“AMYYYYYY!” Courtney greets me by yelling my name through my front door- I haven’t got curtains up yet, so she can usually see me sitting on my couch or grading at my table as she approaches my house, only 20 yards from her own. “Come in, come in!” I smile as she opens my front door and plops down on my couch. “Whatchya doing on Sunday?” She asks, a twinkle in her eyes. “Ummmmmm…… grading?” Pretty typical.

“Do you want to have over the KUW girls to decorate for Christmas??? I know it’s early, but that’s who I am as a human.” Sounds like a great plan to me! I too love Christmas and have no qualms about getting the holiday spirit started early. We text our friend who is the dorm mom of KUW… she sends out the text blast to her girls that 7pm on Sunday we’ll have a decorating party up at our houses. Now that we’re in “Yellow Phase Three” we’re able to have the girls in our homes, as long as we’re all masked and do any eating or drinking outdoors.

Sunday rolls around and I meander over to drop off some leftover birthday cake to that same friend the dorm mom. As I walk past the administrative building (lovingly referred to as Kiambogo), there are two girls from the dorm sitting on the back porch, eating noodles while enjoying the view of the mountains.

“Are we still Christmas decorating tonight?” One of the girls asks eagerly. “Absolutely!” I say with a grin.

Her face lights up as she exclaims her reply, “I’m so excited! I don’t usually get to decorate for Christmas!” I’m sure she could see the shock on my face, straight through my opaque mask! “What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

“Well- when you live somewhere that you don’t even have tables, you eat on the ground, Christmas decorating isn’t really on the top of the list. The community around the remote village my parents are in doesn’t even celebrate Christmas.”

My heart swells with sadness and joy at the same time. Sadness that this wonderful part of the holiday season is something not done in the community she lives, and joy that Courtney had thought to invite the girls to partake in this joyous tradition. What a blessing it was to me to be able to bless the girls in this small way, by opening our homes and letting them do the hard work of hanging lights for us. I’m thankful for these moments of opening my home and inviting the girls further into my life- of creating opportunity to love on them in ways that impact them deeper than originally anticipated. I’m thankful for these girls.

**This blog was started over a month ago- but I felt it was fitting to share as the throws of Christmas quickly approach 🙂