How Time Flies!

My goodness it doesn't seem like it's been over a month since my last post! I guess life just has a way of keeping you busy until before you know it, so much time has passed that you can't remember what even happened.
Lets see... what has happened since I blogged last....
Oh! My precious little cousin from the west coast and her mama and grandpa came for a visit! She's always a blast. Shy at first but cute as a button, and once she gets used to you, boy, no stopping her! We had so much fun, her and Jaydee and I while she was home. I've determined that when I have children, though, that I'm having a couple years in between them. A 3 year old and a 4 year old are one major handful. I wouldn't trade them for anything though, I love them just the way they are.
My favourite part of the little Miss' visit was when we were at church one Sunday and our Pastor Steve was praying and thanked God for bringing them safely from B.C. to New Brunswick and she looked wide eyed at me, and then at her mama and in a very theatrical whisper goes "He knows who we ARE!" I've  never had to stifle a laugh during prayer before, but my stars she was too funny!
Hmmm... what else... Oh, I know. Hurricane Arthur blew through. And of course I live in the area that was hardest hit. But we pulled through :) We only went 3 days without power but others have gone 8+ days without it. All good though. We're tough here in Carleton County haha!
I received my first letter from Raja a couple of weeks ago :) Since he is only 4 his Teacher wrote it for him.
He says his Parents are Abdul Xhaleg (father) who is 33 and Sumi (mother) who is 28.
If he could visit anywhere he would visit America just to visit. He wants to be a Pilot when he grows up.

Dear Sponsor (I seriously love the writing on this letter! So neat and pretty!)
At first love & greetings to you. He is doing well. He thanked you for your support. He likes song(s). He likes apple(s). What season do you like?
Please pray for his studies

He's sweet and I can't wait to get to know him.

There has also been a new addition to my Compassion family! Another little boy named Luckson. Luckson is 5 and lives in Haiti. Let me tell you, he is the most adorable little man I've ever seen!
See for yourself:

I discovered this precious surprise when I opened My Compassion by mistake last night and decided since I was there I would check up for any updates on my little ones and to my surprise there were 4 names in the drop down menu instead of 3. I had a brunette moment for a minute before I remembered I signed up to be a Volunteer Advocate for Compassion and said that I would correspond with more children. I'm already in love though. This was a great decision to make, I can tell!
Anyways! I'm off to clean! babysitting our friends pups next week so I want to get all my housework done before I take off for a week :)
take care all!
xo
Lisa

Introducing Dushandan!

Dushandan showed up on my Compassion yesterday so I can share his picture with you all. I'm so excited to start corresponding with this darling!

So there he is, folks. My cute little Dushandan with his pants on backwards. Isn't he precious? I know we're going to get along great!

Thats all for now! I'll hopefully be on later on this afternoon with a longer post

