Sometimes the Best Choice and the Hardest Choice Are the Same Thing

For the last few years, I’ve said, “I hate Atlanta/Georgia. I want to go to _____.” I’ve been psychoanalyzed so much about this that I must be running away from something. Perhaps they’re right in some ways, and maybe I have some sort of negative connotation towards Atlanta, but the city is not going to change. As my “wise” middle sister, Mandie, has said, “Live in Atlanta, but don’t do it the way you did before. Change it.” When you can’t change something (Atlanta), you have to change yourself. I mean, it’s a good practice for life. In a world where we want everything to change for our ideal (and we wonder why so many people get divorced…), sometimes we have to change ourselves because “the benefits outweigh the costs” (Thank you for the advice, Andrew Jones). Life is never going to be perfect, so we have to change our minds/attitudes/whatever to make it work. We are much more courageous, brave, strong, humble when we do that.

Change the World

"Never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. Indeed, the are the only ones who ever had."
~ Margaret Mead

Family Missions Company is a small(er) missionary organization started by Frank & Ginnie Summers, lifetime missionaries. They now teach others to be missionaries in Abbeville, LA, and host mission trips for Catholic families and lay missionaries to engage in evangelization and serving the poor in foreign missions. In February 2009 I had the opportunity to join several people from Lafayette, LA on a 2 week mission trip to Ecuador where we road in the back of trucks, took boats, and hiked to 17 communities to provide medical care. If you are interested in doing missions (even as a family), check into FMC at http://fmcmissions.com/

God is Good…even when I’m confused

Sarah & Sara might kill me for this picture and it is super random, but it was one of my favorite confusion moments. What in the world were we are eating in Budapest? Oh right, chunk & soup.

I made a mistake a couple days ago. I was in terrible anguish over choosing between 2 jobs: One in Atlanta with the majority of my friends & family in a city I “hate”, and the other in North Carolina where I hardly know a sole and have only visited once but seems to be a place that fits me. While being in turmoil over this decision, I had several people ask me, “Liz(zy), what do YOU want?” I felt like I was in the stupid Notebook (I think that’s the only part I like about the movie because that is…me…for everything). I never really had much of an answer bust silly things like being able to bike/walk to work, being in a green/granola place (reminds me of Africa), and learning to settle down. However, what I really want most is a community. I’ve spent, oh, the last 11 years spread out among many. I’m tired. And, what did I do, but choose the job in the city where I know only person. Um, where in the world is my community there? I was so upset over my decision. I mean, my friends and family are in Atlanta! However, despite my mistake, God is good. I had forgotten I had e-mailed a Catholic church in Chapel Hill that I was looking for some Catholic girls to live with. The e-mails have been pouring in from (hopefully) my new community. Thank You for loving me despite myself and random decisions.

Genuine Friends

I had gotten this book called Genuine Friendship from a friend that knows me all too well. However, while reading it I realized how poor one of my favorite friendships actually was. It’s funny how you can know someone for so long and feel so close to them and then realize how distant you actually are from them. I’ve felt this with those friends that I just went out & did things with but never actually had a solid conversation with. However, in this case it was so odd because we had talked about EVERYTHING except what brings us joy, hurts us the most, makes us sad the most, makes us so angry we could punch a wall...especially when at times it was each other. What a terribly confusing, disaster of a friendship that was so perfect on the surface. I have this thing against poor communication in relationships because I hate not knowing what a person is thinking, especially when it comes to loving someone, the most vulnerable relationship there is. How even worse to do this in friendships, because they are supposed to be built on trust since you are so vulnerable with them. In this case, after so many years and a several hour phone conversation we are finally true genuine friends and it makes my heart happy.

Great communication and trust is needed for all relationships, from friendship to marriage to our relationships with God.

Being an Idiot

They say that being an idiot is doing the same thing and expecting different results. However, being an idiot is also doing something different and expecting the same results. This can be in romantic relationships, friendships, family, where you live… I feel like I’ve done this many times, so the moral of the story: Stop predicting the future and making the same thing happen over and over again. If it stays the same, it’s your own fault.

