Supplies Needed

18 days y'all.

That both excites me and nearly causes me to panic because I have A LOT to do in those 18 days!

It's all good though. It's gonna be fun. :)

I really thought that I would be blogging more about all of this. Maybe I still will.

Part of the reason I haven't is because I want to do justice to the incredible ministries that we will be working with and I just haven't felt particularly inspired to write.

Another part is because I've just been busy and haven't made time.

I'm rambling.

Sorry.

I have some awesome news...

I AM FULLY FUNDED and am well over my $3500 goal! Soli deo gloria!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I still have a couple more local fundraisers going on and I can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for this. I'm excited about all of the ways we are going to be able to truly bless these ministries and kids. :) So - just because I have met my goal doesn't mean I'm not still accepting moolah. :) I'll take it right up until I step on the plane. :)

I have another way that y'all can help these sweet orphans:

There are several things that the orphanage and other ministries have requested that can be easily donated and there are also some craft supplies that I am taking over (for VBS) that would be awesome to have donated.

Here's the list of things we need:

*small mirrors (They can be little compact mirrors or handheld mirrors. They do not have to be brand new. We need AT LEAST 200 of these.)

*markers (These need to be new and do not have to be washable)

*glue (Elmer's or similar)

*deodorant (guys and girls)

*bras (new or clean gently used - sizes 36C and up - especially D cup sizes)

*Pull-Ups for 4 year olds

If you would like to donate any of these items and are local just email me and I will tell you what to do with them or if you know me in real life you can just drop them by whenever. I need them NO LATER than March 8th. If you aren't local but want to donate you can use the paypal button on my sidebar and specify what you want the donation to be used for or you can have supplies shipped to me. Email me for my address at moonpie.designs@yahoo.com.

Y'all are the best! Know that every little thing helps. It really does. Y'all rock my socks off when you step up to meet needs. Thanks in advance. :)

Love.

Say CHEESE!

So remember how for awhile there Silas wouldn't even look at the camera and would also resort to yelling at me when I had it out?

Well apparently he is over his camera-shyness because now as soon as I get it out he does this:

and screams CHEEEEEEESE at the top of his lungs.

I seriously have no idea who taught him that - I wasn't going to teach him to say "cheese" because it makes you look ridiculous instead of smiling like normal. But, he learned it somewhere.

On occasion it results in a cute smile like this one:

But most of the time it looks like this:

And this:

And even this:

Boy it's a good thing you're cute!! :)

Yay!

When CSN Stores contacted me about doing a review of one of their products I knew immediately that I would try to review something that I can give to the kids in Uganda. I haven't decided exactly what that is going to be yet, but CSN Stores has everything from shoes to toys to modern decor so it should be pretty easy to find something the kids or Canaan Children's Home can use. :)

As soon as I search through their literally hundreds of stores for what I want to review I'll be posting about the experience here.

Called by God

The following is from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest (January 14th) and I have been thinking on it since the first time I read it YEARS ago. I think that all too often we sit around waiting for God to "call" us to do something (give to the poor, love/adopt an orphan, live the gospel - at home or in a far-away place, etc...) when in actuality, He already has. We have His WORD and it is filled with our "callings." If we are really listening we WILL hear a call. If we don't it is not because He isn't calling - it is because we don't really want to hear it. We would rather hold on to our paper-thin excuses of "I'm just not called to that" than admit that we ARE and we'd just rather be disobedient than uncomfortable.

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ’Here am I! Send me’ —Isaiah 6:8

God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “. . . who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “. . . who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”

Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard-”the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”

Story Time

This is a long one - but worth it I think.

I had a hard time in Burkina Faso.

Not just with the spiders and scorpions (a teammate was stung and out of commission for days) but with homesickness.

For the first couple of days of being in the village (Sagtambila) I was just miserable. And I hated that I was miserable. I was praying constantly to feel like I was "home" there - and to be at peace so that I could minister to the people.

Finally it happened. About a week after we got to the village we heard a vehicle coming. We looked and there was Cory (the Journeyman that had dropped us off). He was just coming for the day for a visit. I don't know what it was about having him drop by, but suddenly it felt like home. We showed him around and in doing so, my homesickness left. It was like I was showing him around my own hometown. And I was grateful.

