Charity: Water Update- It's almost done!

I got an email recently letting me know that our well is almost done being built! Isn't that super exciting?! I wanted to share the update with you. Thanks so much for your support during our Christmas Campaign 2011. The well that we raised money for will soon be bringing fresh drinking water to a community in Ethiopia. This email is a reminder to me of how much I take water for granted and how much it is valued by others all over the world! Water is vital for life and we are so close to seeing our well to completion! I can't wait! We should receive our well report soon! :)

The Ocean Tells Me A Thousand Stories

I spent the weekend with my family at the beach! It was nice to get away after the intense craziness that has been my life for the past few weeks!

Our first day at the beach was nice, but there were tons of jelly fish. My baby nephew spent his time throwing his football around and running on the beach, while I enjoyed the sun.

The iPhone makes panoramic pictures really fun! There weren't very many people on the beach. Clearly they weren't interested in the jelly fish either!

We ate lots of shrimp and other delicious seafood! 

This kid continuously cracks me up. He was relaxing and watching something on the iPad. This is a terrible picture, but he is so cute!

Our second day at the beach was much nicer! No jelly fish! Isn't that bazaar?! It's amazing that one day there were so many and the next day there weren't any. Thank goodness!

We got to splash around and enjoy the water! His swim suit is pretty awesome!

Smiles!

I had a blast soaking up the sun and this kid's awesomeness this weekend! Love him!

As we begin the week, I'm going to a day of professional development and then I need to start doing some serious packing! I leave for Romania on Thursday! Yikes! I'm so excited, despite everything that I need to do/handle before I leave! 

Happy Monday!

Simply Sunday

Saturday Snapshots

This week was a big week! It was the first week of summer and a lot happened!

My friend and I headed to Dallas to drop off all of the humanitarian aid that I had collected for Another Child Foundation.

We dropped off three big pallets of hats, scarves, blankets and other winter clothes. These items will be put on a shipping container and sent to Romania at the end of the summer. I'm glad to have that big chore taken care of and all of those boxes out of my house! So proud of all that we collected!

On the way back from Dallas, we stopped to celebrate my best friend's birthday! Two of my favorite people! We could also be a part of a Ray-Bans ad.

The non-dancers took a picture!

The next day we headed home. It was a beautiful day for a drive!

When we got home, we went to celebrate this guy's graduation. So proud of him!

My sweet cousin turned 13, so we celebrated her birthday too! It's been a week full of celebrations!

I started moving furniture in to my house! I'm pretty excited about it! Isn't the rug amazing?!

I spent my first night in my first home this week! Craziness! A year ago, I definitely wouldn't have thought that I would own a house in a year!

A friend and I went to a big park downtown. We just happened to stumble upon a water polo in kayaks game of some sort, so of course we sat down and enjoyed the weirdness of the game. There was one girl that was super intense about the game. She made it extra interesting!

My second road trip of the summer began at the end of the week. My sister, nephew and I headed to the beach. A certain little boy needed a bathroom break at the perfect time. Dairy Queen treats- YUM!

We went to see the BIG tree. It's over 1,000 years old and beautiful! It was super fun to look at until the mosquitoes started to eat every inch of us. I snapped a few pictures and ran back to the car. We then enjoyed the tree's awesomeness from the car.

We've been enjoying the beach! More pictures of this mini road trip to come later!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Craft Hope Article

I contacted Jade from Craft Hope back in February about Another Child Foundation being considered for one of their upcoming projects. Craft Hope is an organization that encourages crafters around the world to make handmade items to fulfill a need and to spread hope. I had no idea what would happen, but I was praying and believing great things would come from this partnership. I have participated in a few of Craft Hope's projects before and love the community of crafters who use their talents to bless others. I tried to patiently wait until I heard back from Jade at the beginning of April. She let me know that Another Child Foundation would be featured for Project 21: Rally for Roma. I was so excited and kind of unsure of what to expect. Jade and I decided that we would collect hats, scarves and blankets in hopes of helping families in Romania keep warm during their harsh winters. Many of the wonderful people ACF works with in Romania live in condemned, Soviet era apartment buildings that are not completely sealed off from the elements. The objective of Project 21: Rally for Roma became to spread hope and warmth. After weeks of collecting packages from all over the world, I would say that we will definitely be spreading hope and warmth when these handmade items arrive in Romania sometime in the fall.

When Jade and I began organizing everything for Project 21, I sent pictures and stories to her and she let me know a little bit about the process. I remember her telling me that "it is all such a wonderfully amazing journey!" I didn't fully get her sentiment then, but I totally do now! In the past two months, I have received over 175 packages. I had the overwhelmingly awesome opportunity to go through each envelope and box. I counted and repacked each item, so that everything can be taken to a warehouse where they will then be put in to a shipping container and sent to Romania. As I pulled out each item and read the sweet notes sent from many participants, I realized that Jade was so right! This has been an amazing journey that has spread way further than I ever imagined it would! I received packages from Japan, Australia and New Zealand to name a few of the distant countries that sent handmade items! I have been blown away by the generosity of people who do not know about Another Child Foundation or the awesome things that they are doing in Romania. I am blown away by the effort each participant has put in to this project and know that each item will go to a person in Romania who will truly benefit from their hard work! This has been an unbelievable journey that continues on. I took the 30 plus large boxes of handmade hats, scarves and blankets to Dallas on June 7th and I can't wait to see them arrive in Romania and be distributed!

Here is the most recent count of the items ACF has collected for Craft Hope's Project 21: Rally for Roma!

Scarves- 620

Hats- 1008

Blankets- 300

Mittens/Gloves- 40

Booties- 26

Misc. Warm Clothing Items- 12

That's a total of 2,007 handmade items! WOW!! Thank you so much for your generosity! Together we are doing BIG things!