Something new

Hello faithful readers! I am going to make a change to my blog and I hope you will continue to follow along. I have been having lots of trouble with blogger so am going to give wordpress a chance for a while. Here is my new blog address: http://sahzu.wordpress.com/

I am heading out tomorrow, back across the pond to Ethiopia... I hope you will follow along!

Mind Readers

I had this post about parades I was thinking about then I got really bored with it so I gave it up all together, which is fine cause about 5 seconds ago, I got all worked up about a much better issue to share with all of you...




I love technology and am an addict of Facebook and blogs and most likely would be of twitter, but I can not seem to figure it out... I get on bored about 10 years to late (just like I did with suspenders in middle school, tight rolling jeans in high school and big flannel shirts in college...)




I love Google and have my own home page with a quote of the day and 10,000 places to see before you die and weather and a nice banner of prayer flags running across the top banner. I always use it as my search engine cause it just makes me happy. I know that they personalize my search results based on a profile they have based on my previous searches and all that good stuff and I am not bothered by this, in fact I quiet like it! While the rest of the world is worried about Google having all their information, I am just happy I do not have to scroll through dozens of website about Clark Kent, when all I really care about are Clark shoes.

On Facebook the advertising is also "targeted". Yes, I know they know my demographics so the advertisements are usually geared towards a 30 something female and they usually get it wrong. They assume I use coupons, care about cleaning products and want a flat stomach in just 10 days! (well o.k., they were right about that last one). When I was in China, my advertisements were about China, (which is silly cause why do I want a cheap plane ticket to China when I am sitting in Beijing at that moment!)

But lately, on Facebook, I have been a little freaked. I few days ago I made a status update about a dream I had and stated: "What would Freud think?" Well Facebook picked up on this reference to Freud in my status and started giving me advertisements about Frued books and such. Today my status was a quote from a song by Pink "So raise your glass if you are wrong, in all the right ways, all my underdogs...". (Good lyrics right!?!) And then there it was on the side of my page. "Like Pink". Pink CD's.... How did they know this? Why did they not choose "Underdog" to focus on, that is a movie and a character and maybe even more well known than Pink!

Now I am mad cause they are putting me in a box. They are judging me. They are telling me to like something based on one word. Well. I will show them. I will not "like" Pink, nor will I "like" Freud. And just in case I ever go back to China, I will not buy my tickets through the Facebook recommendation. SO THERE!

Maybe I do need that consultation with Freud after all...

EVERY.SINGLE.CHILD

This week I am a part of a conference at Bethany Christian Services specifically for International Staff. You guys this is TOUGH STUFF! It is knowing that birth mothers have to walk away from their children because they have NO. OTHER. OPTION. It is knowing that children are kidnapped and trafficked in to slavery. It is knowing that a Chinese parent can not get health insurance to cover their child so they can not provide the heart surgery that will keep them alive. It is knowing that a child watched their mother, father, uncle, neighbor die of AIDS and then learning they have it themselves.

But you know what makes me really sad? There are people that know this and say "People who have AIDS deserve it" and people who say "They just need to work harder and get an education". There are people that believe the horrors that happen to children and families are the fault of individual decisions made by one person.

I heard from an amazing man who grew up in the rural tropics of Uganda. He was the youngest of 5 children and every year the first day of school, his father would take a pencil, break it into 5 pieces and the 1/5 of a pencil would have to last these children the entire school year. Did I mention the school was a 7 1/2 mile walk each way? (And here is the irony for me, as I sit here, my dog is laying on the floor eating pencil and I don't even care!)

These experiences make me uncomfortable, they make me feel guilt, they make me what to drop everything and go into the world. They make me want to cover my ears, shut my eyes and go apply at Starbucks.

The number of orphans is 163 million... But MY agency believes it is possible for every single child to be in a family. That is right, EVERY. SINGLE. CHILD. I believe it too. I will work for it and I hope you do as well. And remember you do not have to adopt to help a child be in a family.

RIght now I sponsor 3 children, my first child is from Ukraine and I have been sponsoring her for years. Early in the process she was able to move back to her home from an orphanage due to vocational training programs her parents attended. Each of her 4 siblings are also being sponsored. I also sponsor a boy in Zambia. He is a part of the Milk and Medicine program. Each month his mother comes and her twin boys are check out by a nurse, and given the food and medicine they need for another month. This children are with their mother instead of an orphanage. Finally I sponsor a boy in Ethiopia. I met him on my last trip there. He had a smile that melted my heart. The sponsorship money his family receives allows him to live with his grandmother and attend school.

I have been able to work in Ethiopia and will go back again soon, to help with trauma education and assessment skills so that children are getting the best possible services.

We have to be constantly critically thinking about how we are helping, giving and learning ourselves.

I am assuming most of you have checked out by now, but in case you made it through here are some great great resources to start with if you are wanting to DO something...

BETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICES

Yezalalem Minch

Nyaka School

I would also encourage you to read the book: Half the Sky (which I blogged about HERE
and watch a great documentary called: A Walk to Beautiful

I can say a little in a lot of words, but there are some great "mentors" of mine that says a lot with little words:

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
"Be the Change you wish to see in the World"
Mahatma Gandhi

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, Indeed fact it is the only thing that ever has"
Margaret Mead

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"
Emerson

"How wonderful is that that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world"
Anne Frank

Inspired and...

Tonight I went to a concert of my favorite artist... Andrew Peterson...He is an amazing story teller, lyricist and musician. There is just this quality of his music, his voice and his lyrics that speak to me. We seem to have the same sense of humor, the same general outlook on life and passion for honesty in all situations. I have been to a lot of churches, sat through a lot of sermons and listened to about every Christian artist and rarely do I find the inspiration that I continually find with A.P. In fact I find myself more "Biblically" inspired by Ghandi, Ann Lamont, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa...of course I see God daily in my work, but rarely in Church. But when I really need a good kick in the pants, I can always pull out my A.P. playlist and feel rejuvenated.

I wrote a few blogs posts about him a while back:

MORE RESOLVE

PLANTING TREES

So tonight after the concert, I was feeling a little guilty as a parent and a wife and my plan was to head home and hug my husband and thank him for being so great and then snuggle with my kids and tell them how amazing they are... But... my husband was called into work and will not be home until midnight (I am not sure that this Spirit is moving me to stay up that late, he is a great husband, but Midnight is really late...) so I chose to focus on the kids.

First I played them the song World Traveler, which has this great verse..
Tonight I saw the children in their rooms
Little flowers all in bloom
Burning suns and silver moon
And somehow in that starry sky
The image of the Maker lies
Right here beneath my roof tonight

(So hold on tight, I'm a)
World traveler... (click on the words for a link to the song)

As I explained how much I love them and how every night I come in to their room, look at them sleeping and kiss their foreheads, I can see Jesus in them. We are all snuggled together and Abby says:

"Mom... When I get a donut with orange and green and yellow sprinkles, sometimes I pretend my finger is a race car and I drive it all around the donut"
Hanna doesn't miss a beat and follows with:
"Mom, billboards lie and Mrs. "V" says that she fell for a gimmick one time."

And I said: "GOOD NIGHT!"

Chatty Cathy

I am in the driveway tonight watching Abby try to learn how to rip stick. The girl never stops talking so I thought I would bring you, faithful readers, into our conversation...(The only time I respond will be in parenthesis and the only time she pauses for breath will be noted with a period so please read very fast in a cute little girl voice....

This Ripstick says Ripstick see..R.I.T. It also says stick: S.T.I.C.K. Look mom I put one foot on and then the other, but sometimes it slips off so I have to start over or sometimes I sit on it and it is a little bench right here, Hanna says there is a bench on a Ripstick and I am sitting on the bench, at school we are picking dandelions from the playground, are dandelions a weed cause Owen and Jacob said they are a weed and usually Owen is nice, did you know Owen can pick me up and Jacob does not know how, but Owen tried to pick me up in the school and I just told him no, look Eli and Joey are home, oh that is not their car, I thought it was their car, but it is Nate's dad's car, when will Eli and Joey get home? When they get home can I ask if they can play, I want them to see how I can rip stick, first Eli learned to rip stick then Hanna and now me so Joey will be next, my bike is getting a shower, it will not need a shower all summer, I am going to put my head in the sprinkler then I will not need a shower till Monday, Deliliah looked right at me, but maybe she was looking past me, what is the name of the little boy down the street, why did his mom push him down here, but they did not play, his dog is Hunter, LOOK MOM! I went down 2 squares of the drive way that time. Knock knock (who's there) rip stick (rip stick who) rip stick has 2 wheels not 4 so it is sad that there are no friends, MOM, why was the rip stick sad, cause it had no friends cause it has 2 wheels and the skateboard has 4!!!!!!! MOM WATCH ME! Mrs. Machelia taught us patty cake today, we sang 'Mark it with a B' but you can pick any letter you want really, but I just like to pick B, I am going to sing it to Livi tomorrow. Can I have a snack, it will be a healthy one, cause I know that is what you are going to say, can it be ham? (No) Eggs? (no) I am going to have an apple and I am going to dip it in carmel and then I am going to put it in the sink and I will not let Polly get any of it cause she has her own food and Polly jumped on me and Hanna laughed, I have an owie on my toe and on my hand, I got a woodchip in the owie on my hand and I picked it out so it is not dirty, but did you see the owie on my toe, do we have one of those, you know, band things to put on it? Hey mom remember that headband tie thing we saw in Holland? Weeeeelll I did not like it then, but now I like it, can we buy it? I promise I will wear it. Dad said we can watch Sound of Music, did it come in the mail? Well really we can not watch it tonight cause Dad is working and he wants us to watch it with him so we can save it but we can watch SOME of it if we want to and Dad will not be mad, but we can wait until he is home, but really he wants to watch it WITH us cause he watched it when he is a little boy and Mr. Carmichael is teach us the song so we should see the movie...

