Partylite consultant

I just found out that my friend Pea is starting a home business with Partylite. If anyone is interested in buying some really fun candles, check her business out.

Tear jerker

I know I have a link to the blog I read from the CSC directors, but I just had to re-post this one.

Warning- it's sad, but it has a happy ending.

Jovan's Story by Marlys

On January 14th we received an urgent message that there was an extremely ill child in a squatter village near the city bus terminal, so one of our nurses, one of our social workers and I went there immediately to assess the situation. There was no place to park so the government workers brought eleven month old Jovan to the vehicle. It was hard to believe that Jovan was even alive, as he was so emaciated and malnourished. His bones and veins were barely covered by a thin layer of skin and he was so weak that his cry was a mere whimper. He was severely dehydrated so he didn’t even have tears. His mother was out begging when we got there so we took him anyway with the assistance of the local officials. There was no time to wait for her return. Our hearts were breaking as we rushed him through the crowded streets of Cebu for an exam at our doctor’s office. We wrapped him carefully, as he was so frail, and gave him milk very slowly. His little tummy was not used to real nutrition. The desperate mother had been giving him watered down rice water, which was somewhat better than nothing.When Jovan was born his mother gave away his twin sister, as she was so distraught and wondered how she would feed another child when she had eight more at home. The father left his whole family, leaving the mother and nine kids to fend for themselves. No wonder she gave away Jovan’s precious sister. I wonder how she decided which one to give away. (Our social worker is presently trying to find Jovan’s sister.)Later, when the mother returned, she heard that we had her son at the doctor’s office, so she went there right away to watch the exam. I can’t imagine what she must have been feeling as she watched her son slowly fading away from her in the dark and filthy shack she called home. There he was being carefully examined by our compassionate and tender loving pediatrician in a safe and clean clinic, just a few miles from her village where her son was literally dying. (The doctor was so moved by meeting Jovan that he didn’t charge for the exam.)When I pulled in to our yard at the Shelter an hour later, the mother was about to leave with the barangay officials. She was there to see Jovan’s new home, and she met some of the Aunties and Uncles that care so tenderly for our children. She walked straight over to the window of the vehicle and there was genuine peace in her eyes as she stood outside, thanking us for rescuing her son. Maybe she slept a little that night, knowing that Jovan would no longer suffer the pain of starvation, but looking around her at the other eight kids must have quickly brought her back to reality.Jovan was admitted the following day for severe pneumonia and diarrhea, and after receiving medicine for de-worming, he passed an awful worm that was robbing him of any tiny amount of nutrition. Surely, there are more of them that we are anxious to get rid of with several weeks of medication.He has gained some strength, but he’s still very weak and barely able to cry to make his needs known. Yesterday was a thrilling day, however, as he was able to smile momentarily. He tires quickly. One thing is for sure, he will never again have to go to bed hungry, and never again will he ever want for anything. Just as I was about to leave I bent down to say good-bye and was so touched when he put his scrawny and frail little hand on my cheek for a few seconds. Oh my, tears came to my eyes as I thought what a blessing it is to have Jovan under our care!We would like to ask for your prayers for Jovan as his body starts to grow and change with proper nutrition and tender loving care. We pray that Jovan will recover quickly and that he will not suffer life long affects from the severe malnutrition. Thank you being a part of Jovan’s life and for your loving support of this ministry that enables us to take him in to the caring environment at Children’s Shelter of Cebu.Jovan is one of 76 children that we presently have. Each of them has a difficult past. None of them would be here today if not for the faithful partners of Children’s Shelter of Cebu. Bless each one of you!