A couple of mornings later I woke early with a gentle whisper in my ear..."go home." My immediate reaction was "what??!?!? That doesn't make any sense. Why would I go home now? Now that I actually feel at peace here and after I raised all of the money to get me here?" I spent the rest of that day and all of that night praying about what I was supposed to do. It just didn't make any sense to me that I should actually be feeling led to go home. And I was afraid that somehow I was just making it up or my brain was playing tricks on me.

After much prayer, I decided that I would head back to the States (even though I still didn't understand why) after we went back into the city for a weekend of refueling, but before the team headed out to the next village. That at least made a little sense to me because there was no real way that I was going to get out of the village before that. We had no transportation and it's not like I was just going to take off walking in the generally direction of a road. We went to market in a nearby village called Loumsabaka the day after I felt like I needed to go home, and I can't lie and say that I wasn't looking for someone, ANYONE, with a cell phone that we could maybe use to call Cory to come get me. But I knew it wouldn't happen and was content to stay with my team for another week when we would be picked up and taken back to the hotel in the city.

The next day it rained and I started feeling sick. Sometime that afternoon I passed out when I got up to go help the other girls wash some clothes. It was decided that I was just dehydrated and that I needed to drink and rest. I didn't think I was dehydrated because I had been drinking water regularly, but since I didn't really have any symptoms other than feeling weak and dizzy, I just drank more water and laid in my tent. Because I felt sick, at this point I started wanting to go home.

I started feeling worse over night and I didn't get up when the rest of the team did. Finally about 10am (I think) I HAD to get up to at least go pee. Remember I had been drinking LOTS of water. I stood up outside of my tent and immediately got tunnel vision and knew that I was about to pass out again. That's where my memory ends. I was told by my team that Katie was near me and that she was keeping an eye on me when she saw me try to leave my tent. She said that I called out to her right before I started falling and that she ran and tried to catch me before I fell all the way to the ground. She sort of caught me and started yelling for the guys to come help her (they were farther away doing something - probably playing soccer with the kids) and they came running to help. They yelled for Tiffany (no idea where she was - I feel like maybe she was in the compound doing something) and then they all laid me down under the tree and started assessing the situation. I woke up a minute or so later to Tiffany taking my pulse. And then I started shaking. I was FREEZING even though it was over 100 degrees. It became apparent that I had a high fever. Tiffany had some medicine that was some strong antibiotic supposedly used to treat the likes of Anthrax, and they gave me several vitamins and that medicine. They covered me up with a big blanket and eventually the chills stopped.

Since I had been trying to get up to go potty, I still really REALLY needed to go, but I was too weak to stand up much less walk by myself. Tiffany and the other girls basically carried me to the bathroom and when we got there we heard a snake (I think Tiff saw it) and they grabbed me and took off running with me (my dress still up around my hips and my panties at my ankles! I'm sure my pale white butt flashing all of Africa was a SIGHT to see!!) to a new place to make a restroom. When we finally got situated, them holding me up under my arms and with a couple people attempting to hold my legs, I peed in the most humiliating of ways possible. And I peed on their feet. i remember that most vividly. I peed on their FEET. And I was mortified but completely helpless to do anything about it. I remember that I kept apologizing over and over and they kept saying that it was ok - that it was just pee. THAT was quite a humbling experience. And not the last one I would have before leaving Burkina.

By this time my village Mom and Dad had been told that I was sick and they were waiting with my brother "Billy" when we got back from the bathroom. Several other villagers came over to check on me and more than once someone suggested that I might have malaria. Tiffany got my into my tent and we searched my body for mosquito bites. We couldn't find any, but that didn't mean that I didn't have malaria. At this point I didn't care what I had - I just wanted my Momma and Daddy.

Tiffany asked me if she needed to try and get in touch (somehow) with our home base to have them come get me and I said yes. I said yes even though I really thought it would be impossible. So pretty much immediately Tiffany and Billy took off walking toward another village with a little "clinic" that Billy new about. Wait, maybe they rode a bike together - I can't remember. Anyway - the only hope was that the clinic would have a phone that they could use. And since I had rained the day before and looked like it might rain again at any minute and there was a river to cross they had no time to lose. I knew that walking miles and miles with little hope of actually finding a phone was not something that Tiffany was excited to be doing, but she did it anyway and I was (And still am) humbled by it.