For a silly example, above is a picture of me with 3 Italian medical students (Ricardo, Francesca, and Georgia) who decided it would be a great idea to cut each others hair...with an electric razor. The always beautiful Tanzanian, Zama, was smart and got her hair done at a salon instead. We did this a year ago in Ethiopia, and my hair has finally...wait, almost grown out of that hideous haircut. But, have no fear, I will still get haircuts...but not by an Italian. :p

Australian Teen Sacrifices His Life to Save His Brother

(CNN) -- A teenager who was scared of water drowned in the Queensland floods after begging rescuers to save his younger brother first. Jordan Rice, 13, and his mother Donna, 43, were swept away as a wall of water hit the town of Toowoomba on Monday afternoon.

"Jordan can't swim and is terrified of water," his father, John Tyson, told local newspaper The Toowoomba Chronicle. "But when the man went to rescue him, he said 'save my brother first.'I can only imagine what was going on inside to give up his life to save his brother, even though he was petrified of water. He is our little hero."

Rice was taking Jordan and his 10-year-old brother Blake to buy school uniforms when the family car became stuck in floodwaters. As the tide rose around them, the mother-of-four made a desperate call to the emergency services, and the trio clambered on to the roof of their stranded vehicle, before passer-by Warren McErlean stopped to help.

"I called out for some ropes and a guy gave me some ropes and I tied those together and just headed out towards this car," he told the Nine Network. "But the water just kept coming up and by the time I got near this car it just swept me off my feet.

"The mum put the boy on his back and brought him across to me and by that time I grabbed the boy and the water kept coming up... it was too much water and there was just no time. The tension took up on the rope and I had to let it go. He was just pleading with me to please save my mum, please save my mummy - he was screaming to save his mum. It's terrible. I just kept telling the boy it was going to be alright and it wasn't," a distraught McErlean explained."I'm just very sorry for himself and his family that we couldn't do some more and get them out."

The death toll from the Queensland floods has risen to 15, and there are fears it could grow further as the waters recede in the days to come, with some 70 people still listed as missing.

I think about how much my sisters and I fought growing up. I am so amazed at this teenager's love for his brother. Definitely inspiring. Please praise for his family and those who are still being affected by this flood.

On a lighter note...

What to Do?

Trapped inside all day and need to be inspired? Watch any of the seasons of Biggest Loser. You'll cry, feel like a bum, want to eat healthy, and be motivated to run a marathon.

You're Never Too Old to Play...in the SNOW!!!

The biggest snow storm since the Blizzard of '93 kept many people trapped indoors...but NOT ALL. If I had to get trapped anywhere during this snow storm, being with my sister Mandie was definitely the place to be. One of the best people to play in the snow with, fo' sho'.

Be the age you feel you are (...but not in a creepy way. :p)

Lost Boys

When I was in Ethiopia, my friend Eyob let me borrow this book. I would recommend it to EVERYONE. It gives real life stories of 3 boys in Sudan. Below is a description of the book according to goodreads.com:

"Five-year-old Benjamin stood in the field, tending the goats, when the raiders arrived. Moments later, as gunshots, flames, and screams engulfed his village, Benjamin found himself running, as fast as his legs could carry him, into the cover of the forest. In a nearby village, his cousins, seven-year-old Alephonsion and Benson, were driven from their homes as well. Every step led the boys away from their peaceful, agrarian world - a traditional world were spear-toting fathers protected their huts from the lions that roamed by night. With each footstep they were drawn deeper into the horrific violence of Sudan's civil war: a world of bombed-out villages, mine-sown roads, and relentless desert, a world where starving adults would snatch the grain from a weak child's fingers." "Across Sudan, between 1987 and 1989, tens of thousands of young boys took flight from these massacres. They became known as the Lost Boys. With little more than the clothes on their backs, sometimes not even that, they streamed out over Sudan in search of refuge. Their journey led them first to Ethiopia and then, driven back into Sudan, toward Kenya. They walked nearly one thousand miles, sustained only by the sheer will to live." They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky is the three boys' account out of that unimaginable journey. With the candor and the purity of their child's-eye-vision, Alephonsion, Benjamin, and Benson recall by turns how they endured hunger and strength-sapping illnesses - dysentery, malaria, and yellow fever. How they dodged the life-threatening predators - lions, snakes, crocodiles and soldiers alike - that dogged their footsteps. How they grappled with a war that threatened continually to overwhelm them.