Tagged

I have been tagged by Amy to answer these fun & silly questions:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. teacher
2. gym manager
3. soldier
4. Assistant manager at Lady Foot Locker

Movies I have watched more than once
1. Sound of Music
2. Gone with the Wind
3. Grease
4. Shakespeare in Love

Four Places I have lived
1. Misawa, Japan
2. Washington State
3. Monterey, CA
4. Las Vegas, NV

Four T.V. Shows that I watch
1. Scrubs
2. Amazing Race
3. America's Next Top Model
4. CSI

Four places I have been
1. Florida
2. South Padre Island
3. Hawaii
4. Oregon

Four People who e-mail me (regularly)
1. Lafayette
2. Michelle
3. Pea
4. Mariela

Four favorite foods
1. Pizza
2.Burrito from Chipotle
3. Alice Springs Chicken (Outback Steak house)
4. Anything Ryan makes

Four Favorite Beverages
1. lemonade
2. Pepsi
3. Amaretto Sour
4. water

Four Places I would like to visit
1. New York
2. Europe (any where)
3. Anchorage
4. Northern California

Four friends I am tagging to do this
1.Pea
2. Mariela
3.Rachel
4. Heather

Things you may not know about me
1. I met Ryan in a bar
2. I love to dance
3. I really am a girly girl
4. I often wish that I could just take our family and go live on a secluded island somewhere (friends can visit of course)

Things I am looking forward to in the coming month & Year
1. Adopting our children
2. end of the school year
3. Finishing my research paper
4. taking our first road trip in the van

Vacation's Over

Well the kids went back to school today, which was a bummer for all of us. Even though I complained about having 5 kids around the house everyday that couldn't go outside because it is so cold, I will miss having them around. They were fun to read with and play with and actually I learned how to get a lot done with them around. I even took all 5 of them to the hair salon one day because I had made an appointment for Lance a while ago and forgot I would be babysitting. They were all very good. Part of the reason I'll miss them, I have to admit, is that I learned that Liam and the girl we watched love to clean. I had a Creative Memories party on Sat. and I needed to clean the house last week.

Here they are scrubbing my kitchen floor (and they did a good job also)

There is the cutest quote from them also while they were scrubbing.

Liam: Isn't this so much fun!

A: Yes, I like doing this.

Liam: This is so much better than yesterday when we scrubbed the bathroom floors.

A: Yes, why?

Liam: Because yesterday mom was surrounding us the entire time, telling us what to do.

A: Yeah, we don't need to be surrounded all the time by someone. This is way more fun.

Financial Advice (from an expert of course)

Okay, blogging is all about sharing and I am going to share with you today. You might find it boring, but we are very excited about it. Last year Ryan's dad sent us a VHS tape and a book about finance stuff. We put on a shelf and said "we'll look at it later, we probably know it all". Well, when we were cleaning the basement last month I ran across it again and decided to throw it in because nothing was on t.v. I watched the first lesson and thought "this is really good stuff". I made Ryan watch the first lesson and he loved it also. We have now watched 3 lessons and we think it is the best thing since sliced bread.

First of all the guy is funny and he is not boring, his name is Dave Ramsey. Plus, he is teaching us things that we just didn't think about when it comes to money. Yes, we have a budget and Ryan is anal about balancing the checkbook every day and we have a Roth IRA etc., but we learned that there is a lot more to it than that. I know I sound like a infomercial, but it really is that good! I just want to share how wonderful this guy is. (I get no money for blogging about him.) :)

I think you can buy videos, but you can also listen to him on the radio for free or read his website for free. Maybe we could even get you a copy of his tape or something also, nothing illegal of course :)

Now I can feel better about myself because I shared my great find with all of my friends and family. It is now up to you if you want to check it out.

By the way, the plan he lays out is not easy, he wants us to learn discipline in our spending. However, he doesn't tell us what to spend your money on, just know where you are spending your money. Ryan said that if I want to rearrange our budget so we can have $200 a month going toward Chipotle, go for it, just don't complain about the things we have to take out of the budget to do that.

Enough sharing, check it out for yourself.

Just a weather update

We've been busy here, but nothing worth writing about. However, I did want to update on all my non-Minnesotan friends about our wonderful weather here. Remember these are actual temps, not including the wind chill that will be added to make it feel like 35 below.

Wordless Wednesday- I hate winter!!