They were gone ALL DAY. The villagers fed those of us that stayed behind and sometime after dinner we heard laughing coming from the direction that Tiffany and Billy started walking, and sure enough, here she came! And she was so happy! (Billy was not with her) I had been praying for them all day - that their trip would be successful and that they would be blessed for their willingness to help me. The Lord answered our prayers - they made it to the clinic (and didn't drown in the river as they crossed) and it did have a phone. It would only call a bigger clinic in another town though, so they called the other clinic and tried to give them the phone number of the missionaries and explain that they needed to send someone to come get me. Because they weren't sure that the message had been conveyed, they convinced someone where they were to let them borrow a moto and Billy took off on it to go to the bigger clinic to use their phone that could call anywhere.

All we could do now was pray and wait and hope that someone would come for me in the morning. I held on to that hope with everything in me.

The next day was Sunday and the team was supposed to go to church without me but since it had rained and the river was raging everyone decided to stay in Sagtambila. The ladies of the village came to our tree and they laid hands on me and prayed over me and let me just tell you - I was a mess. I was so overwhelmed by their compassion and the passion in their voices as they prayed both for my healing and for someone to be able to come get me. I was ready to give up hope. I really thought that I was going to die there - which was ridiculous because I wasn't even that sick anymore - just weak - but I was convinced this was the end for me. But their prayers renewed my hope. I will forever remember their voices saying "Ameena ameena" (amen - may it be so) as they prayed. It was the only thing I could understand. :)

After church I was just laying out on my mat under the tree listening to music and trying to hold on to the hope that had been renewed just an hour or so earlier. Suddenly I heard the sound of a motor and then little screams and the children saw someone coming on a moto. It was Cory. Someone had come!! My heart nearly exploded with joy! I had a rush of adrenaline from my excitement that SOMEONE HAD COME - that Billy made it to the big clinic and managed to in his very very broken English tell them what they needed to know - and I was able to get up and walk on my own to my tent to start gathering things I would need to take home. I left everything but my Bible and journal and pillow and a small backpack of things. Cory was on a moto (basically a dirt bike) because he had flooded 2 (two!!) SUVs trying to get to me but the river was too deep over the road to drive through it - but boy did he try. He ended up walking through the river with the moto over his head. After a tearful goodbye to my team and Mom and Dad (Billy still hadn't returned - never got to thank him or tell him goodbye) I got on the back of the moto and we took off. The adrenaline rush had worn off a bit but I held on to Cory for dear life. We rode for about 2 1/2 hours. When we got to the river we had to leave the moto on one side (Cory had to go back to Sagtambila) and then we walked through the waist-deep river - me holding on to Cory and Cory holding my backpack and pillow above his head) to the other side where the Journeymen who had not taken teams out to villages were cheering and waiting for us. The girls had though to bring food and popsicles and I sat on a tire on the side of the road and ate and rested while we waited hours for Cory to go back to the village and then return to us.

We went to the missionaries' house and I took a shower (by sitting down - I was NOT going to risk fainting in the shower and having more people see my pale white butt!) and then went to bed. It was determined that while I was still weak that I didn't seem to be actually "sick" of anything and the fever was gone so the hospital wasn't necessary. I told them about feeling like I was supposed to go home before I got sick (even though I knew it made me sound crazy) and the next day we went to the travel agency and booked my flights home for late that night. Tammy took me to a guest house is Ouagadougou (the capital and where the airport is) and I stayed there until another missionary that lived in Ouagadougou came to give me dinner and take me to the airport. Sometime that day I called home and told Mom the story and said that they needed to be in New Orleans that night to pick me up. The missionary man dropped me off outside the airport and paid a young man to help me get my bags inside and checked in. The young man took very good care of me and got me exactly where I needed to go. I got on the plane and headed to Paris. I had been praying that there would be an English speaker seated next to me on all of my flights - so that if I did get sick again there would be someone near me who would understand. Again, God answered even this seemingly unimportant prayer and I had a British woman next to me on my flight to Paris. In Paris I changed planes and headed to Philadelphia -another English speaker by me. And in Philadelphia I got on a plane headed to New Orleans where my family was waiting to pick me up.

It was on the flight from Philly to NO that the reason I came home early was made clear.

I was seated in the very last row of the plane and the whole plane was only about 1/2 full. The was a young man about my age seated in the window seat across the aisle from me. By this time I am beyond exhausted and I really just want to lay down and try to sleep. But before I went to sleep I wanted to tell him that I had been sick and if something strange started happening with me that he needed to tell someone. He started asking questions and before you know it we are talking about Jesus. I moved over to his side and we talked for a couple of hours and eventually he prayed on his own and received Christ. This is the only time I have ever experienced that with someone. His name is Brian, and a little after he prayed he looked at me and said, "It was for me." I didn't know exactly what "it" was, but he explained that it had dawned on him that he had to have been the reason that I felt like I need to "go home" and why I got sick and didn't stay in the village for another week like I had originally planned. He said that he felt like God was trying to tell him that he was worth it - worth all of the little things that had to happen for our meeting to take place. I hadn't even thought about that but suddenly I was very very grateful for everything that had happened to get me on the plane in a seat next to Brian.

Sometimes our plans work out and sometimes God smashes our plans to smithereens and writes a new story for us. I am forever grateful for the lessons learned in Burkina and on an airplane 30,000 feet up. Thank you Lord for caring not for our plans but having a bigger one that is the best of the best - regardless of what it holds for us. I am blessed to have been a little part of the Big Story.

Embrace the Camera (1-27-11)

Justin grabbed the camera and snapped these pics because we thought Silas was going to fall asleep on me and cuddle and be so cute.

Sweet lovey boy!

Except that two seconds later he was doing this:

and yelling "booooooobies!"

Crazy kid. He did decide to be sweet and give kisses though. :)

Go get your Embrace on!

Uganda Trip Update - Itinerary

Alright peeps.

Get out your calendars.

The trip has been changed to March 12 - 22.

Yeppers.

Thankfully I was able to be flexible easily and didn't have major hustling going on this week to try and make it happen. Some of my team did, and a couple of them are now unable to join us. :(

The trip was changed for a couple of different reasons and while frustrating, I am trusting that the Lord's plans are not mine and that He knows what He is doing. :)

So that leaves 44 days until we leave. :)

Here's our itinerary:

Saturday 3/12 - Leave DC headed to Uganda

Sunday 3/13 - Arrive in Entebbe, head to the hotel and rest.

Monday 3/14 - Spend the day with the children of Return Uganda Ministries. Drive to Jinja and arrive at Canaan Children's Home.

Tues & Wed 3/15-16 - Spend the day with the children at Canaan.

Thursday 3/17 - Work with street children in Jinja with Pillars of Hope Uganda/From the

Streets

Friday 3/18 - Head to Amazima to work with the feeding program. Dinner at King Fisher Lodge and boat ride to the source of the Nile.

Saturday 3/19 - Feeding program at Amazima and then dinner at Canaan's

Sunday 3/20 - Church at Pastor Isaac's two churches - teach Sunday School. Minister among theKaramajong tribe (the least of the least of Uganda)

Monday 3/21 - Depart Jinja and head to My Father's House and Royal Hope Academy. Depart for the States in the evening.

Tuesday 3/22 - home.

I'm sure I will have more details as we continue our conference calls and get closer to the trip. Please mark your prayer calendars for these new dates and visit the websites of the ministries that we will be serving with.

And just for fun...

And the stories begin.

My first night spent in the African bush (as opposed to a hotel or house) found me unprepared for what I was about to experience. I was in Burkina Faso, West Africa with a group of about 25 other college students from all over the US. We were there to travel to remote villages with the young adults ( called Journeymen) who were living there for 2ish years and build relationships with the Marense people. That's the short of it anyway. Shortly before our teams were to leave the hotel where we had been training to head to our respective villages, a great majority of the team got sick. I was one of the few that didn't. Instead of just hanging out at the hotel waiting for everyone to get well enough to go out, one of the Journeymen girls (Kara) offered to take about 5 of us that were healthy to her "home" village for the night. We said sure since we were anxious to dive into the culture and experience the real Africa. Ha.

What she failed to mention was that she was ONLY going to drop us off - without a translator, means of transportation, or anything but basically a change of clothes, our water bottles and the promise that she would return the next day to pick us up.

