More catching up!!

Don't know when this was from, but I love both of these lovely ladies!! I think we may have been watching 30 Rock. 

Can't wait to spend the summer with this girl!!

5 going on 16. Watch out Veronica!!

Geography paper writing. It wasn't pretty. 

Told you. 

Another bridal shower- this one for Emily, who I also love. I wasn't able to get a closer picture, cause I had to run back to school. Unfortunately, I will be missing her wedding when I'm in India. : (

Last month of my sophomore year

I've been out of school for almost a month, but I still have a lot of pictures to post. Clearly, I've been doing more exciting things than blog. Funny, during school, all I do is random blog posts-- I guess its my go-to form of procrastination. Guess I'll start posting more come the end of August.

Since it has been so long since taking these pictures, I honestly don't remember what day they are all from or what exactly was going on. I promise, the only day that I didn't take a picture was Good Friday, because that just felt wrong. I was thinking about other things. I did write a couple of posts Easter weekend, check them out here, here and here.

So I'm just going to put the pictures up in a pretty random order. It would take too long to try and go back and figure out specific dates.

Here we go:

Went through a weird, short-lived flossing craze. Should probably go back...

I have a really bad habit of picking the skin around my fingernails. Any suggestions on how to stop?

Took sweet H to the Museum of Life and Science and the sweet boy fell asleep on the way home. Too cute!! 

Went to my sweet friend, April's, wedding shower. To show you just how far behind I am on posting-- April and Jonathan got married on Friday. But anyway- I'm so blessed to have April in my life and I wish her and Jonathan all the best. April, I love you and you were absolutely beautiful!!

I have known these wonderful girls for years. We were in small group together in high school, but it wasn't until the end of high school and college that we became really close. It has been amazing to see God work in our lives and bring us together. I can't imagine my life without these precious girls!!

Just watched the finale of Lost again. I've been working my way through the whole series for the second time since December.

I didn't like it the first time through (the finale, not the show).

But upon finishing it for the second, I have to say that I LOVED the ending and I found it completely satisfying.



Now I have to find something new to watch...

Update

So its been about a month since I've posted pictures haha, the end of the school year got a little crazy. I am going to put them up!!

My picture project ended with the school, but the blog will continue. I have found that I really like writing and sharing my thoughts and the things that I have been learning. I hope that you will continue to check in!!!

More about chocolate

Reading through Sit a Spell archives again (one of the blogs that I stalk), and found this beautiful post about the chocolate industry and we can be a part of redeeming a terrible system that is daily hurting thousands of children around the world.

Check it out! Heather is great! (I don't know her, but I feel like I do! I know that's creepy, get over it!)

Then, if you want more information about the problems in the chocolate industry, check out this post by one of Heather's friends.

Also, check out this trailer for The Dark Side of Chocolate, which tries to bring to light the slavery and evils that happen in the chocolate industry. I already found the whole documentary on YouTube and will most likely be posting it on here once I watch it.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Today is the day when we celebrate the amazing moms  in our lives.

Thank you to all the moms out there who give of themselves everyday for their children. These women give up their own dreams of their careers and their own plans to pour their lives into the little ones that have been entrusted to them. Thank you for being an example to me and girls like me who can watch how you love and teach your children to love and worship God. Thank you for letting me be a part of your kids lives. For entrusting me with their precious lives and letting me invest in their lives. Your families are a constant blessing to me.

Thank you to my mom. You are amazing! The best mom I could ever ask for. Your love and support means the world to me. I wouldn't be who I am today without your guidance.


But while we are celebrating the women who bless our lives daily, I can't help but think of the children all around the world tonight who don't have the love and care given by a mother. There are millions of children around the world tonight who have never known what it means to be loved and cared for by the woman who gave them life. They are alone in this world without the one person who is supposed to protect them.

Remember these children tonight. Those who have watched their mother's life slowly be taken from her by disease. Those children who are now taking on the role of mother for their younger siblings because someone has to feed them. The children who watched their mother leave, some hoping to find a way to care for them and some just leaving.

I ask as you thank God for your mother, that you will pray for God's protection over these children tonight. Pray that God will be the comfort that they now lack and provide all their needs.

I think of the 25 Indian children who will one day live in my home. In my mind, they are always girls. I think about where they are right now. If they are alive yet, if they are orphaned yet. It breaks my heart to think of them already in danger and in pain and I have no way to do anything for them except pray. And so I do. I beg God to protect them, to care for them until He allows me to love them and hold them myself.

While you are celebrating and loving your mom extra today, take a second and say a prayer for the children who have lost their moms. They need to know that they are not all alone in this world. The God of the universe loves and cares for them more than any earthly mother could possibly imagine.

I want to add something else to. Another group of people, of women, to remember and pray for everyday but today in particular- women who's babies (young and grown up) are no longer here with them but are dancing with Jesus right now.

I can't even begin to imagine the pain that these women must be feeling today.

I know that there are a lot of women who today can be painful for, but can we all just take a second and pray for these moms in particular.

The women who know in their hearts that they are mothers, but have no earthly reminder, no child to love and care for everyday. No one to track mud in on the carpet or color on the walls, just a aching heart, a reminder of what they have lost.

In this past year, our church family has experienced this pain several times. In the past few months, two women I know well lost their babies in miscarriages. Last summer, one of our pastors' wife delivered their baby several months early. He lived for a day and then went to be with Jesus. During that same time, my roommates older brother was killed in a terrorist attack in Uganda. My heart breaks for these women that I know and love, and I know that they are not alone in this pain. There are countless other women at the church who have experienced this loss and are reminded of it on this day.

Please take a minute with me and pray for these mothers. Pray for comfort and peace for their hearts and souls. Pray for a renewed hope in their hearts that they will see their children again. They will worship at the feet of their savior with the babies that they never got a chance to know or the child that they lost way too soon.

Pray for them.

Albertine

Tonight, I went with my friends to see Brooke Fraser (from Hillsong) in concert at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. This is one of my absolute favorites of her songs. As Bemi and I were saying tonight, basically all she has to do is right a song about orphans/children and we will love it! But seriously, this song is beautiful! I was literally crying tonight thinking about and missing my kids in India.

Enjoy!