Thankful Thursday +3

Hello. I missed the TT last week because we were in Seattle for the World Vision Child Ambassador Retreat. This was my 3rd time to attend and Mike and Nadia came along because I couldn’t bear to leave her for that long. I would have been totally distracted if they had stayed in Texas.

The retreat was a great blessing once again and I am oh so THANKFUL that I get to be a part of this program for World Vision. If you are new to our blog, I am a Child Ambassador for World Vision. Child Ambassadors are all sponsors who volunteer their time to share sponsorship with the people in their circle of influence. It has been one of the greatest blessings of my life to do this and to bring life and opportunities to the forgotten children of the world. If you are interested in finding out more or sponsoring a child, please visit my World Vision page.

Or you can call/email me anytime. I will be blogging more about the trip as I decompress all the information, but here are a few statistics:

  • In 2000 approximately 33,000 children were dying EVERY DAY because of preventable causes like diarrhea and malaria. The 2007 statistics have gone down to 26,000 children. Still a horrific number of children dying every day, but organizations like WV are MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!!
  • 80% of the world (or 5 billion people) have one meal a day or one meal every other day. That was shocking number to me. I so often take it for granted that I eat multiple times every day and have a choice of foods at every meal. Even the poorest of the poor in America are eating more than the vast majority of the world.

Blogging with a Purpose

blogaward My online friend Christina (aka Tassie) gave me this blogger award today. Here is what she said on her blog, “Louanne’s blog is a great read, she is witty and insightful, and she is a real humanitarian. Keep up the good work Louanne!” Such kind words and I appreciate it. Now I have to choose 5 bloggers to give the award to. Here are the rules:

Rules:

1. Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award.

2. The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose.

3. In their post about the award they need to link back to the blog/post where they were given the award.

4. Awarded parties must post the award banner on their site. The banner must remain linked to bloggingwithapurpose.com.

Now here is the tricky part. I have to nominate 5 people who have not been given this award. I went to some sites that I really like and they have already been given the award this week. So I am going to have to think about who I will pass this on too. What I find interesting is that the person who started this award is a teenage boy who is a blogger and home-school proponent. I read through his site tonight and I really enjoyed it, he is a good writer and very thorough in the things that he posts about. I also liked the links on his site to other teens who are blogging with a purpose – teens that are thinking about the world around them rather than just “reacting”. Teens who are being brought up to serve God, but also to be adults. What a concept, I know! I could do a whole separate post about how many teens today are not prepared to be adults and go off to college or into the work force because they haven’t been raised up with a good foundation. But I will leave it at this – I am very happy to see that the founder of this award was a home-schooled kid and a dude! What a switch 🙂

Thankful Thursday

So I got seriously ticked off this weekend when reading a large adoption blog and forum that I frequent. The post was about this religious fanatic threatening the owner of the blog because she was the anti-Chirst. (eye roll) The owner of the blog said that her research showed her that the persons IP was from Massachusetts. Then this other person comments about how they were just “SHOCKED” that the religious fanatic would be from MA, they would expect that from the South or the Mid-West because there’s a lot of “bible-thumping” down there. I was SO irritated that the person would just indict millions of people in one fell swoop. That kind of stuff makes me crazy….like when people indict the whole South as being racist.

Really, can you be so ignorant as to not recognize that there are fantastic people everywhere, racists everywhere, bigots everywhere, religious nuts everywhere, compassionate people everywhere? I would like to know how the North East and the West Coast got a “pass” on having racist people or religious kooks? Do we forget that the Jonestown church was based out of San Francisco? This blog is not the first time in the last year that I have been faced with the whole, “Everyone in the South is a bigot thing.” Or the “Bible thumper” thing.

So today’s TT is in honor of all things Southern that are good and that I have grown to love since moving here in 1990.

  • Frito Pie.
  • Corn Nuggets. Essentially fried creamed corn. Oh my!
  • Fried pickles.
  • Men who open the door for women entering buildings.
  • Men who tip their cowboy hats and smile when a woman walks past.
  • Barbecue. The debate will always rage about what style is best, but I say it’s ALL GOOD.
  • When a funeral is going by on a regular road people pull to the side and show respect.
  • The many, many ways that y’all can be pronounced and used in a sentence.
  • Sweet tea. Or half and half. Or half tea half lemonade.
  • Bluegrass music
  • Jazz
  • That all types of soda are called Coke.
  • Southern Hospitality.
  • Chick-fil-A (born in GA)
  • Any sign of snow or ice causes chaos on the roads. If a single snowflake falls, the city is paralyzed for three days and
    it’s on all the channels as a news flash every 15 minutes for a week. All grocery stores will be sold out of milk, bread, bottled water,
    toilet paper, and beer.
  • “Fixin’ to” (I don’t use this phrase, but it cracks me up)
  • Big Trucks. I am so used to this now that when I travel to other parts of the country I instantly notice that there are less on the road.
  • Fried okra and cornbread.
  • Parents jumping all over their kids if they forget to say “Yes, ma’am” or “No, sir.” And Mr. and Mrs. So and so.
  • That people having guns for protecting their family and property is more readily accepted.
  • Family get togethers are a food fest.
  • How if you drive through a neighborhood, even if it’s not your own, people wave at you.

**Edit from Louanne – Ruth Ann’s post had me laughing that I mentioned all that food and didn’t mention Tex Mex. Mmmmmm Pappasito’s! And Half Price Books, my favorite bookstore that I forget got started here! Good stuff! I also wanted to say that all men in Texas don’t wear Cowboy Hats and ride horses. Mike was born and raised here and doesn’t own a hat, boots or a horse 🙂

I know that many from the South will say FOOTBALL, but I am not a sports girl and I don’t get the obsession. But that’s okay, it’s still part of the charm.

Now, if you are from the South or visited the South, what are your favorite things that I might have missed?

Aunt Tahni visits

Tahni Visits
Tahni Visits (click to see the album)

My sister Tahni came to visit last week. She was our first visitor when we got home from China at the beginning of August. What a change she saw in Nadia over the course of those months! I enjoyed our visit because I was alive and functioning rather than a jet lagged zombie. Hee hee. Here are a few photos and the sketch she did of Nadia is really awesome and I don’t think that my photo does it justice. It was our Christmas gift and I will always treasure it.

While she was here we ate great food, picked out new glasses for me (thanks T), visited with Grammie, Paula and Clay. We also watched Kevin James’ “Sweat the Small Stuff” and Bill Cosby’s “Himself” which in my opinion are 2 of the funniest stand up routines ever. I also added a few extra photos from this weekend and Nadia cuteness.

Gift From Tahni

Below is Nadia sharing an ice cream cone with Mommy. And our family lunch.

Ice Cream with Mama Lunch date

Nadia goes everywhere with a toy in each hand. So with this outfit I put a toy in each pocket and told her that she could now have 4 toys. She was not sure what to think of those pockets, so she walked around holding on to the toys IN the pockets. Cracked me up!!

Ooooo pockets

Bath time

Get this off!