I found out very quickly that while speaking the same language is quite beneficial, the language of hospitality and love is universal. The village we were in was called Louda and the people were amazing. They cooked a delicious meal of chicken stew served over rice and I found out later that THAT was a treat. They gave us the very best that they had. We spent the afternoon playing soccer with the kids and trying to help the women prepare the meal, and the evening singing songs around a campfire. We taught them to sing the children's song, "Hallelu, hallu, hallelu, hallelujah - Praise ye the Lord" and hearing them sing in their rich accents and clap and dance is forever ingrained in my memory. They sang their songs for us too and up until it was time to go to bed it was a magical evening.

Since Kara lived in that village we had access to her little hut and a couple of cots. It was HOT (between 100 and 120 degress F while we were there) so we decided to sleep outside in hopes of there being a breeze. This turned out to be a terrible idea. The guys opted to give me and the other girl with us the cots and we slept just outside of the entrance to Kara's hut. I can confidently say that that was the worst night of sleep I have ever had. EVER. We didn't have a mosquito net and the flies buzzed and landed on my head all night long. I tried covering up with my extra clothes, but then I would get too hot. It was LOUD - there were animals of all sorts walking around us all night, babies crying, fire crackling...it just wasn't conducive to a good nights sleep. Once I finally did fall asleep I was awakened at about 4am by the women of Louda preparing things for the day. When I opened my eyes there was a cow with it's face about 12 inches from mine. It was sniffing me. Lovely. :)

Kara did return to pick us up and I got one night of half decent sleep before we headed out to our own villages.

My village was Sagtambilia and I kid you not, when we were on our way there the driver literally turned off of the dirt road and just started driving into the middle of nowhere. There was no sign, no road, no sign whatsoever that we were headed towards any type of civilization. I asked how he knew where we were going and he said he was guessing - and that he hoped once we got closer that we'd see someone we could ask. This is Africa. :)

My little team was made up of one Journeyman (Tiffany) and 6 students - 3 guys and 3 girls. We brought tents to live in and we set up camp just outside of one of the compounds (a compound is a group of huts where a big extended family lives and it is generally enclosed by a fence of some sort) under a big baobab tree.

The first night in the village the people wanted to have a celebration dance to welcome us. We stayed up late dancing and having a good time. Well, everyone seemed to be having a good time. I was quite nervous about how the night was going to go having already experienced trying to sleep in a village. And I was also nervous about the fact that we saw a scorpion while we were setting up our tents but lost track of it before we could kill it.

When it was time to get ready for bed, I headed into my tent to change clothes and grab the necessary items required for bathroom breaks in the bush - tp and a flashlight. :)

I had brought with me a little battery powered lantern that I was hanging from the ceiling of my tent. While I was changing clothes I noticed that there were things moving near the bottom of the outside of my tent. And then they started moving UP the sides of my tent - about 5 or 6 of them.

Y'all.

These were the biggest spiders I had ever seen that weren't tarantulas. Because I didn't want to be the chicken little white girl, I just flicked them off and grimaced as they weighed enough to make a "thud" sound when they hit the ground. As calmly as I could I called for Tiffany and she explained that they were camel spiders ("gottemgottemas" in Marense) and that though their bites were extremely painful, they were not deadly. She said this as if to suggest that I should not be concerned about them.

Au contraire my friends.

From that moment on I was in a constant state of paranoia and spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for and killing them all around our camp. It was my personal mission to rid Sagtambilia of camel spiders. :)

I also found out that night that camel spiders are very much attracted to light and that they are the fastest arachnid. This caused a great deal of panic for me since it was now night time and I was about to have to walk into the bush to use the restroom and in order to do that I had to use a flashlight so that 1- I wouldn't step on any scorpions and 2- I wouldn't sit on any prickly bushes because there is an abundance of those. As I was walking to the restroom and shining the light in front of me back and forth, I kid you not I could see the spiders running as fast as they could from all directions towards the beam of light.

Let's just say that I learned to pee really really quickly on that trip. :)

I eventually fell asleep after checking under everything in my tent a crazy amount to times to make sure no gottemgottemas had snuck in only to be awakened sometime between 3 and 4 by a flock? gaggle? bunch of guinea fowl running through our camp making the most God-awful noise I have ever heard. They would do this almost every night for the remainder of the trip. I now have a great disdain for guinea fowl.

Here's a video of what guineas sound like - take a listen but then imagine that times 6 or 7 as they were all making this noise at the same time.

Awful.

And I was going to show a picture of a camel spider, but just looking them up gave me so much anxiety that I couldn't do it. Just google camel spider and look at the images. And then be afraid, be very afraid.

I hope you don't get the impression that I hate Africa or that any of this was necessarily bad - it wasn't. I just don't do well with little sleep or strange creatures and so looking back I find all of this terribly funny. Hopefully I haven't scared you away from Africa. :)

More stories to come - with less scary bugs and stuff. :)

P.S. Silas just woke up and I am not going back to proof read this so please excuse my mistakes. :)

The latest.

I whipped up a little ruffle butt onesie order for a friend today (I won't say who just in case it'd ruin the surprise for whoever is getting it)

Gotta love a ruffle butt! :)

***On another note, our first Uganda Team conference call is in 4 hours. WOOT!!***

Uganda Update

I leave in 56 days for Uganda.

I.cannot.wait.

I'm not sure I can fully express how huge this is for me - but if you know me in real life, you KNOW.

I've been remembering things from my other trips to Africa and I'll be sharing some stories with y'all over the next few weeks - some funny, some scary, and some that are just, well, Africa. :)

I've "met" some of my team mates via facebook and blogs and even talked to one on the phone this morning. It's a small world because Kimberly and her husband Jared are on my team and they live just a stones throw away so I'm super excited to get to meet them before we show up at the airport. :) The rest of the team is scattered all over the US so I won't be meeting them face to face until we get to Dulles in DC to get on the plane to Ethiopia - BUT - our conference calls start tomorrow night so I'll kinda get to meet them then. So.excited.

As of today I have $2665 of my $3500 goal met.

Y'all.

God is totally showing himself BIG in my fundraising. I made the deadline for the $2000 for the plane tickets the DAY BEFORE it was due. In the beginning of all this I had a ton of anxiety about raising the money in such a short time and after a couple of days of ridiculous sinful worrying I finally gave up and just surrendered to God's timeline. The funds have been steadily trickling in from family, friends, and even people that I barely know. Glory to God.

Thank you to all of you who have given and prayed.

Please continue praying for all of us.

As excited as I am about this trip, I am also scared to death.

I'm not scared of flying or getting sick (been there, done that!) or missing home or something terrible happening.

I am scared of what I'm going to see.

Of what is going to happen to my heart and my faith and my life.

Of the changes that are going to have to take place in my life when I come home.

I already had a big compassionate heart for babies and children in need and over the past year the Lord has made it even bigger. I do not know if my heart can handle everything that I am going to encounter. It might just break right in two.

And I also know that is a good thing.

It is good to hurt with those that are hurting.

But it does just that - HURTS.

So as hard as it is sometimes for me to pray this and as scared as I am, I'm praying that I (and my family) will truly never be the same after this trip. That changes will take place that make me more like Him - no matter what that means.

Lord do with me as you will.

Be glorified.

"Not from sorrow, pain, or care

Freedom dare I claim

This alone shall be my prayer -

Glorify Thy name."

New Years 2010/2011

New Years Eve was celebrated with our favorite people again this year (as is tradition) at the Cardoza house. Justin and I seriously look forward to this night the whole year because it is so relaxing and so much fun!

You are going to see a theme in the pictures I decided to post - smiles and laughter! I'm trying to do a better job of capturing our memories and when Silas and other Moon kiddos are older I want them to be able to look back at these pictures and know that we were happy and filled with laughter when they were little. Actually, I want them to have lots of their own memories filled with momma and daddy laughing, but I'll have pictures as proof. :)

Pretty deliciousness.

We tried to take a picture of the three of us for like 10 minutes but we kept laughing because mine and Leslie's boobs were touching when we leaned in for it and we found that hysterical.

Probably the best picture of us since our Beach Trip in '08.

We always play a game while we wait for midnight to roll around (watching Matt try to stay awake for this is hilarious) and this year we all forgot to bring our games so we just played old school charades. Zach made up all of the things we had to act out.

Ahem.

I think in this one I was excited that someone actually guessed what I had been acting - because my first two rounds were awful. First I had "Feliz Navidad" and then I had "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and then finally "Victoria's Secret" which apparently isn't that hard for people to guess. Go figure. :P

Matt was also excited when we guessed his, but now I can't remember what it was. Since he's wearing a necklace I'm guessing Mr. T.

I didn't have a picture of Zach laughing like a loon, but the look on his face here, paired with what he's doing, makes ME laugh. Yes, I am basically a middle school boy.

Sarah had to act out "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" and I got it!

Who knows what's funny here. :)

Or here.

Despite the fact that Justin's back was acting up again, he still had a good time. I was forbidden to put any pictures of him acting out his stuff. Yet again he had the funniest moment of the whole night and I can't share it with you!

First picture of 2011 - love these girls!

Love, love, love. Can't wait for next year!

No more lurking!

Hey y'all!

I read over at Kristen's blog that today is National De-lurking Day (I have no idea if that is true or not but it sounds good to me!) and so that means that today is the day to leave me a comment to let me know that you are out there. No more reading and running. Wow that sounded a lot wittier in my head.

Anyway - leave me a comment and tell me who you are, where you are, how you found my blog, what your favorite color is, your social security number...just kidding about those last two. Unless you really want me to know what you favorite color is.

Mine is teal at the moment but that changes often. Thanks for asking! :P

If you never leave comments because think you don't know what to do - here's how to do it:

Click on "Comments from you" at the bottom of this post. Type your comment in the box. Then you can either sign-in with a google account or you can leave an anonymous comment and just tell me who you are in the comment box. Easy-peasy. There will also be a box that tells you to type a weird word - that's just to make sure that you are a human. :)

Alright.

Ready, set, GO COMMENT! Can't wait to meet you all!

Christmas in pictures

Me, Momma, and Rachael made cookies.

Silas ate them. :)

Christmas Eve was spent with my Mom's family as is tradition. DD joined us this year. :) We took our traditional family pictures at the end of the night, but Justin had already left to put Silas in bed (since it was LATE) so they aren't in our picture. :(

Christmas morning. This is about my only picture of Christmas day - I spent all day behind the video camera and forgot to take pictures!

We went to Natchitoches (Nack - a - tosh) to see the lights and on the way there we ate at Nikki's - a Mexican restaurant. Silas decided to skip his beans and rice and go straight for the salsa. He ate it all with his spoon. :) This Momma's heart was proud.

Some of the lights

Our ONLY picture of all three of us. Silas was not about it.

This tunnel was really cool - it changed to all different colors.

I saw this and it made me laugh and think of the Griswolds!

Crazy Pops and Uncle Doug!!

BIG NEWS!!

***Scroll down for more recent posts***

Are you ready for this??

I'M GOING TO AFRICA!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!

Tis true my friends. :)

I know there are like a million posts I need to do about Christmas and New Years and I have tons of pictures to share from each of those celebrations, but I just had to share my good news with y'all first.

Because it IS good news!

!!!!!!!

I have been dreaming of going back to Africa (also known as "the continent that holds my heart") for YEARS and for the past year the desire to return has been even stronger and the Lord has really burdened my heart for orphans. One my goals for this year was to step foot on Africa soil (a friend offered to have some dirt shipped here so I could step on it and cross that goal off the list...HA!) and I am so so so so so excited that it is becoming a reality.

I am going to Uganda in March. In 72 days to be exact.

72 days!

I am going with an organization called Visiting Orphans and the purpose of the trip is to do just that: to take seriously James 1:27 and visit and love on orphans in Kampala and Jinja, Uganda. We are partnering with Amazima ministries and will be doing VBS for the kids at orphanages there and helping with the daily feeding program of Amazima that feeds over 1,200 children Monday through Friday.

I learned about Amazima about this time last year when I stumbled upon Katie's blog. Please go read about Amazima and the amazing work that this young woman is doing in Uganda. When people ask me who I would want to be for a day or who inspires me she is the first person that comes to my mind. I am thrilled to get to hug her neck soon. :)

I am sort of a last minute addition to the team that is going since there is not a lot of time (did I tell you that there's only 72 days???) between now and the trip. Because of that, I am already behind on my payments for the trip. Of course. Because it'd be WAY too easy if I was super prepared for something. :P

So.

Not only are there only 72 days until the actual trip, but I have only 12 days before the payment for my airfare and other travel are due - which is $2000.

The total cost of the trip is about $3200. I'll know the exact total when it gets a little closer to the trip. I'm hoping to raise at least $3500 so that I can use the extra to buy goods in country to donate to the orphanage. Visiting Orphans asks that all team members gift something to the orphanages that they partner with and I'd love to be able to bless them in a big way.

