I met Poverty - blog action day

Call it coincidence or simply fitting that blog action day, focusing on poverty, falls just on the heels of my return from Mexico City.

In Mexico, I met poverty face to face. I cannot express in words the impact that this trip had on me. I only know that I am different.

Upon my return, I wondered, “How do I go back to the way I was?” How do I worry about the typical middle class American issues – the election, high gas prices, whether I will get through the pile of contracts and policies that need review on my desk, whether I will get my kids into the right school, whether I will be able to retire, what will I have for dinner tonight, whether or not to buy a new tv? The answer is that I do not, in fact, I cannot go back to the way I was. I am changed. My perspective is different – my worldview has been broadened.

Despite this, I cannot live my life in guilt. Just after returning, I felt guilty for everything – for having a home, for having a toddler that “wasn’t hungry” for dinner and wasted food. I felt guilty for having an education, for being born – it seemed as if everything was luck of the draw – I was born in America, not in Mexico, thus I had the basic necessities (food, clean water), while others do not. And to make matters worse, work felt like torture. The job that I had taken pride in, and the career that I felt was centered on “making a difference” – working at a nonprofit hospital, impacting the lives of patients daily – it all seemed so irrelevant in the face of hunger, homelessness, abuse, and hopelessness.

Now, I am working through this. I am trying to find a way to continue to care, and to continue to make a difference, without losing my joy in the process. Feeling guilty and hating myself will not make the world a better place. I am trying to work through what I need to do to make a difference.

I also want to stress that I was not unaware of poverty prior to this trip. I’ve been on numerous mission trips in rural and urban areas. I’ve fed the homeless, repaired broken homes, and ministered to the sick. I’ve seen pain and suffering. I also read, I watch the news, and I am aware that there is heartache. However, something different happened to me in Mexico. I fed fruit and gave juice to a child that lived in a shopping cart. When I looked into that 2 year old’s eyes, I saw my children. When the child came to show me his toy and we tried to communicate, I saw a child that simply wanted to play. When I met the child’s parents, they, like me, were proud and did not want to accept help. However, in the mother I saw desperation when she asked if we had a diaper (the child was wearing a paper towel). There is something powerful in meeting poverty face to face – now poverty is not just a social issue, but it is a child – poverty is the people – a city full and overflowing with beautiful people that desperately reach for a glimmer of hope.

I have no answers, I only have pictures – this is my only way to share a glimpse of the poverty that I witnessed.

Mexico City and other information

So I know that many of you want to hear about our mission trip to Mexico City. I really want to write and share about the powerful things that happened there. However, when I returned home, I've been hit with some personal tragedies (sickness of friends, etc.) Until I can update you, check out Mike's blog . Mike is updating his blog each day detailing the activities of a day in the City.

Also, please pray for my dear sweet Anne (the kids call her their Fairy Godmother). She is very sick and in the hospital. She had a kidney transplant a year ago. Some pictures of Anne are below - I love you girl!

Big Island Hawaii

For our 10 year anniversary, Mike and I spent a week on the Big Island in Hawaii. Mike did an outstanding job describing some of the top places we visited here.

I fell in love with Hawaii. It is amazing to be on an island that is actually growing and has an active volcano. I loved snorkeling. I could have stayed in the water with the fish for hours on end.

As I watched the waves, smelled the flowers, listened to the birds, and marveled at flowers that found a way to grow in a lava field, I was in awe of God's amazing creation. I felt renewed and closer to God than I've felt in a long time. The Big Island is raw, amazing, terrifying, and beautiful.

Out of the mouths of babes ....

My 2 year old has kept me VERY busy. Sometimes she keeps me busy with her questions on her own, and sometimes she has help from her 4 year old brother. The following are some conversations that we've had recently.


Easter Egg Hunt
Mom, Dad and I took the kids to the Easter egg hunt. The Easter Bunny was there. M insisted that she wanted to pick up the pink eggs. J & M had their pics taken with the Easter bunny. They had fun, but it bothers me that PARENTS get so competitive at these hunts. Older siblings and moms and dads were picking up the eggs and throwing them in their kids' baskets. You could hear parents frantically yelling for their kids to run to a different spot and quickly get eggs. I realize that the parents simply wanted the kids to get some eggs, but because of all the adult interference the eggs were gone in about two minutes. Sometimes I wish adults could just get out of the way and let kids have fun. There was also a little boy at the hunt with a walker. It broke my heart. M asked why he had the walker and I explained that it helped him walk. What I could NOT explain was why this little boy needed help walking.

