My friend Jenny has blogged recently about a 20 year old girl named Katie whose courage is an amazing inspiration. Katie is from Nashville and is living in Uganda raising 13 children that she has taken in as well as caring for hundreds of other children in her village. Did you read that? At 20 years old, she is raising 13 children in Uganda by herself.

With little help, she is feeding and caring for 1200 other children in the area. She is not there with an organization or with family, she is there by herself because at some point she could no longer stay still, stay silent. She had to go. I’m pretty intrigued by her story and want to ask you to check out Katies blog, and/or Jenny's posts about Katie.

From Jenny's blog:

“I ask Stacy what Katie needs...
Right now, she says, Katie needs to buy a piece of land and build a clinic next to her house so that she will stop bringing in sick babies and children off the street and into the living room with her other 13 children! They also need to build a few latrines. Apparently the 1200 children are stopping up the ONE toilet she has at the house. She needs $6,000 to buy the land. Then they need money to build a basic clinic.

Fine, I say. We will get the $6,000 and then we will start raising money for the clinic (which by the way has a waiting list over a year long of doctors and nurses who have already committed their time. They are simply waiting on a place to be built).”

So Jenny and her blog readers and going to raise at least $6,000 to help Katie with this project. Can you help? Do you know someone who can? I could not NOT share this story with you and at least ask you for prayers for this amazing woman. I'll blog again when Jenny has a specific place where you can send donations, but please feel free to contact Jenny directly about this.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:32-34

Katie's Blog
Jenny's Blog

Morning Read

What a teacher or librarian or parent can do, in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations.

-Madeleine L'Engle from A Circle of Quiet.

and a few pages before,

I think that all artists, regardless of degree of talent, are a painful, paradoxical combination of certainty and uncertainty, of arrogance and humility, constantly in need of reassurance, and yet with a stubborn streak of faith in their validity, no matter what.

I do believe she is right. If you are a creative person of any kind and have not read any Madeleine L'Engle, you are missing out! Start here. Or here.

Definition

I am

a mother
sitting on a stool.
afraid of sharks.
still getting used to being an adult.
embarrassed by that last statement.

I am

a songwriter
annoyed by gum chomping.
tired.
looking out the window to see what Oso is barking at.

I am

a wife.
wondering what I should make for dinner.
excited that it is almost fall.
wishing I lived closer to family.
regretting the brownie I just ate. okay, the two brownies I just ate.

I am

a daughter, sister and friend.
always holding back..something
ashamed that I enjoy television so much.
a mediocre guitar player.

I am...

so many other things, yet none of these things.

I am not defined by anything other than:

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:15-17