Operation: 100 FAMILIES

An update about Operation: 100 FAMILIES can be found at our other blog, sixteensmallstones.blogspot.com. Please visit! THANK YOU to everyone who donated!

Operation: LOVE

Operation: LOVE was a HUGE success! Valentines came POURING in from all over! From neighbors, old friends, new friends and strangers. From Illinois, Idaho, California and Utah. From mothers, fathers, children, grandmas, uncles, aunts and friends. From old people, young people, short and tall. The Valentines will be sent out this week to some children who really need them. Children who are tall, children who are short. They will be going to children with straight hair, curly hair, braided hair, twisted hair. Children who are blind, children who have seen more than they should have in their short, sensitive lives. Children who laugh and who cry. Children who wear shoes in cement rooms, children who go barefoot in the soft dirt.

Children who need love.

Valentines will be going out to the adults who, with open hearts and arms, take these children and care for them and heal them and nurture them. Adults who are young, who are old. Adults who have dark skin, light skin, tan skin. Adults who speak English, French, Fanti, Twi. Adults who teach, who love, who heal, who nurture and who play! Fathers and mothers, single parents, married couples.

Adults who need to know they are appreciated and loved.

Valentines carry a message of love, of hope, of care. Thank you so much for reaching out to the children and adults who need to know they are recognized, appreciated and loved!

THANK YOU!

My Olympic Hero

For everyone in recovery with an Eating Disorder, READ THIS! It will encourage you to keep on keepin' on in recovery. (Don't worry...it is REALLY short, so if you are in the midst of an Eating Disorder, you can read it, too! If you have one, you know what I mean.) Someday, you will be stronger and happier, too! If she can do it, you can, too! http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Ice-dancer-Belbin-has-put-on-weight-and-she-cou?urn=oly,220122 She is my new Olympic hero, for more reasons than her sport ability. I have never liked ice dancing very much, so I have no idea who else is competing, who is good, etc. BUT you can bet your boots I will be rooting for Beblin and her partner to win gold!

OPERATION: 100 FAMILIES

Valentine's Day is about spreading LOVE! This year, we have a special opportunity to spread some major love to people who REALLY are in need right now.

As you all know, we are working on Operation: LOVE until the end of this month. This has been a fantastic oportunity to send Valentines to children who need to know they are LOVED! Thank you to EVERYONE who has helped and is still helping with this project!

At the same time, Sixteen Small Stones has launched Operation: 100 FAMILIES. This is a specail project that shows love in a different way. We have committed to collecting food, medical supplies and other items for families left homeless by Haiti's earthquake.

It has been a month since the day of the earthquake. In those first few days, everyone was in a frenze trying to reach out to Haitians in need. Many people were helped, many miracles were performed, and much care and love was sent their way in form of dinations, volunteers and prayers.

Now that it has been so long, many people have sort of "moved on" from this "serving high". The hype is over, and in many ways, people have forgotten Haiti. Donations have all but ceased. Most countries have pulled their volunteers out.

But there are still people in need. Still people suffering. Still people hurting.

Sixteen Small Stones HAS NOT FORGOTTEN!

We have been in touch with two orphanages in Haiti. Through one of our contacts with one orphanage, we have learned of several hundred families living in the parking lot of their local LDS church! Can you imagine? Homeless, with no food or supplies...waiting for aid, waiting for someone to reach out to them.

Sixteen Small Stones is reaching, but we need your help. I mean, we REALLY need your help. All week, we have been donating money and items...and, in the end, we have little to send. Several angels have come forward with donations of money and items. These people have done so much and we are so, so thankful for their sacrifices! However, we still need more. I KNOW there are people out there who want to help, but don't know how. This is an EASY way to donate! To see a list of needed items, please visit my other blog, sixteensmallstones.blogspot.com. Also, if you donate money to Sixteen Small Stones, we will use the money to purchase food and supplies for these families. You can do it with paypal and don't even have to leave your house! :D

Please search your hearts and think what you can donate. Even ONE DOLLAR can buy a bag of rice. If you live in the Salt Lake area, you can bring donations to my house and I will deliver them. Look through your pantry, look at your food storage. See if you have food that needs rotating that you won't eat soon. Could you donate it?

Please send me a comment on here if you want to help, or if you would like more information. Also, see our other blog, sixteensmallstones.blogspot.com to learn more.

THANK YOU to everyone who has and who will donate. Your sacrifice is appreciated. I am sure if you talked to the mothers who will be able to feed their children because of your donation, you would hear something along the lines of "thank you"...I am sure you can imagine that for yourself.

Operation: LOVE Part II

OPERATION: LOVE Update

I really wanted pictures to accompany this post, but it's not happening. Maybe I can get some on tomorrow, but I really just wanted to get this update posted...it has been weighing on my heart for a few days now.

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has donated time, money, Valentines and prayers on behalf of Operation: LOVE. For each of those sacrifices is a manifestation of your LOVE. And that, after all, is what Operation: LOVE ia all about.

It is difficult to find the words to express how Operation: LOVE has touched my heart. We started Operation: LOVE so we could spread love to children who really need it. But it has evolved into MUCH MORE than that. It has been a lesson for me about love. I have learned about a heavy love. A love that comes from great sacrifice. A love that comes when you least expect it. A love that comes in your moment of despair. That is the love _I_ have felt during Operation: LOVE.

I never expected to FEEL so much love during this Operation. I thought the idea was to send love. In the end, I was the one who felt it.

We will have many Valentines being brought or mailed to us from around the US this week. Valentines from neighbors down the street, from California, from Idaho and from Illinois. From old friends, from new friends and from complete strangers. Once the Valentines are all gathered in, we will count, sort and organize them. Box them up, tape them up, wrap them up; address them, haul them to the post office, and away they will go, on a journey of love around the globe. To Uganda, Beijing, Ghana and Haiti. To children with straight hair, curly hair, black eyes, brown eyes, blind eyes. Children who are dressed in heavy, warm clothes against the cold winter, children dressed in shorts because of the heat. Valentines will be sent to the adults caring for these children; men and women, ages 19-50, married and single, dark skinned and light skinned, Christian, Buddhist, Mormon.

All of these people NEED love. All of these people ARE loved. All of these people are children of our Heavenly Father.

Thank you for being a part of something great. Thank you for being a part of gathering and sending out LOVE!

OPERATION: LOVE

So, we started this little project. I have changed the name from a "project" to
OPERATION: LOVE.

Our volunteer group, Sixteen Small Stones, is collecting Valentines to send to the orphans we help. My friend, Blake, came up with this idea, and I think it is amazing!


I can't imagine the feelings these children must have...the feeling of being all alone in this big world, the feeling, maybe, that there is no one who cares about them. What kind of hope and joy might a single note bring? What kind of comfort, to think someone out there even KNOWS about them?

We will be sending the Valentines to four different places. We will send them to all 19 girls living under Katie's roof (including Katie the young woman who helps her) in Uganda, Africa, to the children at Luckyhill Orphanage and King's School in Ghana, Africa, the Haitian orphans living at Foyer Coin Dex Cieux orphan home in Haiti, and to the children at Bethel Foster Home (home and school for blind children) in Beijing, China.


What does this all mean? It means we need approximately 800 Valentines.


Yes. EIGHT HUNDRED.

That's a lot of Valentines.

Will you PLEASE help?

Visit sixteensmallstones.blogspot.com for more information.