Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  As I look at my children, hear them talking about how gifts are not what Christmas is all about, I am overwhelmed with gratefulness.  Grateful that God gave me these two amazing gifts to love and nurture and raise, and so very grateful for the gift that was given to each and every one of us in Jesus Christ.  A King was born to ultimately die so we didn't have to.  That dear friends, is a love that I can't even find words for.   

I hope you all have a blessed day....and take time to reflect on what the day is really about!  Love you all!

Fun break

Instead of writing about the craziness around here right now, I thought I'd take a fun break!

I want to thank Amanda over at Bumber's Bumblings for tagging me in the Versatile Blogger award.  Amanda introduced herself at my blog one day, so of course I had to run over and say hello to her!  I have had fun learning about her and her perfectly created by God family via an open adoption.

So here's the rules....
~Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
~Share 7 things about yourself.
~Pass the award along to 7 other blogger's who you discovered and think are fabulous. 

Now here are 7 things about myself....

1.  I was never going to have kids, and if I did I surely was NOT going to be a stay home mom.  Now I can't imagine my life any other way.


2.  I  LOVE to travel.  I have been to Mexico, England, Spain, France, Italy and Morocco and have a million more places I would love to see.   We take road trips whenever we can and I cant wait until we can afford to travel more.

3.  I have mastered the 5 min clean up, so I can procrastinate all day long, then clean 5 mins before hubby gets home from work and he'd never guess I was a bum all day!  ;)

4.  I LOVE doing crafts but am the least creative person I know.  I can recreate a craft but could never think one up myself.

5.  I am slightly OCD about some things, though I have greatly relaxed since having children.  The one that lingers is my obsession with even numbers and having to have things grouped together by color. 

6.  Before I met my husband, I couldn't cook to save my life.  Seriously.  Now I could spend all day long in the kitchen and browse recipes for hours before shopping day.

7.  I LOVE to listen to music I can sing along to.  (though I am horrible...haha)  Whether it's my iPod, music in the car, Pandora from the TV, or something from my computer, I can pretty much guarantee I am singing along at the top of my lungs. <3  

I am passing this blogging award on to the 7 following fellow bloggers....some of whom I have been following for a while, and some who are new friends, but all of them are amazing!

Lara at The Farmer's Wife Tells All 
Melissa at Along the Narrow Road 
Karly at  Two Worlds, One Home 
Kym at Stringbean 17 
April at Immeasurably More 
Marcy at Smith Family...Off to Ethiopia
Lauren at Living By Faith

Katie Davis speaking

I have shared my heart many times about Katie Davis' blog, the wonderful things happening through Amazima Ministries, and how the journey of this young woman to follow her heart to caring for God's children in Uganda has been a huge inspiration in my life to strive to follow Jesus and take care of the least of these. I found these videos the other day over at a new blog I follow, and was moved to tears. Spend a bit of time and listen........

World AIDS Day

"History will judge us on how we respond to the AIDS emergency in Africa....whether we stood around with watering cans and watched while a whole continent burst into flames....or not." ~Bono

"Every minute of every day, a child under 15 is infected with HIV - the overwhelming majority of children under 15 who are HIV-positive get infected through their mothers at birth. Without treatment, half of these children die before they reach their second birthday." ~ Gabriel Byrne

"No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic." ~Colin Powell

“AIDS is no longer a death sentence for those who can get the medicines." ~Bill Clinton

Today is World AIDS Day. I have been one of the many who have remained uneducated about the disease over the years, but I am working on changing that. I am working on becoming educated. HIV/AIDS is no longer a guaranteed death sentence. It is now considered a "manageable chronic disease". But minute by minute we sit by and let millions upon millions of  children become orphans when their parents could of been saved.  We then let these millions upon millions of orphans be sentenced to DEATH when there is no need for it. There are around 30 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone and that number is rising dramatically.

These children can be SAVED.  They can live a full long life.  With proper medication they can reduce the HIV virus in their blood to levels that are UNDETECTABLE.  These children need US.  Project Hopeful is an organization dedicated to educating people and helping to find HIV positive children homes where they can thrive and get healthy.  Take a minute to watch the video.  Then help spread the TRUTH!