I won a book in a raffle and little did I know how awesome this book was!!  I highly encourage you to purchase it as a Christmas gift for anyone in your family who is interested in Africa, reading, orphans or just following God's calling.  At 18 years old this girl up and left her cozy home, loving family, friends and boyfriend to be with the people of Uganda.  She ends up adopting 13 little girls and starting up a great sponsorship organization called Amazima which helps raise money for the children of Uganda to go to school, have school supplies, food and clothing. 

I'm a bit naive to the conditions in Africa to be perfectly honest.  I think a lot of people are like me, you know what you see on tv and that's the extent.  I've been reading a lot of books on raising adopted children and what to expect when you get home from respiratory infections, scabies and other things to watch for.  In Katie's book she is always talking about repairing the children's feet from jigger bites.  So I decided to look online at what exactly a jigger was and.....oh.....my.....gosh.  I even went to the extent of watching a video that showed how to remove jigger egg sacs from feet.  It's like one of those gross things that you can't look away from but still make you cringe.

I found this video that really broke my heart.  These kids are crying out in pain, there is no numbing ointment or shots available.  If you have a weak stomach you probably shouldn't watch.


NewSpring Foot-washing/Jigger Removal from The 410 Bridge on Vimeo.

I usually take old shoes to Goodwill, and although I feel like they are a great organization, I plan to start sending shoes to Ethiopia because these people can benefit so greatly for what we consider worn out shoes.  The lady who helped us with our home study is headed to Ethiopia to pick up her new son in about a month or two.  I'm gathering any shoes, any sizes that you might be ready to part with that she can take with her to Ethiopia when she goes. 

Contact me if you need to know where to drop them off or if you'd like to mail them to my house you can send me an email with SHOES in the subject line and I'll let you know how you can help!

My email is monica452@hotmail.com