::: the girls from ames :::

My friend LC recommended this book. Because she once gave me a great book for my birthday, I decided to take her advice. I started reading it 2 days ago and have already read almost half (and no, its not because I'm unemployed). I teared up when reading the first few pages as it spoke of the girls life-long bond, from birth to their present age of 40. Brittany, you should borrow it after I'm done, my cheesy cheese friend :)

the september issue.

i really enjoyed this movie, i would recommend it!

i think my taste in reading/movies is changing. i have really been enjoying reading about other people's real lives. biographies, memoirs. this movie catered to that pleasure for me. seeing the realness of their lives and their work.

oh.my.goodness.

http://melodymaker.posterous.com/the-reason-some-girls-stay-single-very-funny

This is awesome.

Thank you Katie Lynn, for the forward!

For Woods

[Lago Maggiore, Italy/2009]

Trading Texas for Colorado

I am in Tori's room, studying [sorta, sorta]. She is packing. For what? Colorado. The great state of Colorado, that I've always wanted to venture to. She's not going on vacation. She is moving.

She's moving to Denver Thursday...I couldn't be more jealous. The summer breeze and chill winters are very enticing. I love the winter and summer sports. I love how beautiful it is.

Anyways, she's leaving [me]. It's sad. Laurel's leaving [me] for Oman, too. Life is changing. Fast. I love where their path is taking them, but it is very bittersweet. Tori will be counseling the masses of Denver and they are lucky to have her. I hope to find myself in Colorado when I graduate December 2010. This picture is her in Ireland/Summer 2009. Lil cutie!

I miss you already, TT.

the break-in

I CANT BELIEVE SOMEONE KICKED IN OUR DOOR IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.

I CANT BELIEVE MY iMAC IS G-O-N-E.

I CANT BELIEVE MY TUMI IS G-O-N-E.

I CANT BELIEVE MY D50 IS G-O-N-E.

I CANT BELIEVE MY RING/JEWELRY IS G-O-N-E.

among WOODS' IPOD, CAMERA. ZOG'S LAPTOP, AND GMA'S ENGAGEMENT RING.

WHO WOULD DO THIS? AND WHY?

I don't feel as if my heart or mind were set on materialistic things. Everything but my computer was a gift from my parents, therefore I don't exactly have the cash to dish it all out for a 'new' anything. I'm okay with someone's old computer. I really do want a new camera, but am willing to save over time, and to not dish out my savings. I really don't care for fancy luggage, but it sure was nice having a Tumi. 

Anyways, I'd like my few hours of sleep back from last night.

Also, I'd like all of my things back.

My safety. And a piece of mind.

Your fellow M-street resident,

Abby

thankful

its been 4 weeks since we have blogged, so I thought i'd post...

i am thankful for my life this morning. for quite some time i have been desiring time. free time where i can relax. To not have to get up and go to work everyday, continue on to a busy weekend and then start a new week all over. time to wake up and do whatever i want; read, drink coffee, go on a walk, call a far away friend, watch good morning america all the way through. and i have done just that, this morning. 

i am not sure how long this 'restful' season will last, but i am very thankful for it now. 

p.s. our blog is not aesthetically pleasing to me, but i can't find an image i like for the top. i also do not wish to spend time finding one...oh dear.

Support the CPCA

UNICEF estimates that there are nearly 2 million children in the commercial sex trade worldwide.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Cambodian law enforcement rescued Veata from a brothel at the age of 13 with the help of International Justice Mission. She’s healthy and happy today, living in a small aftercare home with caring staff who love her.

The traffickers who exploited her are serving 16-year sentences for their abuse.

You can help stop these crimes. Share your passion with your Member of Congress.

This month, hundreds of IJM supporters will meet with their Members of Congress to urge them to support the Child Protection Compact Act of 2009. This bill supports poor countries’ efforts to stand up to criminals that traffic children by investing in effective law enforcement that puts traffickers and slave owners out of business and behind bars.

Please help us make the abolition of child trafficking a priority for Congress by urging your Representative to cosponsor the Child Protection Compact Act today.

Click here to email Congress

Dichotomy

I've had this overwhelming feeling of ... awareness of self, which just eats at my laziness, complacency, and calls me to have zeal for life. I have been finishing up a paper on sex trafficking that just invigorates the ugly/pretty/dark/light things out of me. It turns everything upside down when I watch movies, informational broadcasts, peer related journals, and news articles of women and children victim to the slave trade.

It goes back to a few years ago when Woods coerced Larsen, Tori and I into watching "awareness" videos in college. She would make us her delicious home made meals and put on a video her mother sent from World Vision. We would sit around, and painfully become aware of the world around our middle-class, sheltered outlook on life. We were in college. We didn't watch T.V. Let's just say Woods was our main source of knowledge regarding the depravity of this fallen world.

Nowadays I am either researching, writing, or case working with these unlovely parts of life. Driving through, Harry Hines Blvd. today was overwhelming [although nothing new]. I have heightened senses to what's going on behind doors [thanks to my case-working]. It's such a dichotomy: to be a social worker : aware of the injustices, expected to be full of compassion; without bias or judgment upon my client population - YET - [which comes too often] entitlement; elitism; straight up snobbery, shallowness & narrow-mindedness.

THIS.IS.ME.

O. And - on TOP of that, the dichotomy of all these ugly thoughts I have to the compassion, love, laying-down-your-life as Jesus has done for others, for me. WHERE IS THE DISCONNECT?

Here it is. This is the reality. This is me. For example, today I was so hungry I was shaking {thank you low blood sugar}. Enough so that I stopped into Subway on Harry Hines Blvd. It's hard to divulge, but I did not think I could eat a sandwich from the person handing it to me. I've seen my client's homes. I've had the bottom of my shoes stick to their motel floors due to grime. I've smelled of second hand smoke leaving their homes. I've almost passed out sweating on their couches because of no air conditioning at their house & left reeking of body odor. . . I know what goes on. I know their cleaning habits or lack their of. Today, I didn't want to eat from their Subway.

BUT. . . The lovely b-u-t. I am educated on these things. I am a professional. I am a human. I am filled with the Holy Spirit. The question arose in line, Will I sense you Spirit? Will I stand to your calling? Will I purge these dark - narrow minded thoughts? I must.

I am completely humbled inside for these thoughts, trust me. Friends, feel free to remind me. I love a swift beating every once in awhile, so I invite you in. Anyways, I've gathered this horrible elitist idea. I am passionate about my work [when connected with my Maker] but am devastated at how separated my comfort of life with my Apple computer, my full closet of options, my expensive taste, my wonderful world of iTunes, my clean sheets, and my save - smooth driving & clean car .... is .... from .... walking with the poor, the broken, the widowed ...the uncleanly, the battered, the "undeserving".

How do I do this? How do I not be one of society? How do I strip myself of racism, selfish and self-loathing thoughts? How do I become more like Him?

Abide.

I am redeemed [2 Corinthians 3: 18].