This holiday season, you can give back to help feed Americans. A fellow blogger friend, Kim (aka, Crafty Mama of 4), has started her own virtual canned food drive with Feeding America. Every $5 she raises will provide 35 meals. That is a LOT of people who will go to bed with a full stomach, rather than the empty, gnawing pangs of hunger. This is America….hunger just shouldn’t be; my personal thoughts are that we should be able to help each other. This country is so large, and we have so much….That’s not all, though. Every dollar Kim raises, Libby’s will match, up to $40,000! Her goal is to reach $300. Let’s make it happen. As she suggests, dig out those old gift cards with only a few dollars remaining; you know the ones….they’ve sat in your wallet because they only have a couple dollars on them. Even just give $1.

Not only can you give, but you can start your own virtual food drive. To see how your dollars will be put into action for hungry Americans, be sure to check out this page.  Also, be sure to Like Feeding America on Facebook, and follow @FeedingAmerica on Twitter.

Together, let’s help Kim, Feeding America, and Libby’s fight hunger! Shine Your Light!

Tim McGraw and Hamburger Helper are working to raise awareness about the hunger people of our nation are facing right now.  They are working to raise support for Feeding America through the Show Your Helping Hand campaign.  You can help.  Right now when you buy certain boxes of Hamburger Helper, you can submit a code from that box onto the Show Your Helping Hand website, thus giving 17 cents toward the work of Feeding America; that 17 cents will deliver one meal to a food bank.

We actually received a prize pack from My Blog Spark, which included a box of Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni, a foam Hamburger Helper foam “Helping Hand” (which Jaden loves), and the Tim McGraw Southern Voice CD.  Not only that, but Hamburger Helper made a $10 donation to the Show Your Helping Hand Campaign for me, which I’m so excited about!  Hamburger Helper is definitely nice for when you need a meal in a hurry.  All we had to do was add hamburger to the boxed ingredients, and voila, we had a meal.  It was full of cheesy flavor, and it was something our kids enjoyed, as well.
Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice includes 12 different songs, including Still, If I Died Today, Southern Voice, and others.  I generally don’t listen to a lot of country music, but I have always enjoyed Tim McGraw because so many of his songs tell a story.  They have emotion and feeling throughout. By visiting Show Your Helping Hand, you could have the chance to win an autographed Tim McGraw CD.

The great news is that I am giving away the same prize pack, as mentioned above; it will include a box of Hamburger Helper, a Hamburger Helper foam “Helping Hand,” and Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice CD! You can enter to win by doing one or more of the following; just be sure to leave a separate comment for each way that you enter.  I’ll draw the winner, via random.org, on Monday, December 20.  This giveaway is open to U.S. only.  Good luck, and have a wonderful day!

1. Visit Show Your Helping Hand, and leave me a comment, letting me know how you will encourage others to submit codes and join in the fight against hunger with Hamburger Helper/Feeding America.
2. Like Feeding America on Facebook.
3. Follow @FeedingAmerica on Twitter.
4. Tweet about this giveaway, being sure to use the hashtag #myblogspark.  You can tweet once daily to earn extra entries.
5. Subscribe to the Feeding America Blog.
6. Follow Real Heart Prints, or subscribe to our posts.
7. Follow @mamabzz on Twitter.
8. Blog about this giveaway, being sure to link back to Real Heart Prints.

(Disclosure: I received the prize packs/information, free of charge, from Hamburger Helper, through My Blog Spark, for the purposes of this giveaway post.)

We got the results back today from the bone marrow biopsy. Unfortunately, no cells were found. We are beginning the process to search for a donor. They are going through the umbilical cord bank which is a much faster and easier way to find donor stem cells then waiting for a match on an adult.

THANK YOU!!!!

