Tee Off Against Trafficking

Many of you know how passionate I am about the child trafficking problem in Southeast Asia. (It’s actually a big problem in Seattle as well…which is horrifying) Well, we (Eastside Women of Purpose) are on to our next fundraiser…a Golf Tournament taking place in Redmond, WA on Sunday, October 5th.

It’s going to be an awesome event. We are looking for people to play and to sponsor. You can sponsor a golf cart for only $100 (which is great for small business like Amy Cheng Photography…hehe) We are also looking for donated items to use as prizes and items for our gift bags. To be a hero in this story (and these kids REALLY need a HERO) please go to www.teeoffagainsttrafficking.org and SIGN UP or email Sadie to sponsor.

It’s going to be a fun event but the point of all of this is to save children BEFORE they get kidnapped or sold into slavery. Our funds are going toward educational materials that are WORKING! We heard a story about a young girl in a small village in Thailand who had been educated about ‘stranger danger.’ She noticed a strange man wandering about the village. She asked him questions and reported him to her elders and he got nervous and left! She saved the children in her village from this nightmare that thousands of children are faced with RIGHT NOW.

Imagine being a 14 year old girl, who had never even kissed a boy, and a ‘friend’ of the family says she can get you a job for the summer in a noodle shop in another town and instead of a noodle shop, she brings you to a brothel, and that night you are raped by 10 different men. Then the next day, you have to do it again, and smile or else you'll be beaten. I'm not exaggerating. These girls (and boys) NEED your help. There was a Dateline special about this last week. There were girls as young as 5 in these brothels. I'm currently reading the book, Terrify No More, which was written about the raid that was captured on film for Dateline. It's disturbing, but I highly recommend it.

Please tell your friends about the tournament. We can all do something to stop trafficking.

Signage Obsession

Along with hibiscus (or hibisci I s’pose?…heh), I also found myself obsessed with these signs in Kona. We drove down the Kona coast to see the sea turtles on the black sand beach (which was awesome) but I honestly couldn’t get enough of these signs. I’m weird. (I took them from inside the car as we drove by…don’t ask me how they turned out…it’s a miracle)  :)

 

 

 

 

Kona & an unhealthy hibiscus obsession

So…Joe and I just got back from Hawaii. We were in Kona to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday. The four kids (& spouses) gave my mom the trip for her birthday and all she knew was that Brian (my youngest brother) and his girlfriend, Nadia (one of my favorite people) were going with her. Joe and I managed to come (thanks to Joe’s parents babysitting….THANK YOU) and we surprised her the 3rd day. Wow…what a surprise.

Anyway. I woke up one morning and became obsessed with this hibiscus.

 

 

 

Here are some other pics….

We had fun with the ‘infinity’ pool…

This was Joe’s typical position…

We ate VERY well. At the farmer’s market, we managed to get 2 lbs. of sushi grade Yellowfin Tuna caught the day before for $15. We were tuna’d out by the end of the day cause we had Poke’ for lunch and seared it for dinner on some Okenowa purple spinach from the farmer’s market. yum.

Ok…this is a crazy long post. I’ll continue it later. :)

Pictures for a Purpose results

Well, Pictures for a Purpose was a great success. I was ready to drop after the first few sessions but somehow I managed to get through all 17! The kids were adorable and so much fun to work with. Thank you to all who participated. It was such an exciting event and I’m so honored to have been a part of it. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

Potty talk

So, Noah was on the potty today and here is our conversation:

Mommy:  I have to go potty too.
Noah:  Oh ok. I can share.
(Noah climbs off toilet)
Noah:  There you go. Now you can go potty.
(Mommy goes potty)
Noah: Now our wee wee can go down together.
(Mommy laughs)
Noah: Are you laughing?
Mommy: Yes.
Noah: (looking into toilet) Wow, that’s a lot of wee wee.

I have to say, I think he’s sweet for ‘sharing’ the toilet with me. :) But the best part was the excited look on his face when our ‘wee wee’ could get flushed together. That's awesome. I'm still laughing.

Pictures for a Purpose

There is an awesome event happening on Saturday, June 28th called Pictures for a Purpose. I am one of the photographers donating my time and talent to help raise money to fight child trafficking in Southeast Asia. Please sign your child or children up for a 20 minute sitting. It is only $30 and you can order prints from home at a very reasonable cost. The photographers are not profitting from this. Read more at www.picsforapurpose.org and sign up quick cause almost all the morning spots are already taken. It is being organized by this really great group I belong to called Eastside Women of Purpose.

Chocolate Party

The chocolate party was last night and it was a huge success! We had around 50 people here and it was a lot of fun. The best news of all is that we made almost $2000 from this event alone! Yay. Thanks so much everyone! And I have been receiving checks in the mail and some at church that total nearly $1000 so far! So, we are a little more than $1000 away from our goal of $4000.

I can’t express how thrilled I am about this. To think that almost 300 cocoa farmers will benefit from this is so awesome. And it’s so much more than boots. It’s giving hope to people in extreme poverty and showing them that we care. Jesus had such a heart for the poor and I feel so strongly that as Christians it is our duty to extend that same generosity and love for people. I have this scripture printed on the chocolate guides that we have been distributing and I think it really sums up what we are trying to do:

Learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.          Isaiah 1:17

To recap from previous posts, our goal is to buy 40 boots for each of 10 cocoa farming villages in West Africa (the boots cost $10 each). A team from Project Hope & Fairness is going in August and will be buying and delivering the boots themselves.

The project has only 1 week left, so for those of you collecting checks, get them in the mail soon! I’ll also be collecting checks and cash at OCC at the Women of Purpose table.

I’d like to publicly thank the slavery-free chocolate companies that donated chocolate for this event:

Chocolove

This company is based out of Colorado. You can find their products at Target, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats (as well as other stores). Their packaging is super cute and the chocolate is very very yummy. Go to www.chocolove.com for more info.

   

Sweet Earth Organic Chocolate

This is Tom Neuhaus’ company who is also the founder of Project Hope & Fairness. He will be buying and delivering the boots for us.

They gave us so much chocolate that I used it to make chocolate fondue and wow….was it great. Their chocolate is really smooth and they also have products for baking. Go to www.sweetearthchocolates.com for more info.

963 Coffee

These guys provided coffee and hot cocoa for us and I must say, it was really good. The kids couldn’t get enough of the cocoa and I had two cups of coffee. It kept me up all night, but it was worth it, haha. I love this company because they have a really inspiring mission. This is what it says on the back of the cocoa:

Fair Wage:  Allows our farmers to afford necessities like food, education for their kids, and health care – all of which give them hope for a sustainable future.

If you want to buy some, click on this coffee link and $4 will be donated to help this awesome family adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. How cool is that? Marisa wrote more about it here.

To find out more about the company go to www.963missions.com

 

TCHO

This is a new company out of San Francisco that is just super cool. I heard about it from one of the founders of Alice Chocolate (another great slavery-free chocolate company--they could not contribute but were very supportive). I am in love with Alice Chocolate’s graphics and marketing. Sooo gorgeous.

Anyway, TCHO is awesome and they were really glad to see what we were doing and to be included. Anti-slavery is a key issue for them. They sent chocolate but unfortunately it has not arrived yet. We are still waiting on the Farmer’s Market venture. In the mean time, anyone up for another party?

I think this company is brilliant, actually. Their packaging is so unique and super hip. For more info on TCHO, go to www.tcho.com