You guys, we are back in the United States of America. We got back late on Saturday and we have spent, or I really should say, I have spent the last day and a half in a funk and totally jet lagged. My husband doesn’t get affected by jet lag too much. I am jealous of him.

I’m beginning to start the process of adjusting back to “real life” – you know, work, blogging, driving a car, etc. It definitely feels weird. I remember it took a while to get back into the swing of things last year. But, life always finds a way to straighten itself out again.

In the meantime, while I’m getting myself in order, I thought I’d share a little about one of my favorite moments of our trip.

Don’t worry, y’all… outfit posts are back in action starting tomorrow! 🙂

I touched on this a little in a post last week, but wanted to share some more photos.

On our last official day in the village, the women on our team had the opportunity, nay, the privilege to paint the women’s nails.

This is a tradition that our team has done every year, but this year it was the most fun I’ve ever had. We took about 25 of the women in the village, we brought them in a classroom, and we created a little “nail salon” for them.

Not only is it awesome to just get the chance to love and serve these women, but it’s AMAZING to see how they TOTALLY come out of their shells.

Kenyan women are STRONG women. These women work, raise children, find ways to feel their families… the whole nine yards. The whole week you see the women working hard with a serious look on their faces (most of the time).

But, you get these women alone in a classroom with some nail polish and cameras, and they turn into GIRLS.

Seriously. They were LAUGHING and having a blast. The women even started talking about their husbands. And the single women? Joked how they might find husbands now!

It was like a bunch of girlfriends hanging out at a beauty parlor.

To get to see them relax and not have to think about work or all the stress in their lives, and just BE WOMEN, was such an honor. I felt SO privileged to be able to join the other women on our team and do this.

It seems so small – something like painting nails – something we women, girls, take for granted. But to these women, it was the time of their lives. They’ll literally be talking about it for weeks, months, even until we go back next year.

They love the bright nail colors and they LOVEEEEE glitter. Every woman wanted glitter on her nails… or a design. But since I have NO idea how to paint a design, I opted for glitter.

So, I painted a few of the women’s nails, and all of a sudden, they wanted to paint mine! So, of course I let them.

Mary, Anacstasia’s mother, painted mine first – and she was GLOBBING the paint on. It was hilarious. I showed her how to smooth the paint out a little.

My nails still looked (and still do) pretty jacked up… but it was so much fun and I felt so honored, I really didn’t care.

Me and Mary after I painted her nails.

Milkah, the nursery school teacher, after I painted her nails.

Some women even opted for pedicures!

Then, the women got SASSY! They started posing and vogue-ing. It was so funny.

It was honestly the most fun I’ve had in such a long time. And it was just another reason why I love serving in this community – getting the opportunity to not only serve alongside them, but also get to just have FUN with them. And be WOMEN.

It doesn’t matter what country your from, what culture you’re a part of – women are WOMEN – and sometimes, we just want to feel LOVED and BEAUTIFUL.

And that’s what we did. We made those women feel LOVED and BEAUTIFUL.

Anyway. I want to thank all of you for your love and support over the last 10 days. You really have no idea how much your comments, emails, prayers, and encouragement meant to me and our team.

Happy Monday, y’all.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

It’s NOW time for the #YOLOmondays LINK-UP with my awesome co-host Carly from Lipgloss & Crayons! This is such a great way to get to know other bloggers! Love seeing y’all linked up every week. 🙂

Grab the button 🙂 (code is available in the sidebar, or you can just right-click and save the above button) The Rules for #YOLOMONDAYS Link-Ups:

1. Grab a button and / or post a link back here in your BLOG POST (NOT your blog’s main page) so your readers know what all the #YOLOMONDAY-ness is about. We love you guys linking up and we do go through and read all your posts… so if you do not give credit, we will have to remove your link. That’s no fun, right? Right. So be nice and share a link! 🙂 Pretty please?
2. Link your blog post up using the linky tool below! It can be ANYTHING! An outfit post, a giveaway, a story, a recipe, whatever. Why? Cause it’s #YOLOMONDAYS!
3. Visit a blog or four that you’ve never been to before and leave a #YOLOMONDAYS comment – you never know, you might “meet” someone new that you will lurve!
4. Have fun! Cause #YOLO!