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Christmas is a time to celebrate Christ’s gift of  love with freinds and family.  We love Christmas and it is one of our favorite times of the year.  Since living in Kenya our love of the Christmas season has only grown more and more.  Part of this is due to the fact that it is the one time of the year that we travel home to be with family.  Another reason is because we have developed many new traditions during our 4 years in Kenya that we greatly enjoy.  One of these traditions is the Christmas party we have at Hosana Children’s home.  Each year we are able to purchase the children a pair of school shoes for the coming year, as well as grill 300 sausages (1st year we did Pizza…but they requested sausages last year), bring soda, chips, and cookies for the children to enjoy.  This a special treat for the kids as their normal diet is adequate and nutritious, but rarely includes special treats (like….sausages.  we still don’t get the appeal but they love them).  We absolutely love this day with the kids.  We can’t explain the joy of seeing the kids faces light up when they get to unwrap their presents and try on their shoes, or when they run excitedly back to their seats eager to drink a cold coke and have a special treat.

This year the day also took on a whole new meaning as Sophie is old enough to truly participate.  She assisted in passing out all 86 pairs of shoes and was excited to be a help.  We were a bit nervous that she would want a gift as well when it was all finished, but we made the decision that we wouldn’t give her one…this was just a day for the kids at Hosana.  We were so proud that when all the gifts were passed out she was just happily watching the excitement of shiny paper flying everywhere.  We know that at 18 months old she does not truly understand everything that was going on, but we hope that these experiences are instilling a joy of giving within her, that even though she may not remember the day she passed out presents to 86 orphaned children that the desire to give and bless others will always be a part of her nature.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the members of Culbreth Memorial Church in Falcon, NC, for raising the funds to purchase the shoes for the children.  As we often say, it is the generosity of others that makes our work possible and for that we are grateful.