Grateful

If you've been following my blog for even a little while, you know that I am blessed to be the Compassion sponsor of two precious girls, 15-year-old Dalia in El Salvador, and 9-yr-old Aduri in Bangladesh. Besides sending $32.00/mo to support them, we can also send up to $25.00 for birthday gifts and one other gift during the year as well as a Christmas gift, and up to a $300.00/yr family gift.

Aduri's birthday was in October, so I sent $10.00 for her, and I sent a $50.00 family gift about the same time, probably early September. Today I received these two letters from her, and they brought tears to my eyes. I want to share them with you just as they are written.

"Dear Sponsor Stephanie D_________-,
My love to you. Thank's God that he give me a sponsor like you. Thank you very much for sponsoring me. Thank you for your birthday gift. Our project staff bought for me dress, shoe with your gift money. Now I have many dress. I am very happy with your gifts. Now I go to the project with new shoe. I have 3 siblings. It is very difficult to my father to lead our family. My parents are very happy and thanked to you. I go to the project regularly and my study is going well. I like to study. I like to go the project. Please pray for me so that I may study well and be healthy. May God bless you. Your beloved Aduri."

"Dear Sponsor Stephanie D__________,
My greetings to you. I pray that you are well with God's grace with your family. Me and my family are well with your prayer. Thank you very much for praying for me and my family. Thank you very much for your gift. We are benefited a lot and very happy. Me, my dad M___, my mom F___, brother J___, and two sisters R____ and R____ live in a small house in a village name J_____. It is very difficult to stay in a small house. Beside the roof of house is made of straw so when it rains, rain water enter in the house. My father is a day labour so he can't bought tins for house. Our project staff bought for us 15 tins for our house with your gift money. My family thanked to you. We made our roof. We pray for you and your family. Please pray for me so that I may stay well. Your beloved Aduri."

We made our roof. This sentence just grabbed at my heart. For the price of a couple of meals out, we bought a roof for a family of 6!

We pray for you and your family.
The Compassion newsletters always say it makes such a difference to a child to know that someone across the world cares for them. What they couldn't impart is how much it would mean to me that a little girl I may never meet, and her family in a country so foreign to me that their writing is underneath the line, are praying for my family and me.

I am so humbled, and so grateful.

Saturday at the Movies

This week will be an open book quiz--you can look anywhere you want for the answers, because, if you're like me, the L-Tryptophan and sugar combo has numbed your brains, too!

We're going to play Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon.

First degree is Alan Alda. Now, you have to find 5 actors or actresses that link from Alan Alda to Kevin Bacon.

If you haven't played before, here's a short example:
Connect Julianne Moore to Don Knotts-- in 3 degrees.

Julianne Moore was in Boogie Nights with
Burt Reynolds, who was also in Cannonball Run II with
Tim Conway, who was also in The Apple Dumpling Gang with
Don Knotts.

Make sense?

I can't do it without IMDB, either.

Answer on Tuesday!

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Catchy title, don't you think? (not)
I hope you all had a terrific day with family, friends, food and fun!

This year it was just the J-Man and me. DD is now living 7-8 hours away, and has had to do so much traveling this month, she just couldn't swing it. Besides, I have to work Fri. and Sat. nights, and she'd have to go home on Sun., so we wouldn't have much time together. Fortunately, one of her law school friends lives about a half hour away and she took Isabella the Chihuahua and is spending the night. Isabella is going to play with the boxers. Doesn't THAT sound like a Kodak moment! lol

I was all for going out to eat, because cooking is not high on my list of favorite ways to spend an off-day, and cleaning up afterwards is WAY down on the bottom, but J-Man really wanted to eat here, and he doesn't ask for much, so we did. It was only a mini-feast this year.

The dressing and sweet potatoes were frozen dishes that I heated, but we'd had them before and knew they were good. I brined a 3-lb turkey breast (first time ever) and it was so juicy and tender! J-Man likes the jellied cranberry sauce, but I made me a spiced cranberry sauce that was so yummy, I could almost have made a meal off that! I tried a new green bean recipe that I liked but hubby didn't, and picked up a pecan pie at the store.

However, I decided to try Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings, and let me tell you, we were both in a blissful sugar coma afterwards! Seriously, it was almost too rich for me, and that's saying something. I think next time, (oh, yeah, there WILL be a next time!) I'll use Splenda instead of sugar and maybe even diet Mountain Dew. I had to take a nap afterwards--after I took my belt off and unbuttoned my jeans, that is.

When Tandi and I woke up a couple of hours later, I worked on the Autumn wall-hanging I was going to give to my neighbor who mows my lawn, and his wife. All I lack now is hand-stitching down the binding, but I think, for all intents and purposes, autumn is over. Time for the Christmassy things. So I haven't quite decided whether to take it to them with an apology for not finishing it in time for Thanksgiving, or just keep it for myself and come up with a simpler Christmas wall-hanging for them. They have no idea I'm making them anything, so either option would be okay, I guess.

It's made from the same pattern as the one I made last year for the Fall 4 Seasons Swap, but with some different fabrics.



Whatever I decided to do, I am absolutely going to finish it before I take a nap for work. Too often I run out of steam and don't do the last little bits needed to complete it--such as the binding on my own summer tropical fish wall-hanging. That's all I lack, but then autumn came and I was over the summer colors, so it's still sitting out, just waiting to be picked up again. Does anyone else have this problem?

Movie Trivia Answer 11/22

I see there is more than one John Candy fan out there. Look at the list you all came up with:

Home Alone
Splash
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Uncle Buck
STRIPES
Cool Runnings
Only the Lonely
The Great Outdoors
Spaceballs
Rookie of the Year

Here are some others you might or might not remember:
The Blues Brothers
1941
Little Shop of Horrors
JFK

I'm going to have to go back and watch some of these myself, because I either didn't know he was in them, or didn't notice at the time. And right after posting this--on Saturday night at work, actually--one of my patients was watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Good job, ladies!

New question on Saturday--and this one will be an open book question!

Saturday at the Movies

Got a quickie for you this week:

One actor I really enjoyed, now deceased, was John Candy. Most people who knew him in Hollywood described him as a genuinely nice guy--and I'm not surprised. It just seemed to shine through in anything he did.

Can you name 5 movies John Candy was in?


Answers on Tuesday!