Heather and her husband, Aaron, now live in Haiti with their four boys.  Aaron teaches at a Christian school there, and Heather serves with Heartline Ministries in their women’s program.  You can read their entire story of how they even came to be in Haiti on their website, Mosaic Village.  It’s amazing how God works. Life in Haiti definitely brings many heart breaking situations, literally, to their doorstep. Heather says it best when she writes, “When you hold a statistic it becomes real.”  There are so many orphans there, over 500,000 before the earthquake, no telling the number now.The main reason I wanted to write about Mosaic Village is that when you read their story, you can see God at work in their lives as they seek to serve Him in Haiti.  Not only are they teaching and working to help the people of Haiti, but they are raising their own children, as well.  They’re also seeking to match others, longing to serve in some capacity, with the right ministries or jobs in Haiti.  Mosaic Village is an avenue for bringing people with all different skills and talents and matching them up to areas where they can serve in the country of Haiti either short-term or long-term, where so much is still needed.  So many Haitian people are still suffering, still homeless, still hungry.  Children are taking care of children.  It’s a wide open area for service, and you can find out how you might be of help through Mosaic Village.You can also support Heather and Aaron’s ministry in Haiti through both prayer and donation.  Read their story, and be inspired.  Open your heart to what God may be doing in your own life.

(Photos used with permission of Heather Hendrick.)

Ronald McDonald House Charities are one way that you can shine your light to other families who just need all of the encouragement and support that they can get, particularly when going through a dark valley in their lives, such as a diagnosis of neuroblastoma or leukemia.  There are ways to volunteer at your local Ronald McDonald House or even donate.

McDonald’s sent me the following information on a way that you and your family can help, as well….

Right now McDonald’s U.S. restaurants are donating proceeds from Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal sales to Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). This ongoing donation will help benefit more than 11,000 sick and critically ill children and their families each day. As part of the fundraiser, McDonald’s has brought the new RMHC fundraiser to life online through a sharable “Make Family Time Happy Time” online application, where families are encouraged to pledge minutes of “happy time” together and share their own creative activities with other families via McDonald’s Facebook page or their personal blogs. Here’s how to get involved:

• Visit McDonald’s Facebook page to download the application and participate in the campaign.
• You can select from an existing family time activity provided on the application, or you can submit your own tip and pledge to help RMHC.
• McDonald’s will donate one penny to RMHC for each minute pledged, with a goal of reaching 1 million minutes and $10,000 to use towards family time activities for RMHC guests.

This is a fun, interactive way to get involved, especially if you have young children….I know that it’s not as easy to actually volunteer somewhere when you have littles, but that’s ok.  There are plenty of other ways that you can help and encourage others.  One more way that you can help, is to vote for RMHC on their Members Project.  This could help them to win $200,000 towards helping even more families who are in need.  You can follow RMHC on Facebook and @RMHC on Twitter.

Don’t forget to shine your light!

(Note:  I am working towards making Shine Your Light focused more heavily on the fight against human trafficking.  If you know of organizations or links that might be helpful, I would love to know about them.  Thanks for reading!)

When you read her blog and see the pictures that she shares of some of the children, I hope that it touches your heart.  Right now, Gabi is trying to raise the funds for her return to Uganda in January; she is planning on staying for good.  God has turned Gabi’s life around completely, the details of which are written in her blog, but I don’t feel that I could give justice to sharing them…..her writing says it all.  If you have a teenage daughter, or even if you’re struggling in life yourself, I highly encourage you to read Gabi’s blog and to receive both encouragement and inspiration from her story.  You can also help Gabi return to Uganda and start her ministry there by giving to Racham Ministries through Paypal at dickinsonbarbara@hotmail.com.  Please write “For Racham” in the subject line.  You can Like Racham Ministries on Facebook.

Just to share a bit of Gabi’s heart with you…. (in Gabi’s own words)….I bleed colours of life. I bleed the cries of orphans. I bleed a dance upon injustice. I bleed the tears of girls staring at their reflection and having deception and distortion staring them back in the face. I bleed the empty silences of the ones whose identity has become loneliness. I bleed the hearts of those who have known the crushing pain of betrayal. I bleed the tears of lives bound by lies of unworth. I bleed the brokenness of every heart in pieces by the words of another. I bleed Him for every abandoned child, their only hope. I bleed forgiveness. I bleed outrageous grace, because of Him. I bleed the beauty of life made new. I bleed truth into barren life. I bleed knowing the wonder of each new day as the miracle it is. I bleed holiness, as He has named me holy. I bleed abundant life. I bleed songs of peace. I bleed reconciliation. I bleed a life of restoration. I bleed all my life surrendered to His service. I bleed a sacrifice of praise. I bleed my Everything. I bleed Him.