xo
Lisa

3 Must Be My Lucky Number

It seems with Compassion I either have 1 little one, or 3 haha. For the longest time I had my three boys, Robert,  Joel and Loukmane, but because of financial reasons I had to give up Joel and Loukmane, even though it broke my heart to do so. But now since I figured stuff out, sold a bunch of junk I didn't need (lol) worked hard and saved hard, I was able to sponsor financially again, and so I picked Raja, who I introduced you to last week I believe. Then I had mentioned a while ago to a lady I know that I was hoping to sponsor a little boy specifically with the same birthdate as Jaydee to teach him about other parts of the world like a good cousin/auntie. And so last week shortly after I picked up Raja's sponsorship, Dushandan fell into my lap.
Dushandan was born October 14, 2007. Making him 2 years older than Jaydee. He lives in Sri Lanka with his mama and daddy.. and, like me when I was his age, loves hide and seek. He's a sweet little fellow and I am SUPER excited to get to know him. I don't have his picture on my computer currently, but when I do I will upload a copy here so you all can see his adorable little face and his pants on backwards xD.
With the addition of Raja and Dushandan to my Compassion family and my signing up to become an advocate for Compassion, I felt my organization skills needed to be improved to keep everything in line. So now I have a "Compassion Corner" in my room. A temporary set up until I find a better place for everything. Four blue binders, three bibles and a bunch of Compassion Advocacy papers/materials are all neatly stored on one of my night tables. Each binder is labelled on the side for maximum organization (haaha) Letters, Colouring Pages,Paper and Extras.
I spent $2 at the dollarama and bought two colouring books, came home and ripped (gently) all the pages out and placed them individually into page protectors and placed them in one big binder, which became the "Colouring Pages" binder (self explanatory, Lisa.. duhh haha)
My letters binder is pretty self explanatory too, but I'm bored, so read on. In the front flap thinger I have the letters/cards/whatever waiting to be sent. All nice and pretty and not getting lost (yay me!) Then, I have Robert's bio card and picture in a page protector, marking the start of his section where all the letters and pictures I have (found) from him are each in their own page protector waiting to be read again.
At the End of Robert's section is a divider, and then little Raja's bio card. I'm trying to keep better track of what I send/tell my kids so I don't repeat myself too much, so I'm starting to photocopy everything I send. So since I haven't yet received a letter from Raja the first thing you'll see is a copy of my first letter to him :)
Flip the page and you'll see the same process repeated for my sweet Dushandan.
Then at the end of the binder, you will find the letters written by my darlings Joel and Loukmane who I miss so dearly.
My extras binder holds all of the stickers/postcards I have purchased to send to my boys, just waiting to be selected and mailed:)
See! Organization. Wasn't so hard to do :) Now if I can just remember to keep it that way....
Off to Halifax this weekend for the Walmart Walk for Miracles! I'm so pumped to be going. I loved going the last two years, but this year the one manager at Walmart that I honestly truly get along with/understand and like.. is taking us. SO. PUMPED!

I would like to end this post with a request. There is a terrible tragedy going on this moment in Moncton, a city about 2 1/2 hours away from me. Three RCMP officers have been shot and killed, and two more seriously injured by one man. He is still at large and as I sit here and type I have the police scanner app on my tablet going, tuned in to their manhunt. Please, please pray that this disturbed young man is caught before any more blood is shed.

xo
Lisa

Sponsorship!

Hey all!
So! This week I decided I would like to do something with Jaydee that would me more... meaningful I guess... than just playing and spending time with him. So I decided we would sponsor a little boy together. I wanted to pick someone with the same birthday as him if possible, but if not just a boy that was the same age as him roughly so they could talk about what it was like being that age in a different country to each other (through me of course lol.)
I have looked at pictures and read mini biographies of SO many darling little boys (and a couple girls) this week my heart just wants to break. After a lot of going through and re going through profiles, I FINALLY decided on a little one to sponsor.
                                                          Everybody.... meet Raja!

 

He is 4 years old and from Bangladesh :) He also was born just 4 days before Jaydee. I'm so stoked to tell Jaydee about Raja tomorrow. I'm hoping he gets as excited as I am about this! I can't wait to see how Jaydee and Raja learn from each other and see how they grow up. 

It was a difficult decision picking Raja though. Not because he isn't cute, because he's friggen adorable! I mean, look at that face! But because there are sooo many other adorable little faces to pick from.. like this one...

I won't lie, I almost picked Miguel.. Look at that smile! he's darling. 

Then there is this face.. 

Little Isaac. He looks so sad. My heart broke right in two for him. Both of these sweethearts (and many many more) are available for sponsorship still if you're considering sponsoring. Its a great cause. :)
Thats all for tonight folks!
xo 

Lisa

New Compassion Blog!

Hey all! Just a note to let you know that I have moved my blog for Compassion over to a new page, so my posts don't get lost in among my rants and non-Compassion posts :)
To start my new blog off, I posted my first blog that I wrote as  a "Compassion Blogger" on the new blog as well :)
Here is the link to my new blog: http://fromthesticksforhim.blogspot.ca/
Hope you all venture over occasionally to check it out!
xo
Lisa

Compassion Sunday 2013

Hey all! This week I received an email from Compassion asking me, along with all the other Compassion Bloggers, to sign up for an online Compassion Sunday profile, and to blog about it.
On my Compassion Sunday profile, I got to pick a child who desperately needs a sponsor and post their picture on my profile. I figured this would take me a bit, because I wanted to chose the child that God called upon me to pick. It didn't take long at all. Right on the very first page of sweet children, a little boy from Nicaragua jumped out at me.
 
