A good reminder

We give glory to God by simply being ourselves.

-Brennan Manning

Shopping

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

-Winston Churchill

Tis the season to start shopping.  I am really trying to not even go into stores to buy Christmas gifts for the ones I love this year.  I know I won't be able to totally avoid the Christmas frenzy but I'm going to try.  What can be better than giving to our loved ones and knowing that someone else has benefitted from the gift we bought?  These are some of the websites and opportunities that I have found that not only provide great products but also help others.

Right now there is a great online auction going on at www.achildsvoiceauction.wordpress.com.  Each dollar earned from this auction goes directly to A Child's Voice.  A Child's Voice is an organization in Uganda advocating for vulnerable children and families.  The proceeds from the auction will be used specifically to set up a benevolence/emergency fund for families and children in Uganda and to help start a chicken farm. This chicken farm will be a self sustaining funding source for ACV and will be creating jobs for parents.  So go check out the auction...incredible items to bid on and so many great Christmas presents!





Freeset Global is working every day to help women in slavery break free.  Their bags are listed at   www.freesetglobal.com.  Freeset is located in the most infamous sex district in Kolkata, India.  Within a few miles are 10,000 women who sell their bodies every day.  Many of the women are trafficked from Bangladesh, Nepal and rural India and for some, poverty has left them no choice but to sell their bodies.  Freeset is working to change the lives of these women stuck in slavery.  They are providing these women with jobs making bags.  I love their tag line...In Business for Freedom.  I bought one of these bags and I cannot wait for it to come.  Please join me and go buy a bag or a couple! 

There is a brand new shop that has just launched.  It is called She Does Justice.  I love it.  You can go here and check it out www.shedoesjustice.com.  Megan has beautiful scarves, headbands, prints and bracelets. All proceeds from the sales each month go to an organization that is working to help others. 

Another great bag company is working with folks in Clarkston, Georgia and it is called Plywood People.  You can check them out at www.plywoodpeople.com. They work with a large refugee population from Burma and hire them to make bags, wallets, tshirts, sketchbooks and laptop and iPad sleeves.  This organization is unbelievable.  They use the billboards that the advertisting companies throw away, use them to create jobs for the refugees and create the coolest bags. What an incredible mission to a huge community of people that can easily be overlooked and forgotten.   



If you live in Charlotte then come to the 5th annual Cookies for Kids' Cancer bake sale.  It will be on December 8th and 9th at Park Road Shopping Center in front of Blackhawk Hardware.  I got the best baked goods and cookie mixes last year, plus all the proceeds benefit cancer research for kids.  You can check out the national website here.  I will be working the sale this year. I hope to see you there!

Happy Shopping

Love

Tracy







Jonathan

It's been three weeks since we landed in the U.S.  Our family is doing well and taking one day at a time.  Some days I feel like I have it all under control other days it is just a mess, but it is a good mess! Jonathan has the biggest smile and a laugh that is contagious!  But despite the joy in this little boy, everyday I see the evidence of the trauma he has experienced in his short life and I am reminded that this is not the way God intended it to be. As a dear  friend  (who has also adopted) wrote to me this week...what a conflict that for us to experience such joy, he had to experience such loss.  I am thankful that God is the one who is doing the healing and that we are just his vessels!

Every week has been a week of firsts and this one was no different.  Jonathan got to experience his first college football game.  We went to the Arkansas/South Carolina game.  He had a great time and  is becoming a pro at calling the Hogs.

This week he went to his first doctor's appointment.  I knew after our Visa medical check up in Uganda that going to the doctor would be tough. It was.  It took Jason and I and two nurses to hold him down while he got his shots.  Poor boy!  The good news is we won't have to do that for another two months.  We also completed our first social worker visit this week.  We are required to do three visits with our social worker during the first six months of being home.  The adoption paperwork and requirements don't stop when they are home! :)

Have a great weekend!
Love
Tracy







Happy Thursday!

Jonathan and I  have been home from Uganda for about two weeks.  The last two weeks have been a blur and we are still in a fog but life is good!  We are so blessed to get to be Jonathan's family.  The mamas at Jonathan's orphanage taught them many songs.  J has two favorite ones that he sings every day.  His very favorite is Baby Jesus! I wanted to share our sweet boy singing it...it doesn't get any better than this!  Happy Thursday!

