Comments (5)

By Lana, October 31, 2008 11:37 am

Every year I buy or make one Christmas ornament for each of my girls. My plan is that when Lauren grows up and has a home of her own, she can take her box of Christmas ornaments (Dave’s parents did this and his ornaments are very special to him and he is NOT normally sentimental!). Carmen’s ornaments will hang on our tree forever as a reminder of our Guatemalan princess.

This year, I ordered the following for Carmen’s Christmas ornament:

The blue in the middle of the heart is the shape of Guatemala!

Daphne, mom to two beautiful girls born in Guatemala, is selling these for $12.50 each, which includes shipping. You can pay directly with paypal on her site, www.guatemalanharvest.com

Daphne is donating 100% of the proceeds towards building a playground at New Dawning Christian School in San Juan La Laguna, Guatemala. To learn more about the New Dawning Christian School, visit this website: www.childrenoflakeatitlan.com/Home.asp.

I know some families with children from Guatemala read our blog so I wanted to tell you about this ornament! And thanks to Martina for sending me the link!

Comments (13)

By Dave ©, October 30, 2008 2:51 am

It’s nearing 3 AM EST. I should be about 3 hours from DC. Instead, I sit…tiredly awaiting my flight home from LAX. One thought has consumed my mind for the past 3 hours, when I found out that my flight would be delayed by at least an hour and a half: “Lauren is going to be SO disappointed if I don’t make it home for her singing at school tomorrow morning. I really hope and pray that I make it. I really hope they don’t cancel my flight.”

What are you hoping for right now?

Comments (3)

By Lana, October 28, 2008 10:43 pm

I don’t normally watch daytime TV but happened to turn on the TV around 4:00pm Eastern time. Oprah was doing a show about Miracle Children and that caught my attention. Celine Dion was a guest along with several children who have survived the odds.

Toward the end of the show, Oprah introduced the video 99 Balloons. 99 Balloons is the story of Eliot, a little boy born with Trisomy 18. I immediately dropped everything I was doing to watch. We put this video on our website months ago (under Multimedia, Other Videos). I remember the first time I saw this video and couldn’t stop crying. Oprah and Celine reacted similarly. Big, blubbery crying! I burst out in tears this time too and got Lauren all worried!

After showing the video, Oprah interviewed Matt and Ginny, Eliot’s parents. At the time of the show’s taping, Ginny was 38 weeks pregnant with their second child. On October 14th, she gave birth to a healthy little girl, Hazel. I read their blog from time to time, http://thespectacularvernacular.blogspot.com/. I wish I knew Matt and Ginny personally because they are amazing.

Here is 99 Balloons on Oprah’s website: www.oprah.com/media/20081001_tows_99balloons. (There might be an advertisement first but it will be short!)

P.S. Eliot and Carmen were born on the same day- July 20, 2006.

Comments (5)

By Dave ©, October 28, 2008 11:57 am

I read an interesting article in Relevant Magazine on the flight to LA on Sunday. While it was directed at Christians, I think it applies equally to all. Here are portions of the article:

Many Christians traditionally have voted Republican because of their justifiable conviction to protect the lives of the unborn. Now, many younger Christians are voting Democrat because of their justifiable desire to see our nation, the most prosperous in the world, address issues of poverty, global aid and the environment.

The problem is, many Christians vote these convictions, but that’s largely where their personal involvement in the issues stops… If God has given you a heart for the poor, or to see a reduction in the number of abortions, or to promote peace, or to help the sick…then your personal focus needs to be on that — whether or not the president shares your same values.

Later in the article, author Cameron Strang added:

If you have a passion for an issue, rather than judging someone who doesn’t share that passion or viewpoint, just go do something about it. Give your life to it. Be the change you want to see.

We need to pray for our leaders and our country, but always remember that our leaders and country do not define us. We are the generation that will shape the direction culture, government and social action will take in the next 50 years… I say it’s time we step up and lead the charge.

But that means with our lives, our finances and our actions every day. Not just on Nov. 4.

Again, this article was directed at Christians but I think it probably applies to most Americans. It certainly applies to me and got my attention! Without getting too political here, what do you think?

Article content reprinted with permission from Relevant Magazine, Issue # 35, Page 6, written by Cameron Strang.

Comments (5)

By Lana, October 27, 2008 8:04 am

We want to wish Rachaeli a happy birthday! Rachaeli has Tay Sachs and Saturday, October 25th, reached a milestone that few children with Tay Sachs reach. She turned SIX! Happy, happy birthday to beautiful Rachaeli.

When we first found out that Carmen might have Tay Sachs, I searched the internet for information. The first personal site I found was Rachaeli’s, www.rachaeli.com. I read every single word of her site and decided that I wanted to have a similar attitude as Rachaeli’s family. The following is an excerpt from Rachaeli’s site:

“Her visit to this world would likely be brief; Tay Sachs Disease would slowly and progressively return her to her Creator in Heaven. We struggled with the notion of an illness for which there was no treatment or cure. We struggled with how much we were being forced to relinquish. What we failed to realize, however, was how much Rachaeli would enrich our lives along the way.”

This past March we went to the annual Tay Sachs family conference. We had the priviledge of meeting Rachaeli and her family and taking some pictures of Rachaeli and Carmen together.

Rachaeli and Carmen, March 2008

Rachaeli’s and Carmen’s Hands