Experimenting With Our Food

NO! Nothing gross.

I was standing at the checkout line when we first got groceries after we got back and I had a small basket and it was $85. $85!! I looked at it and thought...

"You know, most people can only eat on $2 a day and look at me?"

So my husband and I decided that we're going to try and eat on $2 a day. Of course, we're starting with a full pantry, which most people don't have, but we're going to try and just eat what we have and only spend $2 a day (or $4 since there's two of us).

He wasn't too happy about the second part...

We're also going to try and do vegetarian/fish only for that month. It certainly cuts down on price, it's better for you and that's what most of the world eats instead of red meat.

My sister-in-law suggested that we go with depression-era recipes. Do you have any good vegetarian recipes or anything that you make on a budget?

I miss it...

Adoption

After our latest trip to South Africa and Ethiopia, my husband and I have KIND OF been thinking of adoption. Kind of. Maybe. A little.

I read an article awhile back written by a child who was adopted who was against adoption (as it is run now) and I thought they had some very valid arguments. Then, while we were in South Africa, one of the women I met had a child whom she gave up for a time because she knew she couldn't take care of the child. I believe that she thought it was for awhile, until she could get back on her feet and the child was with a woman she trusted. Then, some people came to the woman and said that they wanted to adopt the child and had her sign some paperwork. The woman now wants her child back and we realized that the paperwork is probably illegal.

My fear of adoption is that I will be taking a child from a family that will eventually decide they want their child back. I've been e-mailing with Holt International and they said that all children in China are abandoned since you can't relinquish a child there and that China is on one end of the adoption spectrum and Ethiopia is on the other, where it's mainly children who have been relinquished and where you'd see the birth parents in court.

My fear is that I'm being selfish in taking this child away from its family, even if the family put them up for adoption.

Am I making sense? Does that even make sense or am I just a bit off balance?

I've been really rolling it over in my mind and in my heart and praying about it...but I think I just needed to write it down.

Want Some Coffee?

These are the Blocks or my friend Mike's older brother and sister-in-law. They're trying to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia and are selling coffee to help raise the money they need.

I figure, heck, everyone needs coffee!! So if you'd like some coffee and to support and adoption while doing it, you can click on the link below.

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/TheBlocks

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There are urgent prayer requests on Heart 2 Heart, so if you could please visit and raise a prayer up to God for Denise, I know that Kat would greatly, greatly appreciate it!!

This Is Africa!

My husband and I went to South Africa to meet Vashti, one of the co-founders of Project O



We did a ton while we were there! The woman in pink is Ronelle and she is an awesome lady. :) I miss her already. We went shopping!




We met far too many cute children in both South Africa and Ethiopia, where we stopped for a few days.






We had some great food




We saw so many amazing things!






We saw a lot of sad things too





But I think it changed us and I want to keep that feeling alive for the rest of our lives

BACK!

Sorry it's been so long!

My husband and I were in South Africa and Ethiopia. It was AMAZING and we feel really blessed that we got to go on this trip.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon to show you!!!

Interesting

I was reading over someone's status and they had this in there. And partly because I know if I'll forget it if I leave it somewhere else...I'm going to post it here. I MAY lose it here, but maybe not. :) Hope you're doing well!!

"And if a stranger dwells you with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land." Leviticus 19:33-34

Maybe It's Best I'm Taking A Break...

I don't know how many of you have read about the Times Square Bomber or about the SUV that they found at 45th and 7th in Times Square. I've been reading a lot about it...

Yet again, it WAS parked beside my building.

Yeah...that car bomb was at an exit to my building. How insane is THAT?! There was actually a shoot out not that long ago on that side of the building.

I SWEAR NYC isn't that dangerous!!

Here's a comment by MSNBC:
The location of the bomb suggests a number of possible targets. The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show "South Park" that the group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a bear costume.

Maybe it's for the best that I'm taking a few weeks off starting this Saturday...

How are your weeks going? I'm sorry I've been absent a lot lately. Work has been so SO busy. :) Have you been busy?

Why It Matters

My husband went to a Sara Groves concert last night in Jersey City. It was really a blessing and it made me want to support New City Kids Church.

You should really visit them. They are beyond amazing:
http://www.newcitykidschurch.com/index.php

They're a church in Jersey City that tries to get kids to college and to give them hopefulness through God's love in times of despair. Those children were such a light.

Sara Groves was the second part of the evening. And she told us a story before she played her last song about how, at one point, she was freaking out about being a musician, about how she should do more...be a nurse or something else...(what?! Does that sound like half of my blog posts?!) and her producer told her a story.

There was a cellist in Sarajevo named Vedran Smailović who was sitting at his window and watched as a bomb fell on a breadline on the street, killing 22 people. As the war raged around him, he took his cello outside and sat down in the crater as the bullets flew around him and played for the memory of those people for 22 days. Many people believe that he helped wind down the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the international media attention to the senseless violence.

She said that God's love is an ocean and we are only a small cup of water in that ocean, but how important that cup of water is! That we are supposed to be beauty to a world wrapped in chaos and that we do it in all ways, not just by being nurses or doctors.

It really hit me.

So here it is for you to listen to:



Why It Matters by Sara Groves:

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that's been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And it's protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters