You Make the World Go Round

Ten years ago in a land far, far away, a young college freshman was handed her first credit card by a stupid credit card company preying on stupid college kids. As visions of makeup and shoes danced in her head, her future dreams, yet to be realized, tumbled to the ground.

For years and years now, I've wanted to do work, any kind of work, in Africa. Unfortunately, credit cards had already ruined me and my financial situation has never allowed that to happen. The African dream has died. :o(

Luckily, there's Katie.

I came across Kisses from Katie from one of my other favorite blogs. Katie is in her early 20's and has been living and working in Uganda since she was 18. I could learn a lesson or two from Katie, she makes excellent decisions! She helps in whatever way she can, but her main purpose is to run a house for approx. 14 orphaned girls. She's even legally adopted 2 or 3 little girls. But most importantly, she's there to share the word of God. I'm in awe of her love, work, and faith and I thank God for people like her.

Speaking of Africa.......

My friend from high school, Tara, and her husband, Brad, are heading to Ethiopia very shortly because they're finally getting their baby boy! FINALLY! It's been a very long road, but I couldn't be happier for them! You can read about their adoption process here The Mowen's Adoption Journey and even donate if you so desire. (Don't tell me you don't desire, I know you do.)

Speaking of adoption........

Adoption's not easy. It's a huge decision that takes lots of patience, work, and sadly, money. Even choosing to be a foster parent is extremely hard work, but I was introduced to this by my church, Safe Families for Children. When a parent or parents are unable to take care of a child for whatever reasons, addiction, lost job, etc., rather than taking custody away from the parent and putting the child into the hands of the government, Safe Families will place the child with volunteer families while the parent is able to receive the help they need and get back on their feet. (I think that's a major run on sentence.) The average length of stay for the child is six weeks and then they are able to go back with their families. Everybody wins! Safe Families ultimate goal is to always reunite the child back with their family, which happens about 85% of the time and is a much higher percentage than if they child was taken by the government.

My point of this is to urge you to consider something like this if you'd like to help but don't know how. Or if you've always wanted to adopt, but aren't in the right place to do that quite yet. Derek definitely needs some nudging (I mean, it's a pretty big deal, I don't blame him!), but this is something I would love to be involved in once we're settled down in a few years.