Red, Brown, Yellow, Black, and White

Ali brought home three girls over Spring Break: Jordan from Louisiana, Nadia from Brazil, and Rand from Palestine.  Between all of us, we knew: English, Spanish, American Sign Language, Portuguese, French, and Arabic.  We were a rainbow of colors and cultures and funny stories, but we all hit it off quickly.

I met the girls a couple of days into Spring Break.  They had all heard about me from Ali, but since I had recently cut my hair, they weren't prepared that I would look different from my Facebook pictures.  I met them and shook their hands and they all smiled politely and then Ali said, "This is Emily."  Rand shouted, "OH, it's Emily!" and gave me a huge hug.  After that, we were all friends.

It was easy to become friends with the girls.  They were all sweet Christian girls with a heart for the Lord and a cheerful demeanor.

I am fairly certain the girls got a glimpse of the American Experience, what with the camping, Big Texan, Cadillac Ranch, thrift store shopping, and lunch at a 1950's diner.

They even saw some horses tied in front of Dairy Queen.  At the sight of the horses, Rand shouted from inside the car, "Can we stop?  I've never seen real cowboys before!"  I'm sure that was remedied when they had dinner at the Big Texan, one of the biggest attractions of the Texas Panhandle.

Perhaps in a couple of summers, I will be able to go stay with Rand in Palestine and have the Palestinian Experience.  (We are hoping.)

My grandma actually called the newspaper because she was so amused by our friendship.  (I'm not kidding.)  What a wonderful world we live in that girls from so many different places can connect like we have.  

Laughing, we sang, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red, brown, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world."  Ali stopped us and said, "Wait, wait, wait... but who of us is red?"  

I truly am serious about the newspaper part.  Apparently, there will be an article about us in the newspaper soon.  I'll share it with you all whenever it comes out.  I'm not exactly sure yet what the content will hold, but my mom's response was: "You can sure tell we live in a small town if this makes the newspaper!"

I loved meeting these girls in person and getting to know them all (and I hope I'll get to spend more time with them in the future), but I will especially miss my dear sister, Ali.  How I wish we could have spent a little more time together!  But hey, that's always what I wish when we have to leave each other again. 

Thankfully, Easter is only three weeks away.  Much better than the two months we spent away from each other this last time.

This semester is passing so quickly! 

Honestly, I'm feeling a little bittersweet about it.  I have some great plans for the summer (some news I have yet to share) and Impact camp.  Next year I will be moving into a house with Rebecca and two other sweet girls.  I am excited to be through with a couple of the difficult classes of this semester.

However, I've enjoyed aspects of this semester so much that it will be sad to have them end.

For now, I will thrive in the moments of this semester I have left.