Little Hosmar is 3 years old and exactly one month younger than my dear little cousin Jaydee.
Hosmar lives with his mother, and four other children, and while he is too young to attend school, his profile says he regularly attends Bible class. His profile also says that his favourite activities are soccer, playing with cars, and singing.
Here is a link to Hosmar's profile.
http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-video-biography.htm?needKey=NI2360267
I hope you will take a moment to take a look, and if you can, sponsor this sweet little boy, or another sweet boy or girl.
If I can give just two children sponsors before April 22nd, Compassion will donate $50 to the families of one of my precious boys. That would help out 3 families with just a couple clicks of the mouse.
Please take a moment to think about this. You could give the greatest gift to a child and their family in need, you could help them to escape from poverty's grasp.

http://my.compassionsunday.com/missiekay

xo Lisa

A letter CAN Change a life!

If you have ever considered sponsoring a child, but have decided against it for whatever reason, I encourage you to watch the following video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbUK8D-xIdQ

Jimmy Wambu was a child in the Compassion program when he was just a little child. When he got sponsored, his sponsor, Mark, wrote Jimmy a letter that changed his life forever .

I hope the letters that I send my sponsored boys make some impact on their lives. I hope, because I tell them of God's love for us, that they realize they can do anything they wish to do.

This works both ways though, the letters that I have received from my boys have changed my life. They tell me they love me, even though they have never met me, and they make me want to be a better person.

Have you received a letter that has changed your life?

Compassion Beginnings!

Hey all :)
Since I signed up to be a Compassion blogger last night I thought I should take the time to tell you how I got started on my Compassion journey!
December of 2010 I decided it was time that I sponsored a child. It is something that I've always wanted to do ever since I was a little girl when I would watch World Vision on Sunday mornings with my parents. I always felt really terrible that I was eating hot steaming pancakes and bacon while those poor kids on tv had nothing to eat. I used to beg and beg my parents to sponsor one but they always said no. (in their defense, we honestly couldn't afford one.. I just didn't realize we weren't rich like I thought we were)
So.... back to December 2010.... I knew I really wanted to sponsor a child, but I didn't know what company to sponsor through. So I sat down, and did my research. I wanted a company that I didn't need a credit card to sponsor with, and I wanted to pick the one that the most of my money would go to the child, instead of the company. Compassion fit my criteria perfectly!
Then I got to pick the little boy or girl that I would invite into my life, and love them as if they were my family, which they would become. I sat there, scrolling through the pages and pages of children who needed sponsors and reading their mini biography things, waiting for the one child that I knew I was supposed to sponsor.. then I found him.
Joel was a tiny little boy staring up at me from his picture, in his too-big clothes and sweet, shy look on his face that just begged me to pick him. My heart was stolen by this darling little 5-year-old, in a country that I had never heard of. Clicking immediately on the "sponsor me" button, I filled out the necessary information and so, Joel became my first sponsored child!! I was so excited I sat right down and wrote out my first letter to my new little friend.
In just a short couple of weeks, I received my first letter! I was so excited when I opened the mail box and found the envelope labeled "a message from your sponsored child!" I squealed and opened it right there. If I remember correctly, it was raining that day, and my dad was waiting in the car for me to get back in...(sorry dad!) I was stoked. I read it and re-read it, and re-read it! I must have read it a million times before I stopped shaking with excitement enough to reply!
A year later, I had enough saved up that I could sponsor another little one!! I was so excited when I checked my bank on Thanksgiving morning and realized I had enough money! This time I knew I wanted to sponsor another child from Burkina Faso, where Joel lived, so if I ever got to go visit, I would hopefully be able to see them both in one trip. So, as I ate my pancakes, I scrolled through the list of Children available in Burkina Faso until Loukmane jumped off the screen and into my heart. I knew right away that I had to sponsor him.
Once again, a short time later, God had called upon my heart to again sponsor a child. But this time I knew I just could not sponsor one financially. Then I heard about this wonderful thing called Correspondence sponsoring! I got all the joy of writing and receiving letters to/from a child, but I did not have to financially sponsor one when I was not able! Needless to say I jumped on that bandwagon real fast! I was ALL over correspondence sponsorship! When the email came back saying there was a little boy in the Dominican who needed a correspondence sponsor I did not even hesitate to say YES! And so, Robert came into my life.
Unfortunately, 2012 ended up being not the greatest year of my life, and I didn't write even a fraction of the times that I should have! I felt, and still feel, SO terrible about that! So this year I have pledged to write at least one letter a month to my boys, and to do everything I possibly can do for Compassion in my area, and anywhere else that I can possibly do anything for them! :)
Thats all for now, folks!
xo
Lisa

