Dailla

Haiti.It's all I have to say right now and you know what I'm wanting.Prayers for Haiti. And not just for Haiti, but for Dailla, my connection to Haiti.Dailla is an adorable little 8 year old girl Ray and I decided to sponsor through Compassion International a little over a month ago (we already sponsor our precious Eric). We received our new sponsor kit right before Christmas, but have not received anything from Dailla personally. And now I'm sad to say that I'm not sure if we ever will. We have all seen the devastating losses the people of this country have endured, and I know there are many anxious family and friends wanting to hear from their loved ones. It's amazing to see the efforts put up by people (for example, the pioneer woman has over 14000 comments on her blog, each comment equaling $.10 for Haiti). Whether its money, resources, or prayers, we all need to be aware of what we can give. Here's the precious Dailla (picture of a picture sent to us from Compassion).

Speaking of giving what we can. I felt totally blessed this week to be able to give my time to a friend to babysit. This may sound very simple and unexciting to you, but a year and a half ago I decided to change my status at work to 'special pay' so I could not work at the hospital every other weekend, but spend more time photographing and the weekends. I also decided to teach clinicals so I could make this all work. Well, it didn't fall together in time, so I continued to work full-time, teach, and photograph (with the help of a boss who let me off on the weekends). This Monday, I signed the papers to become special pay. Several weeks ago I had to tell the school I couldn't teach anymore because I was out of vacation days. In between that time I decided I needed to start my Photo Life Group back up. Then on Tuesday, a day I've worked ever since I've been working at Deaconess, I was at home getting ready for PLG when a friend called in need of a babysitter. The fact that I could say yes made me so happy. I could feel God working through all of the decisions we had recently made, and through the creation of margin (check out last week's Life Church series to see more on margin) in my life, I was available to help. God is so good.

Here's a blown out, close up, off center pic of me and the little man.