Dear Suzy

Dear Suzy,

I've never met you, but you changed my Christmas this season, because you changed Christmas for the Little Girl with the Dimples.

Let me explain: Today our Shoes for Orphan Souls mission team to Peru put new shoes on about 40 teen mothers at Reyna de la Paz orphanage's Domi home for unwed moms and gave them Christmas presents prepared for them by volunteers back in the states.

I watched as one of the mothers, the Little Girl with the Dimples, opened her box of Christmas goodies -- small clothing items, bath accessories and other things girls love and Neanderthals like me can't appreciate. Instead of going for the gifts like so many children do, she went for the card, unfolding it and asking one of our interpreters, Sergio, to read its contents. Your photo from an earlier Peruvian mission trip fell out and she studied it carefully while Sergio read your words.

You shared about your life, your cat Sami, and how your friends at Custer Road Methodist Church in Dallas had packed up the box of gifts for her. You also shared something else that Sergio read with emphasis to her as he finished interpreting it: that "Jesus loves you and you are very special to him." The Little Girl with the Dimples, who already has faced some significant challenges as a young mother living at an orphanage, begged me to take her photo with your letter and picture. She got around to rifling through the gifts, but at that moment in her Christmas, she only cared about the letter that cared about her.

Thanks, Suzy, on behalf of the Little Girl with the Dimples. She asked that I pass along her gratitude and love back to you.

Sincerely,

Russ Dilday