Below is a picture of the authors, now grown up.

Fighting Elephants

"When two elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled."
~ African Proverb

Today, I went to the first Catholic Underground at Holy Spirit Catholic Church (http://www.gofishoutreach.com/uploads/Catholic_UG_4x6final.pdf). There was a man from CRS (Catholic Relief Services) promoting awareness about the election in Sudan tomorrow. The election is to decide if Sudan will remain one nation or if it will be split into Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan. After being in Ethiopia for their last presidential election and Kenya's election for the constitution referendum, I know that election time can cause violence, imprisonment, or worse. Thankfully for the experiences in both Ethiopia and Kenya, they were peaceful (for the most part). However, this was made possible by the presence of the United Nations, the European Union, and nationals working for peace in those nations. We are so incredibly blessed to live in a country that protects us from being killed if we speak out against our government. So many people, I could probably say most, are not. Please pray for peace in Sudan.

Please check out CRS's website to promote peace in Sudan: http://peaceinsudan.crs.org/

Sharing What You Love

"Faith is strengthened when it is given to others!"
~ Pope John Paul II from his encyclical Redemptoris Missio (Mission of the Redeemer)

Today I took my friend (and pseudo-sister) from Lafayette, LA, Johanna Fruge, to one of my favorite places in the world: Athens, GA, home of the UGA Bulldawgs. It is so true that my love for that place and the memories I have from there grew stronger as I showed Jo around (and hopefully convinced her to be a GA grad student in the future). What a beautiful correlation to when we fall in love with our Faith and remember why we feel so passionate about it again and again as we share it with others. If you want to revitalize the things that truly make you come alive, share it with others, and fall in love all over again.

How to Get Free Cookies and Juice

Ricardo, an Italian medical student, donating blood during his one month rotation in Ethiopia.

One of my many passions is blood donation. Unfortunately, I cannot donate blood anymore in the States (I had gotten malaria in Tanzania a few years ago, and I keep going to developing countries). BUT (most of) YOU CAN!



Here are the facts straight from them American Red Cross Website:
Facts About Blood Needs
* Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
* More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day.
* A total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S.
* The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
* The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O.
* The blood used in an emergency is already on the shelves before the event occurs.
* Sickle cell disease affects more than 80,000 people in the U.S., 98 percent of whom are African American. Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives.
* More than 1 million new people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment.
* A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.

Facts About Blood Supply
* The number of blood donations collected in the U.S. in a year: 16 million.
* The number of blood donors in the U.S. in a year: 9.5 million.
* The number of patients who receive blood in the U.S. in a year: 5 million.
* Share of the U.S. population eligible to give blood: Less than 38 percent.
* Blood cannot be manufactured – it can only come from generous donors.
* Type O-negative blood can be transfused to patients of all blood types. It is always in great demand and often in short supply
* Type AB-positive plasma can be transfused to patients of all other blood types. AB plasma is also usually in short supply.

