Today I spent the day with the family who are getting the home built for them and the volunteers doing the building. The family is made up of a single mom with four sons. The second to the eldest got brain cancer after Katrina and has since had chemo and surgery (he is okay as of now). The second to the youngest just turned 13. He has epilepsy and had a seizure while I was interviewing him. 
The family has been living in a MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency) trailor for the last two years. Before that they were living in a FEMA trailor. Now, they are getting a home built for them by volunteers from several churches in the Maryland area. The churches also raised all the money for the home too. Amazing. 
The family is amazing because they are positive, grateful, gracious and lovely. All this despite their health and living situations.
The volunteers are amazing because they have given time, money and tons of hard work to help a family they don’t have any previous connection to.
This is the land the house is on. Mississippi is swampy! 
I actually got stuck in the muck within minutes of arriving. Both my feet got stuck up to my ankles. Yuck. But, really not that big of a deal. 
Everyone at the camp packs their own lunch in the morning. They didn’t have any whole grain options, so I went with “Whole grain white” (whatever that means) with mustard and a piece of cheese. It was gross. Bad call Monica.
Luckily, I also filled my lunch bag with a Kashi bar, apple and naner with PB in a baggie. 
On the way back to camp I stopped in Wendy’s for a much needed side salad (no veggies today at all) and a beverage 🙂
I really don’t even know how to describe how I feel after spending the day with all these people. I am so lucky. And I kinda feel that I am so ungrateful. I need to thank God more and complain about my weight less.
Seriously, stop for a second. Be grateful for your family, health, friends, job, home, computer, anything, everything….
What a powerful experience! It shouldn’t take things like this to make us realize how lucky we are. But sometimes it does. Life goes by so fast, it’s easy to forget the blessings. Thanks for the reminder!
Love the albino analogy 🙂 Ha!
That is such a touching story. The world should be thankful that you and those volunteers do work like that.
And “white whole wheat flour” is whole wheat flour farmed from a field that is all from the same genetic strand of wheat that was white(kind of like if you put two albino people on an island and told them to repopulate it, everyone would be a person but they’d also all be albino). Ok that analogy was a little weird but I think you get the idea.
It’s amazing how blessed we can be and not even realize it, isn’t it? I am so happy for all the things I have and how lucky I am. It’s sad how bad some people have it. Glad this family is getting a good home to live in.