Madagascar by Aleix Cabarrocas Garcia www.flickr.com
I am including a photo of Madagascar on my blog today because I want to tell you about the commitment I made at church today. I want to post about it on my blog 1. to hold me accountable and 2. to inspire anyone else to do the same. 
At church, a priest from the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging spoke about sponsoring children and elderly from around the world for $1.00 a day. He said that over 94 cents goes to the sponsored child, which is a great amount compared to the amounts that some charities take for administrative staff.
Anyway, we’ve all heard stories like this before or seen commercials on TV. Many times, we do nothing–I’ve never sponsored anyone before. So, what made me change my mind this time. My daughter? My yearning to do something for people since I read HALF THE SKY? I’m not sure. But I was sitting there thinking about how much money we spent on a birthday dinner the night before, and I felt ashamed. If I can spend that much on one dinner (for a good friend, so it’s not totally selfish, right?), then I can surely give $1.00 a day to change somebody’s life. If I can stop spending $2.50 on a coffee and $2.25 on ONE PIECE OF COFFEE CAKE three times a week, I have my $30 a month easily. If I can eat lunch at home once instead of eating out. .. you get the picture.
So, my family is sponsoring Razafimamonjy from Madagascar. She is 5-years-old. Her mother does other people’s laundry for money. Razafimamonjy has syphilis. The family’s rent is $3.00 a month. Their walls are made of clay; their roof is tin; their floor is cement. They have NO indoor plumbing and get water from an outdoor pump. They sleep on the ground and cook with charcoal. I could go on. I won’t.
I am going to keep you updated on how I do with my STOPPING the Starbucks/Panera Bread coffee habit and giving my money to Razafimamonjy. If you want to join me, go to this website: http://www.hopeforafamily.org. They are legit. And let me know. It would be a great service learning project or family project for Lent. We can support each other while we are supporting people less fortunate.
I promised a picture book post today too, but I’m already going on and on. So, here’s a brief one:
Henry in Love by Peter McCarty
Henry is a cat in love with a bunny named Chloe. However, they are in elementary school. Therefore, Henry does crazy stuff like a forward roll in front of Chloe. She then shows him up by doing a cartwheel. In a twist of fate, the teacher moves Chloe and Henry to sit by each other, in time for snack. Henry has been saving his favorite snack all day–a blueberry muffin. But you know young love. . .he gives it to Chloe. Cute book. I enjoyed it. One reviewer on Amazon said she thought the love message was too subtle for kids to get–I see her point, but it’s still a cute book.
We are all starting to think about love around February. A cute gift for your child would be a copy of Henry in Love and some blueberry muffins. A fun Valentine’s Day activity for home school and/or the classroom would be to share this book with young readers and then together bake some blueberry muffins. You could also write poems/nice letters on p
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