Crazy for Africa

I love Africa. I always have. I think when I was little it was because I knew all the "wild" animals lived there, and I like animals. When I was a teen, I thought my giraffe and zebra masks were cool, along with my random African figurines. I filled my room with knit knacks from Africa and I had never even been there! Now that I'm older, I'm still wondering why part of my heart is in Africa. I haven't been there, but I'm going someday. When I go, I'm taking a ton of pictures so when I come home I can look at them. I'll post them all over this blog.

Last night I went to MNO (mom's night out)It's always great to party with a bunch of moms! ha ha! It was with some friends from my transracial adoption group. After yummy food at Zupas, we went to a Mother Without Boarders boutique. There was a lot of awesome stuff there made by the people in Zambia. I got a few things, but then I came to the "sponsor a child" booth and I couldn't resist. Even though we just sent in our info to sponsor a child through Amazima They had pictures of all the children that need sponsors so they can continue to go to school and get food and supplies. There were so many brown faces looking at me and I knew I had to go for it and pick one. So I did. Here she is. Isn't she a beautiful girl!?

Her name is Melody and she is 8 years old. She is in 2nd grade. Surprisingly, she lives with both her mother and father and older brother and younger sister. She is not an orphan, but they are very, very poor. She lives with her family in a village close to the Mothers Without Boarders school. Here's a pic of everyone attending the school.

Most of them live at the orphanage, but a few of them live in the surrounding villages like Melody. The teacher is named Heather and she's in the pic too (upper right hand corner) I met Heather last night and it was awesome because she told me all about Melody. She said that she is always filthy dirty, but she is learning how to read and write in English. She also always wears this bright, little dress, when she is suppose to wear her uniform. I guess all the kids uniforms are getting too small and tight, and lately Melody only wears this bright dress. Ha ha! The little cutie.

I hugged Heather and told her to please give Melody a hug from me! It's so awesome to finally have a real connection to Africa. I'm so thankful we can be her sponsor.

Now, just a small note on my awesome husband. He was thrilled to see her picture and was really happy for me (us). Even though this isn't totally his thing he is so supportive and the best guy ever. He told me I was so cute that I was so happy to be a sponsor. I'm SO thankful that he's my husband. He has such a big heart.