When love takes you in, everything changes…

-Steven Curtis Chapman

This weekend Allie and I had the chance to spend the weekend with the Powell family and some of the girls from La Casa de me Padre. To say that we were excited leading up to the weekend is an understatement, but we had no idea of the complete joy and overwhelming love that we were about to experience.

When you spend a weekend of unexpected slumber parties with the little girls of La Casa, love takes you in and takes on a whole new meaning. Both Allie and I have experienced a tremendous amount of love in our lives, but this weekend we found out that love also means creating a game of Grapefruit Olympics in the backyard. It means playing Princess Dominos and UNO by totally made up rules. Love means being a lap to sit on and a waist to hug. It means letting a little girl dry your hair for you and then not completing the drying process afterwards because you know she put her whole heart into it and she thinks it looks amazing. (You know this because she keeps running her hands through it and telling you) Love means sleeping on the floor for two nights and waking up with a little person snuggled right up next to you. Love means not being able to roll over due to the little person and not caring because you are so grateful for that little girl. It means playing endless games of Just Dance, even though you are a terrible dancer. Love is having a sing-a-long in the back of the car even when you don’t understand what they are saying. It’s making bracelets, flat ironing hair, giving up control of your phone to little hands that want to play games, and dancing some more.

You see, spending a few hours with the kids of La Casa will change your mind about a few things, but spending a weekend of slumber parties with them will change your heart. As you look into those eyes that stare straight into your soul, you experience the overwhelming grace and love of your heavenly Father who is the restorer of broken things. As you watch their walls begin to come down, you discover that yours have completely crumbled around you…and love takes you in.

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:12-13

By Kelly Moreton

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