Compassion

I should never go on the compassion website. It makes me want to sponsor more little ones. I already sponsor 2 little boys Joel and Loukmane, and have a third boy, my correspondent child, Robert, but looking at the hundreds of children who need sponsors just tears my heart into bits.

This morning I was on the compassion.com site, and I came across this little boy named Jorge from Ecuador.  His profile said he was crippled in one arm, but he still had the most beautiful smile on his face! I wish I could sponsor him so bad! But I'm confident that with that darling smile on his face he is going to get a wonderful sponsor! If somebody out there in the blog-o-sphere is thinking about sponsoring a child, I hope you'll take a look at Jorge. He's 6 years old and his birthday is in just 2 days!! Wouldn't that be a wonderful birthday present for this precious little boy? Here is the link to sponsor Jorge http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/child-biography.htm?needKey=EC5930350
Please take a look and I hope you'll make the decision to sponsor a child today, whether it is Jorge or another little one, I know some little one out there will love you forever for your decision to sponsor them! If you can't financially sponsor a child, Compassion has a great correspondence program! Its definitely a win-win situation. You don't have to put out financially if you can't afford it, AND you get ALL the letters!! :) 

All for now everybody :) I'll post again soon!

xo Lisa

First Letter!

Hello All!
Today I recieved my first letter from Loukmane. (For those of you who don't know, I started sponsoring him on Thanksgiving of this year.) This is by far the best Christmas present I've ever gotten! I love letters!!!
It reads:

Dear Lisa Keough
Loukmane says he is very glad to write his letter to you. He says his family thank you for sponsoring him. He says he live with his adoptive mother call Hien Masai who is a housewife. He says his mother Awa Duedraoga lives in the village and his father Idrissa is a farmer in Ivory Coast. He says he has brothers and halves-sisters. He says his uncle who is their neighbour help them in case of emergency. He wants to know your family members? He is asking you to pray for his family health andhis school. May God Bless you!

Third Letter!!

Today I have determined that with each new letter I get from Joel, I will be just as excited to read it as I was with the first one. Today I got my third letter from Joel. What a cutie he is! :D

Dear Lisa Keough
It is with a great joy that I am writing you this letter, to give you my news, those of my family and hear from you.
I am fine, my family too-How are you? Is it raining where you live now?
Here people started working on their farms, because it rains- when it stops raining here, the weather is nice - whats the weather like where you live? All my family is greeting you - please, pray for my parents activities.
Be Blessed.

This letter took me longer to read than the others as the person who translated this one was quite sloppy. I do wish the translators had the handwriting of his companion, Lucienne. Such neat writing they have. But I appreciate the translators work, even if they a sloppy sometimes. Cause I sure can't read french lol
That is all for tonight. I will try to update my blog again soon! =)

Second Letter!!

Helloooo!
Tonight I recieved my second letter from Joel, my sponsored child!! It was posted way back in April (the 24th!) and tonight, July 7th, I recieved it!!! It took a whopping 75 days to travel from that precious little boy's hands in Burkina Faso, to mine in New Brunswick. But it was well worth the wait! :) Though his words may be few, they are genuine and innocent as children should be. This little child, on the other side of the world, who has never met me, genuinely cares about how I am. I love it. :) Anyways, here is the letter :)

Dear Lisa Keough,
It's a great pleasure for me to write this letter to you. My family and I are well. How are you doing? How are your activities going? It'll soon be Easter I'll go to church on that day and we'll sing and dance. mom will cook some rice with fire. i'll also go to wish my friends and wish them a happy Easter celebration. what will you eat on Easter day? I wish you a happy Easter day
bye!