This was about a 5 minute clip of my evening... God bless this child, but phew, she is tiring!

24 hours

When I woke up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat, I should have realized it was a premonition to the day...To quote Alexander: "The terrible, horrible no good, very bad day". It actually started the evening before....

I decided to get myself a pedicure. I have pretty ugly feet and am not so great at doing my own nails... Despite the lovely gifts and breakfast my family gave me, this was a final gift to myself. As I sat some what relaxed in the over crowed salon in the mall getting my feet soaked and scrubbed I looked down and noticed, laying perfectly still on my shirt, a large, brown, old dried up tonal clipping. My instinct was to brush it off and I quickie became distracted with the pumicing of my own feet, but later had time to reflect on how truly gross it all was...

The next morning after the night sweats I woke up late (this is usual, I hit snooze for about 45 minutes each day), I got out of bed for breakfast and realized that about 45 minutes had passed and I forgot to wake up the kids and my husband and I had about 20 minutes to shower, blow dry, apply make up, get dressed etc. So as the manic Monday began I flew out of the house, climbed in my car and went to put my keys in the ignition, only to realize I had no keys. I search my purse: Nothing. I go inside, do a quick search: Nothing. Back to the car, look everywhere, look in my purse again: Nothing. Back to the house and get Josh and the girls involved in the search: Still Nothing. Josh says "did you check your purse?" Of course I check my purse!!!! But back out I go and sure enough, there are my keys. In. My. Purse.

As I back (a little too fast) out of the drive way the next domino of my bad day falls. I run over the garbage can. It knocks down, falls into the street. BIG SIGH ( I promise no bad words). As I get out to fix the situation the neighbor boy has a big grin on his face and says "nice move". Another BIG SIGH.

My drive to work is pretty uneventful despite being stuck behind a school bus on a country road and having to put my make up on in the car. I arrive just in time for the little "shower" we are having for a co-worker. There are about 20 of us there so, and one of them is the new intern so we decide to do a round of introductions... I feel a little bad for the interns at our office, because we are really crowded and growing out of our current space so the interns end up having an office in the supply closet. So as the very nice Angela introduces herself to everyone I ask "Are you in the closet?" Silence followed by a ROAR of laughter. It takes a minute for me to register what I have implied. I stammer: "The SUPPLY CLOSET, I mean is you office in the supply closet!!!!!" The poor girl she may not come back tomorrow.

I finally get to my office and realize I have left my computer at home. My computer with my powerpoint presentation that I have to present that same evening... At. My. House. 30 minutes away. I recreate the presentation (thank goodness it is a short one).

The final issue is one even I, transparent, honest, Sarah did not think I would share with all of you faithful readers, but, I must. As I was meeting with my coworker, I look down and see a few small brown spots on my nice, white shirt. I look it over a bit and slowly realize... I have poop on my shirt. I am 34 years old and have POOP on. my. shirt.

God Grew Tired of Us

"A person with out a culture is like a human being with out a land...."God Grew Tired of Us (movie)

How many years ago did the Lost Boys come here from Sudan... It seems forever ago what happened to them, in their country, to their families...Yet, these boys, these MEN are still here, still working, Every. Single. Day. Living every day with their history of true horror. Being asked to assimilate to OUR world.

I watched a great documentary "GOD Grew Tired of Us" (I found it on Netflix). I was such a powerful reminder to me that America is not the only country in the world. That we have SO much to learn from SO many people. In the wake of the death of Osama-bin Laden, we find ourselves a little puffed up in the chest. We feel the pride in "closure" to 9-11. But we are so little and this act of "freedom" is such a tiny speck in it all.


Where is our outrage when thousands of Sudanese families are murdered and newly orphaned boy march across a barren country to starve, to be torn up by lions and their hope (THEIR HOPE!) is that they will live crammed in dirt huts in a refuge camp with little food, and maybe an English education.

Where is our outrage when thousands of African and South East Asian people die every day of a preventable and manageable disease (AIDS) or when children from these countries and countless more are trafficked for sex slavery.

Where is our collective American outrage when years after the Earth quake in Haiti, the country is still in ruin.

We forget so easily, we expect so much, we brush so much under the rug.

I wonder, if God is Growing Tired of Us....