Anyway, after the hunt we were walking to our car. M asked, "Where is the Easter Bunny's car?" I said I didn't know.

Here are some pics from the hunt:






Visiting with Gramma and Papa

We also went to visit my aunt. We drove by what used to be my granny's house. M looked out and said, "Does Granny live in her house or is she still died?" I told her that granny was dead. M said, "Why?" How do you answer that?

At the Japanese restaurant
J stayed with Gramma & Papa. Mike, M and I went to eat with our friends Brent, Kaylyn and Avenell at a local Japanese restaurant. We sat at our table. M was wearing her brand new pink Dora cowgirl hat and pink Dora sunglasses. She had already received a lot of stares and comments. She looked like this:




A man with long curly hair came and sat down at the table beside us. M looked at him and said, "Mommy, he has hair like you." I knew that this conversation could not be going in a good direction, so when the man looked our way, I tried to distract M by talking about her sunglasses and getting her to color. Then M looked at the man, and clearly and loudly asked, "Is that a daddy or a mama?" Kaylyn, Mike and Brent were no help, they were laughing and looking at the table. I again tried to distract M, who would not be distracted. As Mike accurately pointed out, M is used to seeing a mommy with long curly red hair and a daddy with no hair. She didn't know what to make of this guy.

Safari adventure
The kids have very active imaginations. M also LOVES crocodiles. Yes, you read that correctly - crocodiles. She tells me that a yellow crocodile comes to her room and jumps on her bed at night. When we went to the zoo, she wanted to see the crocodiles and ride on a crocodiles. She CRIED when we had to get off. I told her she could not ride again, and she insisted that she wanted to ride on a real crocodile. J wanted to ride a giraffe.

Here are some pics:











After the zoo adventure, the kids decided that they were going on a safari. They filled their Easter baskets with plastic play food and told us that after the safari they were giong on a picnic (note that when asked their favorite part about the zoo, M's favorite was riding the bus and J's favorite was having a picnic). As they walked off into the jungle of our dining room, M told us that she had the "pinoculars" (translation - binoculars).

A beautiful princess
Today, M looked especially cute. The kids and I went to eat with my mom and dad before church. Here are some pics of M.



I told the kids that if they were good, we would dye Easter eggs. They seemed very excited. However, about 10 minutes later, M asked, "Why do the Easter eggs have to die?" I had to explain that we were going to add COLOR to the eggs, not kill them.

One other note. J did some really sweet things. When I injured my back, I had to lay on the floor. J came up to me, put a blanket over me and gave me a big kiss. He also asked me often if my back was better. J also picked yellow daffodils for his daddy. He made it very clear to me that the flowers were "for daddy, NOT for you."

Below are some pics of the kids picking flowers for Daddy NOT Mommy, and there are some pics of my kids looking at my aunt's baby cow and goats.







NEVER a dull moment with these two!

Traveling and Who's Looking

I have this link on the side of my blog that shows who is looking (the city and country where they live is shown on the map). It is fascinating to me because people are looking from all over the world. How do they even find this blog? What do they want to read about?

The other fascinating thing is that many of these people are from places that I would love to visit. I just saw a visitor from New Zealand. I've always wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand. I became even more fascinated with New Zealand after Lord of the Rinds was filmed there. Maybe one day .....

Land of Oz

When Mike was 4, his parents took him to the Land of Oz, which is in Banner Elk, NC (near Grandfather Mountain). This park is closed now and opens one weekend a year. We took the kids, and they loved it. Below are some pictures of the day. The kids were fearless! At one point the wicked witch talked to them and they simply smiled and answered her questions! The kids were so cute and smiled and said "CHEESE" for every picture. Other people at the event even asked to take their picture!

The tour of Oz started in Kansas. We visited the Magician and Dorothy's house. We then visited the house after the tornado and exited the house into Oz! We saw the Wicked Witch of the East under the House and then traveled along the yellow brick road where we met many characters!

As a child, I LOVED the movie and drove my parents crazy watching it. I think I enjoyed my visit to Oz as much as the kids!