ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

No, we're not pregnant Mom and Dad.

But, we're going to Africa!!! I've known for a little bit this might be a possibility but I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure that we're (meaning Scott and I both) going to Africa in June...I can hardly stand it I'm so excited!!! Truly such a blessing that God has allowed me to go to Africa three times in the last three years...honestly it's difficult to put into words how I feel each time I get the opportunity to go, but even more so that Scott and I get to go together. It's such a strong desire within my heart to be in Africa and be able to visit the orphanages and help to advocate for the orphan that I truly feel so blessed every time I get to go.

So, we leave for Uganda June 13th and will spend the first few days kind of on our own in Jinja before we meet up with my friend Sara Beth and also another good friend KB and small team of students from Louisiana College (KB is the student activities director there). We'll then head up north to Nebbi which is where I was last year...spend a few days there checking on Acres of Hope then we'll drive over to Kenya where we'll stay at an orphanage and check on some more projects.

So, some business we need to attend to immediately, is fundraising. I still have a TON of these as well as some bags and other stuff that I brought back home with me from last year's trip that I need to sell ASAP to help raise funds for this trip. Seriously, I probably have about 100 of these in all different colors and lengths. They make great necklaces or bracelets which is usually how I wear mine, just wrapped multiple times around my wrist. They're such great gifts and have a really unique story behind them. About half of the ones that I have were made by women in the Masese slum which is actually where we'll be spending most of our time when we're in Jinja. We have a dear friend who is a Pastor in Masese and when he heard that we were coming last year he got several of the women together to start making beads so that we could purchase them when we were there. So, the money that we gave them to purchase the beads was actually divided up among several women in the church to help support their families. We bought out everything they had and then I bought some more in one of the markets. So all of these beads are handmade and they really are beautiful. They sell for $15 each.



I also have some really cool bags/purses that I'm selling for $30 but I only have a limited quantity of these as well as some fun little coin purse type things for $7...again a limited quantity, so let me know if you want to come by and check stuff out or I can bring some stuff to you!!

Project Grow: Take 2

So you may be wondering, when was take 1? Well, that was last summer's attempt at a complete fail of a garden. Here's why it was a fail:

1. Scott said I should start small and just plant it in this one area that was already kind of under construction since we had just moved in (we're renting an old farmhouse and we tore out a bunch of ugly shrubs).
2. Said area was right next to the side of the house where apparently lots of scary, creepy crawly things like to congregate. Big spiders for instance...just one of many examples though.
3. I don't like bugs, actually I have a SEVERE, UNHEALTHY, FEAR of anything that even resembles a bug.
4. Did you know that gardens possess a ton of bugs? Well they do.
5. Did you know that if you don't water or weed your garden because you're afraid of the bugs that live there that everything planted in your garden will die? Well it will.

That my friends is why my garden failed to yield much of anything last year. Well, I take that back...apparently anyone can grow zucchini in Indiana because somehow we did get a few of those which I of course made Scott go pick or Murph found and got ahold of before we did.

However...

I'm turning over a new leaf this year...I'm trying to get over my fear of bugs. Actually, ok...there hasn't really been much trying on my part but I really do intend to at least take a stab at trying to not be so afraid of bugs. I'm still really excited about having a garden, I have these dreams of warm evenings spent taking care of our garden with Murph laying in the grass just watching and not running off when he's not supposed to which then gives me heart palpitations because I think he's never going to come back. Ahh...it's such a nice dream. Then I wake up and realize that I don't know a single thing about a garden and I need some serious help! So, that's why we're giving the garden to some of my Burmese friends who are amazing gardeners! They're going to plant whatever they want and then they'll have fresh vegetables all summer long. So, Shaw Mo came over last night and we went over to TSC (Tractor Supply Company)...I love this place, you can get pretty much anything! Right now they even have the little baby chicks and baby ducks that you can buy, I was so tempted! But seeing as how we haven't had much success just yet in raising our own chickens I decided to wait until we can reinforce the coop a little better. Anyway...back to the garden. She picked out pretty much every vegetable I know of, and some I don't...what is a Lemon Cucumber by the way? This is everything we planted (sorry for the bad IPhone pic...it was the nearest camera).


Then we got these cool little starter kit things...enough for 144 plants. Since we're trying to save money and start with seeds we have to grow everything indoors first since it's still a little cold to start planting outside.

So, right now everything is planted and we're waiting for sprouts!! I'm not sure how many will turn out but I'm following all the directions to get as many as possible. Once they've all sprouted then we'll transfer them to the actual garden which is going to be pretty big this year, at Shaw Mo's request. Since I've been volunteering with the Burmese families which is going on 4 years now I've always thought it would be so great for us to move somewhere that had lots of land that we could let them have to do whatever they wanted. Many of the families were farmers back in Burma before they were resettled here and I know it's something they really miss. They all now live in the same apartment complex right in the middle of the city which means no land for them to farm, I feel so blessed that we have this land that's not being used and I think they're really excited to be able to have their own garden. We're hoping to get the area tilled up this weekend and I'll post more pics!

KONY 2012

Watch this.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.