Moving moving moving… kittens!! (aka Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense)

Sooooo basically this entry is a duo. The first picture is my legit phone/instagram cuteness overload pic:

http://instagram.com/p/XQ_nfZqiGr/

If you don’t understand why this screams future, we can’t be friends. Just kidding. We can be friends. It means future to me because it’s new life. These cute babies were born last Thursday (3 days old now) in the freezing cold. My family pulled them from under the porch (while holding Mama Box Cat back) and moved them to the enclosed porch area. Now they have a space heater and everything ;)

Each kitten has an entire life ahead of it. Even the runt, who was pushed out on Thursday night, has a chance to grow up. I sat with it and rubbed its back until it squeaked and followed my finger back to the group. Friday, it was pushed out again, but I did the same thing and Mama Box Cat finally accepted it and now all four of the little babies are in a great big wad :D

This second picture is not my own. It was borrowed from my friend, Amy.

Passport to Kenya!

I don’t know if you have noticed my African Children’s Project (ACP) postings lately, but there have been a lot of them. My friend Amy and her husband Jason have been the main source of ACP excitement. This passport represents sooooo much future since they are relocating to Kenya to oversee administrative things and construction on site. Talk about total life change!! They have to sell their house (for sale here), raise support (support them here, I’m doing it), pack their two small kids up and move halfway across the world, then build a house and learn a language. Ummmm future much? Heck, yes!

I love the story of this future though and I’m sooooooo extremely blessed to have my time, energy, thoughts, money, and hopes tied to it. I just couldn’t help but love the story and people! And so here’s the story I love to share:

My friends, Jason and Amy are moving to Kenya. But they aren’t going to take over and run things for people. They are going to invest in the community and help orphans from the AIDS/HIV epidemic find forever families. When they get to Embu, Kenya, Jason and Amy will begin building a two story house, paying the local construction groups to build it. They first floor will be devoted to the orphan families and the Yons (Jason and Amy) will live on the second. The idea is that they will seek out a couple or a mother that is willing to adopt several children, then move them into the first floor, and help them become adjusted and well blended as a family. Next, when the new family is ready, construction on a new house will begin, using local workers again. This house will be just for that family and when finished, that family will move in, leaving the first floor of the Yon house empty. Then Jason and Amy will seek out a new couple or mother and start the entire process over again.

The goal is that the orphans find a family that will allow them to be children and grow up with a future. They will go to school instead of working to keep their siblings alive. They will be loved instead of lost. They will get an entirely different future. Now that’s worth posting about!!

You might wonder what happens after several families come together on site. I did too. My friend Melanie (founder and director of the ACP) told me this: “Oh my! I would LOVE for us to be there!! When that does happen, my hope is that those families will run the site on their own, and allow us to move to a different area and do this all over again. That’s my goal, man. And praise God, we’ll get there.”

You can read Amy’s story here, if you want. It’s pretty amazing. No, really. I get goosebumps from it.

Oh yeah, and Weekly Photo Challenge rocks. Just sayin’. Now here’s a bonus Mama Box Cat photo. Why? Because I love her.

http://instagram.com/p/PXeHWrqiFC/

Okay, two bonuses. Sheesh.

http://instagram.com/p/Sx-5LFKiIF/

‘ap ‘ap Birthday!

Sung to “Chim Chim Cheree” for my good friend Katie at My Eternal Voyage, in honor of her birthday and love for Mary Poppins. Now if only it had a soundcloud….

‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘ap birthday!
Katie is happy
As a fluffy kitteh!

‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘appily
Be ‘appy too!
It’s ‘er birthday you know
And she’ll dance the day through
Or eat lots of cake
Cause that’s ‘appy too!

Now that she’s older
She’s more than a girl
She’s a llama you see
That can jump, spin, and twirl

Though she spends ‘er time
On skype and pintrest
In this ‘ole wide world
She’s classed with the best

‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘ap birthday!
Katie is happy
As a fluffy kitteh!

‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘appily
Be ‘appy too!
It’s ‘er birthday you know
And she’ll dance the day through

I choose ‘er friendship  with pride
Yes, I do
We enjoy a laugh
And a chortle or two

Up where ‘er thoughts are
All billered and curled
‘Tween waking and dreaming
Is ‘er song writing world

When ‘er guitar’s in ‘and
She strums out a tune
There’s music inside ‘er
Rising like a balloon
On the notes of ‘er fingers
Coo, what a song!

‘ap ‘appily
‘ap ‘appily
‘appy Katie
When you’re with the llama
You’re in glad company

No where is there
A more ‘appier crew
Than them wot sings
“Ap ‘appy birthday to you!”

On your birthday
‘appy birthday
To yoouuuuuuu!

http://instagram.com/p/T4EknwKiFM/

“We are all cre…

Quote

“We are all created with purpose. Every one of us was put on this earth to do more for others than for ourselves. In this way, we all have a ‘Greater Calling’.”

– Sevenly, “Greater Calling” Campaign

In da hood (aka Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood)

Okay sooooo I don’t live in a hood or the hood or even a neighborhood at all. I live in a house, by the highway, near the woods, beside my grandma. Anyways, these are my phone shots for the weekly challenge. Kittehs and moss count as “neighborhood” right? I hope so.

Let’s step out the back door:

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Ooooooo and squat down to get a good shot:

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That was cool. Maybe a little less brick this time?? Hmmm. Not as good as the one before.

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Now I’m totally distracted by the sunset.

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Yep. Sitting here in the sun is nice :D

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Now for a glimpse of what I see. Oh and my rockin awesome shoes. Yay purple!!

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Distracted again….

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It’s my kitteh!!! She’s fat full of babies! Soon there will be lots of little kitties hopping around everywhere. It will be fantastic!

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More of what I see. Leaves. A whole lot of leaves. But such is winter.

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And this is the kitteh begging for food. She’s extra pitiful, isn’t she? -Meow meow meow- That is kitty for “yes”.

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Ta-da!! This is a day outside with my phone. Not really my neighborhood, but then I don’t really live in one. I don’t have a local coffee shop or a daily run. I have a highway and you can follow me on instagram if you really want to see shots of that haha. Seriously though, I post like one sunrise shot a week from that highway. Gorgeous!

“There is a kin…

Quote

“There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. It is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother’s confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Video

It’s my birthday and I felt like announcing it. Now you know ;)

I’ll make a real post later. You know, one with words and pictures and interesting stuff. We’re suppose to see Oz today and go shop walking and eat chocolate cake and other yummmmmy foods. Birthdayish things :D

Now for a singing mustache birthday song! Enjoy!!!

Appreciate the small things (aka Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details)

A few years ago I was living on a different continent, away from home, and a few timezones from my family. I missed seeing them, but was never homesick. I think part of it had to do with all the little things that reminded me of home. Like my photo for this week’s photo challenge:Appreciate the small thingsThis is of a purple hydrangea. I hadn’t seen any outside of my home before. Usually they grow either blue or pink, but it takes a special mix of acidic and base dirt to make one purple. Too much of either and you get the pink extreme or the blue extreme. This little detail is one of many that kept me from being homesick while so far away. I hope you like it (: