Menu Monday

This week, instead of talking about what we will be eating we would like to share with you instead why we are doing this and who it helps.

Hearts of Hope for Haiti

Sometimes questions get asked in our home like: "What are we doing?" "Why are we doing this?" "How is this helping anyone?" "Is it time for dinner yet?" Well, we aren't really sure what we are doing sometimes and even now it's not fully clear. The overall idea still comes from the statement that we made during the Food Pak challenge- if other families are surviving for so little then we should be able to, as well. For what we were spending on food we were able to feed not only our family but another just by becoming aware of how much we eat and how much we spend and waste. So as part of this new challenge we have said that what we spend we will give. 40 dollars a month of food for us, and 40 dollars a month for charities- mostly food and water focused non-profits. For January, we felt like we were called to give away from such charities however, because of the earthquakes in Haiti.

Taylor's littlest brother and sister, Teddi and Brogan, go to school at Randolph Elementary School, in San Antonio. In response to the need in Haiti the school started making hearts, lots and lots of hearts. Students, teachers, and parents all helped to make clay hearts, and they sold them at the school, at restaurants, in shops, all for $10 each and all of the proceeds went to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. They had an amazing turnout and more than doubled their goal, all while teaching the students (and the community!) what a little love and teamwork can do for those in need! For more details see the news clips below. (The first on tells the whole story, the second one is shorter and gives an update.)

"Hearts of Hope for Haiti" KSAT 12




We weren't really sure about what we would do to help Haiti- who to give to, what to provide, how much to give... I think it was so very overwhelming for a lot of people and we just didn't know what to do. It hit a little closer to home though, a couple of weeks later when we found out some very sad news- four of the kids we sponsored at Christmas in Haiti were victims to the earthquake. And even though the only connection we had to them was a picture and a name, our hearts broke when we heard the news. We knew then that we had to do something.

So if you have started to put 2 and 2 together you can tell where we went with this... we bought 4 "Hearts of Hope" in memory of our 4 kids for our $40 donation this month (January).



Now, we have a beautiful reminder of the these precious children and were able to help out those left in devastation. We continue to pray for the people of Haiti as well as those providing assistance.