Rice, oil, water and .... a goat!!

We have an exciting update* Since late August we've been able to raise over $550 by recycling cans and bottles, with the help of our recycling team (neighbors, family, school, work). We posted awhile back (Oct) that we were able to help Christ Outreach Orphanage in Ghana buy textbooks for their school. Recently, our recycling fund contributed to some much needed groceries that the orphanage requested: rice, tomatoes, minerals, oil, pasta, salt, a goat, and water. Here is a picture of some of the people at the orphanage with their goods. What an incredible blessing to have so many people on board with us in this endeavor, we are truly grateful for their support. And for our kids to know that their family is being supported (and fed!) in Ghana is just priceless, such a beautiful gift. In November, our kid's school, Ascension Lutheran, had a can/bottle drive to bring in as many recycleables as possible in order to help us raise money for the orphanage. They managed to bring in over 3,200 bottles/cans which raised over $200, great job for a very small private school :-) We posted a pic here of what our garage looked like after bringing all those bags home.

Psalm 10:17-18 You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

During our church service last month our family was featured in the Giving Thanks video. We're so grateful for this opportunity to share our story with our church family and now YOU! We had some fun making the video too with the media guys and felt like moviestars for about an hour as the bright lights and camera equipment circled around our living room. Enjoy!

A Christmas Gift - 7 hours in the making*

A dear friend from the kid's school offered to pay to have her friend, Lydia, braid Ama's hair last weekend, as a Christmas gift to her. Ama, to say the least, was very excited about this :-) So after about seven hours of braiding (and sitting for Ama!) she had a full head of beautiful braids! What a thoughtful and generous gift, thank you Mrs.Madu and Ms.Lydia!!

BOOOOOO!!

(slideshow below) We had lots of fun carving pumpkins the day before halloween!! We all dressed up on halloween to do a little 'neighborly' trick or treating and then off to Ascension Lutheran School for the Fall Festival. Lots of fun games, a bounce house, food, cake walks, costume parade and trunk or treating. We dressed up our car with a luau theme for T&T'ing...our version of a little bit of paradise :) and WON 2nd place!

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Turning trash into text books

I'm so excited as I write this post, I wish my fingers could type faster and my thoughts would slow down :-) Since August, our kids have been collecting cans and bottles from friends and neighbors, co-workers and family, in order to recycle them for money to give to charity. So far they've earned over $180!! It's truly amazing that our once small effort of going around to about 8-10 neighbors has turned into a much bigger and unexpected blessing than we'd ever imagined. God has a way of doing that, doesn't He. As I mentioned, we started out by going to some of our neighbors with the hopes that they would save their empty cans/bottles and we would come back every other sunday to collect them. Many of them have graciously jumped on board and been saving their recycleables for us, even dropping them off on our porch sometimes to our pleasant surprise! How many times have you heard your kids shout for joy when they drive up and see a trash bag sitting on their lawn or porch? (uh huh, thot so) Well, our kids do. They know better. Because inside that trash bag is money, in their eyes. Money for those in need. The first time they went to the recycling center to cash in their cans/bottles (pic above) they saw firsthand how what was once trash was turning into money and eventually textbooks for the kids at Christ Outreach Orphanage in Ghana (once home for Jonathan & Amaleah), pic above, Ama's Grama Rose in dress on right; Ama's sister Olivia in red shirt on left side. Soon, some of our family was handing us bags of bottles/cans and once word got around at my husband's work of what we were doing, his co-workers started saving them too (even the janitor!). Then, the cherry on top was this afternoon when I received a call from Ama's teacher saying that the teachers at school decided that they would dedicate Nat'l Make A Difference Day (October 23) to our cause, asking all the families at school to bring in their cans/bottles to support our orphanage in Ghana. WOW!! How does the old adage go...be careful what you wish for?? At times, our garage is overflowing with cans/bottles, but we couldn't be happier. We are truly humbled by the outpowering of support we've received from so many people. Something tells me that we will never look at an empty bottle or can the same again, in fact, I'm confident we won't. On more than one occasion one of our kids will see a disregarded can/bottle sitting somewhere and I can see a light turn on in their eyes as they go to grab it ;-) Because that 5 or 10 cents that it's worth to us is priceless in the hands of a young orphan who was just handed a brand new book or fresh drinking water, or maybe even the only meal they will have that day.

Six years ago....

On August 21, 2004 our little guy made his entrance into the world...Reece David Padilla! Life has certainly not been the same since that day :-). We celebrated his 6th birthday starting with a birthday breakfast of pancakes (thank you daddy) and some family presents: scuba mask, superhero shirt, homemade cards from the girls, Lego sets and a plane. Reece chose to celebrate at Medieval Times for dinner that night with his friend Glorien. If you've never been there, you need to go with your kids, it's a treat... step back in time with epic battles, jousting tournaments, a royal feast, knights and romance~ Inside the stone walls of an 11th century castle, Medieval Spain came to life as six knights clashed in a jousting tournament for the title of King's Champion - and our Knight won (Black n White)!! It was a fun evening for us to share together. We also invited our family over the next day to celebrate over an Italian dinner (the bday boy's request)...lasagna, garlic bread, salad and watermelon, and of course a huge cake with a football across it to top it off. The cousins had a great time running around and shooting some hoops. Always a special time to have the family together. Safe to say that Reece felt "celebrated" this year, by the looks on his face. We love our little boy from the inside out, growing up so quickly but still 100% kid in every way. Reece, your enthusiasm and humor in life reminds us to live each day ALIVE, not taking anything or anyone for granted. We thank God for you and love you lots Reecie Reece*