it's a special time of the year for us too. we try to ease the burden of the homeless and bring as much happiness and good cheer as we can. this year we have an opportunity to do something we don't get very often. we have the chance to send two females back home to their families. now and then someone will approach us and say they've had enough of being homeless and the things that come with it and want to go home. we try not to pry or intrude any more than we have to, but we do make a soft effort to verify they are going home. it's difficult being homeless, but for a female it can be especially difficult. more often than not, when someone says they've had enough and want to try to begin again, there is only a small window of opportunity to work in. when that window closes and the frustrations of being homeless set back in, their causes for being homeless take hold again and the struggle to survive tugs at them strongly enough...they're gone again. the window closes and we lose them.
one of these females in particular is someone we've been trying to approach and either get into a program or into some sort of long term shelter. the other is relatively new to being homeless and i think will easily transition back into her life at home. either way, we have the opportunity to remove them from the street and send them to their families where they can be safe, take pause and hopefully begin their lives again. i can't think of a more suitable goal than taking someone off the street and reuniting them with their family during the christmas season. it epitomizes what christmas is about...love, forgiveness and beginning anew.