Love

Tracy

Almost home!

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

Proverbs 25:25

I have been in Uganda since Monday and  much has happened this week.  Our written ruling and guardianship order are finished.  We are waiting on the birth certificate and passport.  Our lawyer filed for our birth certificate this morning.  It is almost done!  I can't wait to bring Jonathan home!  

Thank you for the prayers through all of this. Please continue to pray about the timing of the birth certificate and passport.  God has once again showed me I am not in charge, he is and his timing is perfect!  

Love

Tracy

Timers

"Godly patience is the art of letting God set the timer."

Jeanne Hendricks

Mercy

If my children were slaves and another mom could do something to help me gain my children's freedom I pray and hope that she would do something.  I am the mom that can do something, you are the mom that can do something. Today I am joining other bloggers to highlight the work of the Mercy Project. I invite you to read about their work  and I humbly ask you to get involved. 

"God does not want us to merely give the poor perfunctory help, but to ponder long and hard about how to improve their entire situation." 

 Tim Keller in Generous Justice  

There’s an estimated 7,000 children who work in the Ghana fishing industry. Some of
these children are as young as 5 and 6 years old.  All of these children are slaves.

–Mercy Project

Today many in our country will take a day off from our jobs to celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers.  No matter if we’re celebrating at home or at the beach, we’re entering into a tradition that has largely been shaped by Labor Unions - organizations that are dedicated to protecting workers’ interests and improving their wages, hours, and working conditions.  Today as we lounge around or hang out with friends and family, we’re not only celebrating hard work, we’re honoring fair, ethical working practices and the laws that prevent discrimination, abuse, and child labor in our country.  Without these laws in place (and enforced), the most vulnerable members of society suffer.  Who are the most vulnerable? Children. 

Today as we’re celebrating the systems in our own country that strive to prevent injustices like child trafficking and child labor, we’re mindful of the many child slaves around the world who are unprotected and the organizations, like Mercy Project, who are working to free them.

As a mother, it’s difficult for me to imagine my children working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I’m unable to wrap my brain around the thought of my children engaged in long, hard days of physical labor, eating one meal a day, and then falling asleep at night on a dirt floor filled with other slave children.  Yet this is the daily reality for kids who have been trafficked into the fishing industry in Ghana, Africa.  As with much of Africa, there is a great deal of poverty in Ghana. Unfortunately, this leaves many mothers in an unimaginable position: sell their children to someone who can take better care of them or watch them starve to death. Most of the mothers are told their children will be given food, housing, and an education. Instead, the kids are often taken to Lake Volta where they become child slaves and their mothers never see them again.  Thankfully, Mercy Project is working to break the cycles of trafficking around Lake Volta by providing alternate, more efficient, sustainable, fishing methods for villagers – ultimately eliminating the need for child slaves.  Because of the work Mercy Project is doing in Ghana, the first group of children will be freed this month from Lake Volta.

We invite you to watch this moving, 10 minute documentary about the issues surrounding child labor and trafficking in Ghana and most importantly the hope Mercy Project is bringing to children and entire communities in Africa.  Mercy Project is the only NGO working on Lake Volta addressing the injustice of child labor and child trafficking at its root - by strengthening the Ghanaian economy and eliminating the structures that cause the demand for trafficked children.

Whether these ideas of child labor, child trafficking, and modern-day slavery are new to you or you’re aware of these injustices, but need to hear some good news every once in awhile, we invite you to become a part of what Mercy Project is doing in Ghana.  When Mercy Project frees their first group of children this month, we can all celebrate together.

Learn more and get involved by –

• Watch Mercy Project’s short documentary.

• Follow Mercy Project on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/mercyproject

• Connect with Mercy Project via Twitter.  https://twitter.com/mercyproject

• Spend some time on Mercy Project’s website. 

http://mercyproject.net/

• Share about Mercy Project’s work in Ghana with your friends. 

Although child trafficking, child labor, and the unstable economies that result in these injustices are a tragedy, we’re grateful for what Mercy Project is doing to protect the vulnerable and for allowing us to be a part of this story.   While we’re commemorating labor laws and ethical work in our own country today, we invite you to follow along on this journey with Mercy Project to protect and free children in Ghana.

Love

Tracy