Sarah's birthday beauty trip

After!!

Before!



Side shot!  Love the colors



Sarah turned 16 on April 11th.  We saved the celebration for today.  She was surprised with a trip to the beauty salon.  I am loving the shoeless beauty!  Yes I have her permission to share these photos, really thought you all would enjoy. 

She is such a great sport, not to mention gorgeous, inside and out! 

We finished with an amazing ice cream treat from Coldstone Creamery!  Thanks Sarah for spending the day with me, Happy 16th, my sweet girl.

Humbled and Appreciative

This is a quick update.  We will be posting our outings from yesterday and today later this afternoon.  I just wanted to share with you all the we have received $100 in donations so far.  I am humbled, and so appreciative.  You all know who you are, thank you so much.  We are thanking God for you all, and we are praising Him for your generosity. 

 ³¹ “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.
 ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. ³⁶ I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
 ³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
 ⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
 ⁴¹ “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. ⁴² For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. ⁴³ I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
 ⁴⁴ “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’
 ⁴⁵ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’
 ⁴⁶ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

Shopping for a friends birthday

A strategic photo Sarah took of me.  We were shopping for a very good friends birthday surprise!   We are so blessed to be able to shop for a friends birthday.  I am sad to know that so many people in this world doesn't even know their own birthday!  What an amazing gift from God to be born into the United States.  I never will take this for granted.

 Jayden, my youngest son, decided he would join us.  I guess the craziness rubs off!  I am so thrilled he is no longer embarrassed by our crazy antics.  This is my 2 youngest children.  I am so humbled by their hearts, their willingness to go without to bless another child they haven't ever even met.
 

Finally, the picture of our feet!  What an amazing adventure we are on together.  Thank you Sarah and Jayden for participating in God's work.

Sunday

I am so disappointed with us!  We forgot to take pictures of our shoeless church service :(  Needless to say, we were shoeless at church.  Sorry we forgot the pictures, I promise we will get some next Sunday

My Not So Shoeless Saturday

We are looking for a new house to move into.  Today we drove around looking at foreclosed homes, and my darling hubby   ------------->                        . 

didn't feel it was safe for me to walk around foreclosed homes shoeless, so, it is my not so shoeless Saturday

I feel like I did something wrong!  Of course, the bible tells us that we need to submit to our husband's leading as though we are submitting to Christ, joyfully!

So I donned my shoes, and happily went about looking at foreclosed homes.  After seeing the broken glass, trash, feces, and mud, I was very thankful for my hubby's    leading me!

Walmart shoeless

 Today we went to grab some groceries at Walmart.  

 I am still quite amazed that nobody has said anything to us about going shoeless lol! 

We had a couple of friends come to the store to actually see us shopping shoeless.  We had fun :)  . 

I grabbed some baby wipes, not sure if this is cheating, but I feel it is necessary

Day 1

As we were out running our errands shoeless, we ran into a few rude people. Apparently, there are those who are uncomfortable with bare feet. I wonder how uncomfortable they would be to see someones foot looking like this...

Now that we have seen what a foot can look like...

This is what we looked like. I still wonder what those ladies would have felt had we have been suffering from podoconiosis.

None the less, we had our lunch at a fast food restaurant, who didn't ask us to leave! I do have to say though, my youngest son was very embarrassed by our shoeless antics. Poor kid will be scarred for life! Mom and sis without shoes in public.

Our next stop was the BMV. I must say, we were treated very well here :) We didn't even get stared at. I was a bit disappointed that no one asked why we were shoeless, but there will be many days to come! Next time we will be ready with fliers in hand explaining our goals. My oldest son, snapped this photo without us even knowing.

Now after 2 hours out on the town, my feet are quite dirty.

We are going to need to invest in baby wipes I do believe!

So this is the first day of actual public shoelessness. Not too exciting, but was entertaining. Did I mention that pavement is rough? You won't hear me complaining though. I am choosing to go shoeless so that they don't have to!

Why we are shoeless

Yesterday was April 5, 2011. It was also Tom's and MSN's One Day Without Shoes campaign. My darling Daughter and I have decided to go shoeless for the summer, in as many places as we are allowed by law, to raise money and awareness for those who have never owned a pair of shoes. I expect, living in the U.S. to run into issues with this. I can't tell you how many signs I have seen like this one:

Now I wonder what would happen if they started posting these signs and enforcing them in Ethiopia? Most children there grow up never owning a pair of shoes. Their families cannot afford them. It costs many people their lives, due to infections like podoconiosis, a disease that causes swelling of the feet and legs due to prolonged exposure to irritant soil. Want to know what this looks like?

Can you imagine walking everywhere you go without shoes? How many times have you noticed glass or trash or even animal waste laying on the ground? Did you know that in many countries streets look like this one below?

Would you want to walk barefoot here? What about your kids? This is reality in many foreign countries. We don't have the luxury to be ignorant any longer. God tells us to care for the poor, to provide for the needy, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Would Jesus ignore this situation? The answer is no, and neither can we.

So from now until October, my darling daughter and I will be going shoeless to raise money and awareness to this issue. Will you join us? Together we can fill this need! To donate just click the "donate" button on this page, it will take you to paypal's secure site. Not comfortable with Paypal, send me a message and we can do it another way. To participate, just take off your shoes :)