The Old Man and the Sea," for which he won both a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize for Literature.

All of us in the NBC team were struck by how the house seems frozen in time, and feels as if Papa, himself, could stroll through the door at any moment. The walls are filled with his hunting trophies from around the world, including the head of an African Cape Buffalo. On the bathroom walls are the handwritten notes he would write every day recording his weight. The last entry was from July 24, 1960. He weighed 190 pounds then.

In back of the villa is the swimming pool where Ava Gardner reportedly swam naked. And there is also Hemingway's storied fishing boat, the Pilar, upon which he shared many adventures with his old Cuban pal Gregorio Fuentes, who died four years ago at the age of 104. The Pilar is also being restored, and some American preservation experts are offering technical advice, as they are for the house. But, because of the U.S. trade embargo, they can't provide any money or needed materials. That's the politically-complicated part.

In the living room we found Hemingway's Zenith radio and his phonograph still working, and we actually listened to some of his records. Hemingway must have really liked Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," because that record is just worn out. In the simple front bedroom, which Hemingway used as his office, we saw his handwritten epilogue to "For Whom the Bell Tolls." He thought of changing the ending, but reconsidered, and never actually published it.

Finally we saw the exact spot where Hemingway would stand in front of a bookshelf in the morning hours to write his world-famous novels. The Cuban curators were good enough to also let us see the actual Royal typewriter he used there. It struck me that sitting by itself, it's a mere machine. In his hands, though, it was the door to literary achievement and worldwide fame. Playing awestruck silly tourist for a moment, I had my picture taken next to the typewriter, hoping a little magic might rub off.

HAVANA - While in Cuba on assignment to cover Fidel Castro's health, U.S.-Cuban relations and the politically complicated efforts to restore Ernest Hemingway's home (a story that will air on a future Nightly News broadcast), I took some time for a more personal mission and was quite moved by the goodwill of the people I met along the way.

My wife, who is Cuban-American, asked me to try to locate her childhood home in a village about two hours from Havana. Her family moved from there to the Cuban capital in 1960, after the revolution. She then emigrated to the United States alone in 1970, returning only once, in 1980, to retrieve her mother and two brothers during the Mariel boat lift. Quite understandably, her memory of the place had faded a bit.

Click here to read the rest of Mark's reporter's notebook.

I had to smile this morning when I read that Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus pioneered the concept of microcredit -- giving unsecured loans to poor people -- and he was the inspiration for a man we featured earlier this year on a Nightly News "Making a Difference" piece from the island of Samoa, in the South Pacific.

What might appear to be dry economic and social theory on paper is actually deeply moving when you see it in practice and witness the results -- as we were lucky enough to do this spring.

Our story featured Greg Casagrande, who was a hard-charging executive for Ford and Mazda before he gave it all up to chase his dream of eradicating poverty. After studying Yunus' principles, he used his own money to start up a loan program for women in impoverished Samoa. 

With the equivalent of just $200 in loans -- money they would never have been able to get from traditional banks -- the Samoan women went right to work opening up grocery stores, sewing centers, tiny restaurants, orchards and craft booths. Some raised pigs and cattle, others wove and sold colorful baskets.

Under the rules of the program, the women were expected to put their kids in school, account for all their financing, and pay back the loans. At the time of our reporting, Casagrande's program had given out nearly 10,000 loans, totaling $3 million over a period of six years. Almost every one of those loans has already been repaid.

With their business profits, the women cared for their families and helped build new homes. They wore nicer clothes and were healthier, and they had a glowing sense of accomplishment.

Millions of poor people have benefited from Yunus' microcredit success, and are all part of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. We had the privilege of meeting some of them in a far-off corner of the world, as they took pride in their success.