Soul Sisters

I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, and I love everyone the same; I just like some more than others. ha ha! Since coming here, I've met some amazing people, but there is one person I feel a special connection with. Her name is Flor. Honestly, that's almost everything I know about her. She's probably in her early teens. She has a lot of brothers and sisters. And she's beautiful. Not that stupid, Vogue cover girl beautiful. A soul-level beautiful. She's my girl.

It's incredible how I can feel like I have a relationship with a girl when we don't even speak the same language. But Flor is my soul sister. I don't know how, but there is no better way to explain it. When I hear her yell "Kayla!", I take off running to wherever she is and wrap her up in a huge bear hug. I ask her how she is, and then we just stand and giggle because I don't know any more Spanish. But strangely, that's okay when I'm with Flor. We just get it.

And usually I'm a pretty shy person, especially when I'm struggling so hard to just understand what people are saying. But Flor gets me out of my shell. Take last Saturday night, for instance. There were 30-something teens over at the church for a bonfire. Most of these teens I hadn't even met before, and they like to make fun of the stupid gringo (more about that later). But Flor wanted me to dance around the fire with her. It took one "Please, Kayla" before I was up there singing songs in Spanish and dancing like a fool. And I didn't even care. We were quacking like ducks and flapping arms like chickens (I still don't understand why), and it was a blast. We had dizzy runs, where I spun until I fell down and everyone else stood around and laughed. It was definitely one of the best days of my life. All thanks to Flor.

I don't know how it works. I don't know her story or where she's been or where she wants to go. But when she cries, I cry. When she dances, I dance. And I feel like God has connected our hearts in a way language never could. And that's cool with me.