I love this month. If you live through Black Friday, December starts a month full of the world putting their best foot forward. We decorate the outside of our houses with lights, the inside with shiny things that are only brought out once a year. We have parties, wear funny sweaters and intentionally spend more time with family and friends. It is full of great food and inspiring seasonal movies. Truly it is “the most wonderful time of the year.”

December is a wonderful month to work at Amarillo Children’s Home. Getting to spend each day with these great kids is a life changing experience as an adult. At the Children’s Home, it is a time for us to spend more focused time with our kids. We have parties and enjoy the season together as well. It is an opportunity to put our best foot forward and teach kids new traditions that they will implement with their future families. We get to do the important, but hard work of generational change.

On a deeper level these kids remind me during this season that no matter how hard we try to be good, no matter how hard we try to make things look perfect, we still need help. Kids in foster care are a reminder that no matter how things look there is still brokenness in the world. Nothing is shiny enough to distract them from the truth of being separated from their birth families and the pain that comes from being hurt by others. During this season we are acutely mindful that our mission is to restore the identity of kids, so they will understand their great value, and be a blessing to others.

Isn’t this the truth of Christmas? We celebrate the God of the universe choosing vulnerable love (sending His son) to restore our identity; so that we would understand our great value; and be a blessing to others. We are participants in the Christmas stories act of a loving rescue reminding us how important we are to Him. When we understand this great action, we are able to live it for the benefit of the great kids of The Children’s Home.

Thank you for being a part of taking future adults from troubled pasts and giving them hope. I am so very thankful to live and work in a community that experiences the Christmas message rather than merely looking at it. Thanks for being living examples of the Christmas season.

Merry Christmas,

Darrin Murphy, President
Amarillo Children’s Home