Mary wasn't perfect either.

Friday morning, December 20, 2013, Desi and I took the trolley to the safe house.  My bag was filled with scissors, construction paper, pens... and baby Jesus.  This baby Jesus is one we have had in our home since our kids were tiny.  The plastic doll with movable arms and legs smells like baby powder and has chocolate colored skin.  Every year it is wrapped and placed under the tree.  Every year the youngest of our kids opens this "first present" and we then pass baby Jesus in his swaddling cloth around our family circle.  Each person reflects on the past year and God's faithfulness through His Son Jesus.

Desi, dressed in a shawl and skirt and holding baby Jesus, shared the story of His birth in first person.  All of us chuckled at parts of her animated story.  The girls became serious however, when Desi explained how Mary, who is often thought of as perfect and sinless, was a teen girl just like them, with fears and worries and pain and imperfections.  She became the mother of Jesus because she chose to believe God and obey Him, even knowing she might be misunderstood or rejected or even divorced.  She simply said, "Do to me as you will."

Many times I think I know what is the best for me or for others.  I tell God what this "best" is and feel frustrated when He doesn't listen to my ideas.  How much more might God be reflected in my life if I would respond like Mary, "Do to me as you will..."

Next we made paper chains from colored paper for the girls to hang in their rooms or on the security bars on the windows.  None had made them before, and they became absorbed in a simple task, something that seemed so Sunday "schoolish", but for them, it broke up what was another boring day.

Several of the girls asked if we would come back next week to celebrate Christmas with them.  Although I was unable to tell them that day at the request of the director, some of the Casa Adalia team and Douce family arrived the morning of the 24th to bring presents, games, worship and another pancake fest.  I cannot describe the depth of joy I felt when they saw us and shouted, "You came!!  You came!"


A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy.  I came so that everyone would have life, and have it to the fullest.  John 10:10

Oh might they know the ONE who came to bring them life!