New Horizons for Children, Inc., is an international, Christian-based hosting agency that helps families to host children in their homes for about four weeks; they bring children over to the U.S. twice a year, one of those times being the summer. They place these children with Christian families who can not only teach them about America and immerse them in a loving family, but a family that can teach that child what the love of a Heavenly Father means. These children come from Eastern Europe, from the countries of Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine.

LeAnn Dakake is the director of New Horizons and actually has adopted four children from Russia. Twice a year, she travels with a team to Eastern Europe, where she visits orphanages. Her purpose in going is to find and interview children, so that she can figure out which children will be signed up for the hosting program for that year. It takes much observation and a lot of difficult decision making to do this, as there are just so many children who are orphaned; the number is staggering. Many of these children face obstacles and challenges that ordinary children don’t face, especially when it comes to self-esteem, and LeAnn has to carefully choose the children that have a quality of resilience about them. Along with interviewing children, these teams also take gifts and aid with them, in the form of clothing, shoes, school supplies, etc. They rely on the orphanage to tell them what is most needed. Prayer is a constant ingredient in this decision making process.

Hosting families agree to host these children either during the summer or over the Christmas holidays for 4-5 weeks. These families must be Christian families and must be active members of a local church. It’s important that the family life be healthy, as these children need the life-giving support that a family can give. For a family to host a child, the cost is $2500; if that child has siblings, the cost for hosting siblings is $2400. These costs include the airfare and travel expenses, etc., that it takes to bring these children to the U.S. Donations that are given to New Horizons are often put towards sibling expenses or even special needs children who might not otherwise get to participate in an opportunity like this.

How can you help? You can help through fundraising or even making a donation. New Horizons suggests setting up an Orphan Angel Tree, which will help collect gifts for these children. LeAnn and her team can then take these gifts when they travel to Eastern Europe twice a year. Of course, there are other fundraising ideas that you could implement, as well. You can even make a donation to support this organization and the children/families it serves. If your employer matches donations, it might be a good idea to get them involved. If you would rather be on the front lines, your family might consider becoming a host family. There is an application process to do so.

For me personally, I think this is definitely something we will consider doing in the future. It would be so difficult to see that child go back to the orphanage when our time was up, but I can’t imagine missing an opportunity like this. I had never actually heard of anything like this before, besides foreign exchange students. I didn’t know it was even possible to host orphaned children in your home like this. What a great avenue for many children to eventually become adopted….New Horizons says that normally only 20% of our hosting families go into hosting with an idea of adoption. However, generally 80% or more of our children do end up being adopted by their host family or someone they met while staying with their host family through neighbors, extended family, church members of the host family’s church, or others who found out about the program while in process. For this reason, each family who applies to host is considered a potential adopting family and the approval process for hosting is very similar to the approval process for adoption. Keep in mind that New Horizons is only a hosting agency, not an adoption agency. You can follow New Horizons on Facebook.

Remember to shine your light!

Diaper Love reaches out to people of all faiths, all different backgrounds.  They provide diapers to individual families, as well as church ministries and community outreaches.  You can help Diaper Love to fulfill their mission of Sharing God’s love one dry behind at a time by donating to their cause.  Not only that, but when you shop at Purely Products, a good percentage of your purchase goes to support Diaper Love.  You can follow Diaper Love on both Facebook and Twitter.  Shine a light in the lives of babies, toddlers, and parents by just reaching out, in support of Diaper Love.  Why not find a family in need, where you live, and show up on their doorstep with a fresh box of diapers?  You never know where it may lead….

Candlelighters, NYC

Just from seeing Trey’s experience, his whole family’s experience through his illness, I can attest to this fact: Cancer does not just affect the child who has it, it is a disease that affects and changes the whole family’s life.  It’s a disease that affects so many today, gripping more and more younger children/young adults.  These families are given the love and support and prayers that they so desperately need through Candlelighters, NYC.

You can help to make this organization’s programs and events possible by making a donation to Candlelighters, NYC.  You can also see more photos on their website.  If you’re a family in NYC dealing with childhood cancer, fill out the form to become a member.

Candlelighters, NYC truly shines a light to families in their darkest of times…..