Would you pray about helping me get to Uganda? You won't just be helping me get there, you will be sending the love of Christ to orphans. Seriously, how can you say no to THAT?? ;) ;) People tell me all the time that they just can't go to Africa or wherever because of whatever circumstances but they wish there was another way to help. I always tell them the same thing - find someone who CAN go and help them get there. Here's your way.

There are 2 very easy ways that you can donate.

The first is through the button right over there -----------> that says DONATE. :) It is through paypal which is completely secure. This is a good option if you don't care about getting a tax deduction. The money will go into my paypal account and I will then send it in to Visiting Orphans. This is handy if you have money sitting in a paypal account, but you can also pay with a credit card. You can donate any amount.

The second way is through Visiting Orphans. Click HERE and it will take you to their secure donation page where you will choose "March 18-27, 2011 Uganda Trip" in the drop down box by Gift Designation. Then you will choose "YES" to donate to a specific team member and you will specify me, Stephanie Elise Moon (you'll have to type it - there's not a list of team members). You can donate any amount. All donations through Visiting Orphans are tax deductible.

Both of those options benefit my trip so choose the one that is most convenient for you.

Here's another way you can help - and I mean this:

PRAY!

I am so excited about this trip, but let me tell you who's not...the evil one. He's already been up to his scheming to try and get me out of this trip through his usual methods of fear, but that is NOT going to happen. Please pray for me and for my team in the days ahead. There is an unseen spiritual battle being fought at all times around us and spiritual warfare is real and satan doesn't like it one bit when God's children choose to be obedient. He tries to make me afraid of leaving Silas, doubt that God will come through with the money to go, etc. But let me tell you something - the battle has already been won friends. :)

Is anyone still reading this?

Here's one more way to help...use your social networking skills and get the word out for me! Blog about it, facebook it, tweet it, send an email out to your entire address book, tattoo it on your forehead...

Rest assured that I will be sharing more details about the trip and Uganda in the next fews days and weeks as I get them.

And I'll be sharing pictures of my cute kid too. I KNOW that's why all of y'all are here anyway. :P

Thanks friends. Y'all really are the best.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

The Adventures of Curious Silas

It's Christmas Eve, about an hour before we have to load up to go to church. Silas is still napping...or so we think. I go in to check on him and maybe wake him up because this has been an abnormally long nap.

This is how I find him. No, it's not blood.

It's a ENTIRE tube of red lipstick!

He had been sleeping in a closet big enough for the pack & play and there was a shelf low enough for him to reach. Apparently there was an old make-up bag on that shelf and he just HAD to know what was inside!

Believe it or not, except for just a few places, it all washed out of his blanket and lovies.

This is after we wiped him down a bit. I was preparing a bath and running around like crazy since we were short on time.

Y'all. He had it e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. (well, everywhere that wasn't covered by clothes or a paci!) I was still getting it out of his ears on New Years Day. Thankfully it didn't stain his skin and we were able to get most of it off fairly quickly with some make-up remover.

I was laughing so hard when I brought him in the kitchen to show everyone that I freaked him out and that is why he has tears in that first picture. It was so funny! I love my little curious boy. :)

Thanks for joining us for another episode of The Adventures of Curious Silas!

Embrace the Camera (1-6-11)

Hello there!

This is probably my favorite picture from all of Christmas.

Who needs toys when you have a box?? Especially a box that Momma can get it too! :)

Oreo mouth.

Again, who needs toys when you have empty wrapping paper rolls and Pops? :)

Embrace the Camera today! Thanks for stopping by!

If you have a sec (And I know you do) go see the BIG NEWS I announced last night. Here.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:1-14

¹And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

²(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

³And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

⁴And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

⁵To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

⁶And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

⁷And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹²And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Embrace the Camera (Dec. 16)

Hello there!

Last Thursday night we had our annual M&M (May & Moon families if you are new) Christmas - one of my favorite nights of the year!

I love that Connor's tummy has a cameo in this one. ;) But I especially love that we are all LOOKING AT THE CAMERA! woohoo!

Opening Silas' gift - 2 books (The Christmas Story and Where the Wild Things Are) and some letter signs for his big boy bedroom. Ok - so the signs are really for Momma - Aunt Sarah knows what she's doing! I can't wait to work on his new room - one day. ;)

I hope y'all are Embracing the Camera this Christmas! Make wonderful memories and document them!