Noonday

Ok, so there is a blog my friend got me hooked on following a few years ago, though I'm not sure why.  We both laugh because she's just a normal mom mostly writing about her kids and we don't know her, but she writes in a genuine way and I find a lot of what she says to be relate-able.  Recently, she posted something about this website, noondaycollection.com.  I took a quick look at it and thought the jewelry was so cute, but pretty expensive.  But then, thankfully, I took a few more seconds and read about this woman's company and was blown away by what they do.  It's basically helping create fair trade for people who are crafting these gorgeous pieces of jewelry, home goods, etc in poverty-stuck countries as well as a couple of refugee communities in the US.  I love that she posted somewhere, "I am more convinced than ever that job creation is a dignified solution to poverty eradication."  I whole-heartedly agree and think that there are so many situations, especially in third-world countries, where these wildly talented people just need someone to give them a fair opportunity.  And when you look at the items they are creating, you can see how we can even selfishly benefit from such cool stuff to add to our wardrobes and homes.  :)
I was excited enough about that, but then I read how you can have trunk shows (think Pampered Chef parties but cooler. lol) for people to order/buy their stuff, and they will give you 10% of the sales to go towards an adoption, if you or a friend is in the process of raising funds for that.  I was curious how that too came into play with this company, so I started reading their blog.  Oh man, try reading/watching this without needing some tissues.
http://www.noondaycollection.com/_blog/blog/calendar/2012/10/page/3/
and I found such connection with this sweet one, along with the desire to hop on a plane with my 6-yr old son to show him a world beyond himself.
http://www.noondaycollection.com/_blog/blog/post/Why_I_am_taking_my_6_year_old_to_Africa/
Well, and you should probably read this one to understand what Noonday means.

http://www.noondaycollection.com/_blog/blog/calendar/2012/10/page/4/

...and soon you will understand why my laundry didn't get done that day and my family had leftovers for dinner, as I spent all of naptime reading her posts!

Isaiah 58:10 reads, "and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."

At times when I struggle as a stay-at-home mom to find purpose to my life beyond raising my kids (which of course isn't meant to minimize how amazing that is), this inspires me to find daily, small ways that I can support what others are doing to turn darkness to light.  As Brandon and I are facing fog in the path of our calling to overseas missions, this renews my passion and also reminds me that we can be used to meet needs of the oppressed in more ways than just moving there and planting a church.  

Not only do I want to check off everyone from my Christmas list and order all my gifts from their site, I also want to pass on the word of what this woman and her company is doing live out God's Word.  Check it out, support them if you can, and make sure to keep passing on the word to others so even more artisans can begin a new life and even more babies can have families to belong to.