To find a location near you to donate visit http://www.redcrossblood.org/our-regions

Love Questions

"Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live EVERYTHING. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke (a poet writing to Franze Kappus, a young aspiring poet at the time)

Volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity

Also at the Missionaries of Charity House in Ethiopia, I met Maria, a girl from Spain who bought a one way ticket to Ethiopia and was going to stay there until her money ran out. You commonly see Europeans travel for their gap year (a year off to travel sometime between high school and their career) like this, but I was amazed at this girl using it to volunteer. At this home they had perhaps 50 malnourished children, most who were left at the Sister's gate. Maria's job was to feed 3 infants under 3 kilos every few hours. I only spent a few days there the weekend of Thanksgiving 2009, but I was happy to helping Maria and the Sisters feeding the many infants there.

To find locations to volunteer with them go to http://www.motherteresa.org/07_family/Volunteering/v_cal.html#5a
To volunteer in Atlanta: http://www.archatl.com/about/giftofgracehouse.html (When I was living in Atlanta, I helped at the Grace House. The Sisters there are amazing and always looking for helping hands. Just give them up!)

Missionaries of Charity

The Missionaries of Charity are perhaps the most well-known religious order due to their founder Mother Teresa. Here is the Wikapedia definition of this order:

Missionaries of Charity is a Roman Catholic religious order established in 1950 by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which consists of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, "M.C." Member nuns must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "Wholehearted and Free service to the poorest of the poor".
Missionaries care for those who include refugees, ex-prostitutes, the mentally ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, AIDS victims, the aged, and convalescent. They have schools run by volunteers to educate street children, they run soup kitchens, as many other services as per the communities' needs. They have 19 homes in Kolkata (Calcutta) alone which include homes for women, for orphaned children, and for the dying; an AIDS hospice, a school for street children, and a leper colony. These services are provided to people regardless of their religion or social caste.

While in Ethiopia I went to their orphanage just outside the capital. They provide a home and school for children from infancy to high school, many who are HIV positive. I was amazed by these beautiful women.

To donate to the Missionaries of Charity: http://www.cmswr.org/member_communities/MC.htm

Have an Open Mind

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany in the Catholic Church (the feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ). At Mass this morning when they announced the feast, my mind flew back to a year ago when I was in Ethiopia. This day is THE major feast day of the year for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The members of the Orthodox Church all came out in white to take their "tabot" (replica of the Arc of the Covenant, think Old Testament) to a body of water so then they can all be baptized the next morning. In Wolisso (the town I lived in) we had 3 Orthodox Churches that all met. Three of the Italian volunteers and I went out to walk with the people. It was HUGE! Hundreds of people, prayers on loud speaker, choirs all singing, and the tabots beautifully protected with the customary...umbrellas (I forget their name). It was intimidating, especially with so obviously being outsiders, but I'm so glad we got to witness such a beautiful celebration.

Also on this day, it is a custom for Eastern Orthodox men to throw a lemon at a girl they think is cute (aka that they would potentially want to marry). Only one lemon per man (I asked). They try to hit her heart. If she likes him, she keeps it and then they start dating. However, for me, all I can imagine is a boy running up to a girl and spiking a giant lemon at her chest in dodge ball fashion. Either way, it's a cute way to let someone know you like them. ;)

Always have an open mind to witness/be a part of other people's customs and traditions.

Inspirational Roots

Arna and I at Dingle Peninsula when we took a road trip around Ireland with my dad and Auntie Lynn.

I want to begin my very first day of this blog with the roots to my inspiration to pursue my dreams (and to travel): my grandmother, Arna (pronounced "ah-na", with a New England accent of course). Arna is 82 years old and always on the move (reminds me of someone...). Our personalities are similar in so many ways, and she is my personal role model. I keep a quote book, and this is the first one in it:

Life can be very short, so enjoy whatever you can. You know many people live the "if only life", so you just keep doing things when you can. I can honestly say I never look over my shoulder with a lot of regrets. When the opportunity came, I went for it. Thanks to Pop, who always encouraged me, he always said, "You only go this way once."
~ An e-mail from Arna on February 13, 2004, after hearing I was going to New Zealand for study abroad (my first international trip on my own).

They say, "Behind every great man there is a great woman", but it really goes both ways. For today, find the person/people within your own family that inspires you.