I feel really guilty for not writing to him for so long, so tonight I'm going to publicly post my promise to write to little Joel at least once a month. Even if it is only a short little note. He shows his love for me though his letters, I need to show mine for him, through my letters.

FIRST LETTER! :D

Today I received my first letter from my sponsored child, Joel. I was sooo excited i ripped the envelope open right there at the mailbox! :P It was a simple little letter, not long, but it was said with love. (he's six. he cant write yet :P so he dictates his letters) and at the end was a cute little drawing. Of what, I'm not sure, but it was cute just the same because it was drawn specifically for me :D
No word of a lie, when I read the words he said to me, my heart swelled up at least a dozen times its size.

I am very happy to be sponsored! Thanks for choosing me. I am very well, my family too. My dad is called Jeremie, he is a farmer. My mother is called Madeline she is a housewife. I have two big sisters called Marceline and Celine. I do not have the age to go to school yet. I often help my dad to take care of the poultry. What is your job? Are you married? Please pray for my parents and also for my big sister Celine's school. May God Bless you!
Bye!

like I said, short. But pretty danged adorable. :) I look forward to building a relationship with this adorable little boy and hearing from him as he grows. And hopefully (fingers crossed) being able to correspond with him with out a translator (meaning I have to actually learn french :P)

Just thought I'd share with the world :) goodnight and God Bless :)

Opening Up

Alright, I'm opening my blog to the public, finally. After over a year of me not-so-faithfully writing in it, I'm going to share my inner thoughts (lol!) with the general public haha. I should have lots to blog about tonight, depends on how long I feel like typing for though haha.
So, without further adieu, I'll get started on my blog for tonight.
First off, I started to sponsor a little boy from Burkina Faso named Joel Nakoulma. He is six years old and I'm very excited to start my relationship with him and to learn about him and know him as he grows physically, mentally, and in his faith.
Next, I have been searching, for some time now, for a cozy little house for me to move into and call my own. I found one tonight. Showed it to my parents who said they would take a look this week. I was pumped. On cloud 9. Thrilled. And just about everything in the book. Till they said they would give Gaynelle a call. Gaynelle, being my cousin. I was like "um. wtf do you need to call her for?" to which they replied, she wants to rent from us. I was LIVID, and promptly flipped out at them. "So, I've been wasting my time, looking for a house for SOMEONE ELSE to live in? You've GOT to be joking." They weren't. Countless nights I have laid in bed, searching for a house that was close by and cheap and well, perfect for me. And all this time I've really been looking for Gaynelle. Not impressed.
Third, I called out John's girlfriend Cindy, about their little "joke" they played on me. She meant every word she said. So I said, great, well, have a good life, bitch. Then I messaged my brother, and informed him that I had had my heart broken one too many times by him, and I would no longer be dealing with the bullshit he pours out at me, and until further notice, I am an only child. *Please submit all applications to be my new big brother to my facebook account :) Rules are as follows: you must not break my heart, you must not say nasty things about my family, you must act like a big brother and not like a 24/7 asshole.*
Fourth, I am planning on breeding my rabbit, Thumper this summer and I am a) looking for a suitable buck to breed her with, and b) looking to see how many people would possibly be interested in a bunny :) Thumper may possibly be up for sale after the breeding and birth as I am looking for a tamer pet who allows me to handle it. ( I need a cuddle buddy)

Sponsorship :)

so, today i started sponsoring a five-year-old girl from Honduras, her name is Paola Alejandra Pasadas Olivera. I'm really excited to be sponsoring her, and really excited to get to know this little girl! I feel so good about what I am doing, and even though I can't really afford this, I felt like this was the time for me to start my sponsorship, and it's something I've wanted to do ever since I could remember. In order to be able to sponsor this little girl, I am giving up chocolate milk and Tim Horton's. I'm looking forward to having a relationship with Paola and hearing from her as she grows up, and maybe someday getting a chance to meet her.