Gifts the Give Back: Crowned Free

Hey guys!!  Just wanted to come on and write quick about this organization this week because 1.) They have amazing, beautiful products made for a fabulous cause and 2.) They have Black Friday sales coming!!!!!

So to start, I learned about this organization a couple years ago when one of my students gave me some gorgeous Christmas gifts by Crowned Free and I fell in love!  Fast forward another year and one of my friends and former co-workers Katie Kiser became an ambassador and invited me to shop and get involved.  And the more I learn and the more I shop, the more I just love this organization!  Let me tell you a bit more about why....

Crowned Free is based right here in West Michigan that fights human trafficking in several ways but their primary avenue is through fashion.  They sell quality, ethically made products that raise awareness about the human trafficking epidemic and give back to help those who are at risk or living in bondage.  They do this by partnering with and funding both local and global partner organizations that work to prevent and fight human trafficking.  You can learn lots more about what they do on their website here: https://www.mycrownedfree.com.  I have learned so much by attending their events and what they do just sets my heart on fire for this cause all over again.  And most of you know this cause is a personal one for me.... because I know and love survivors of this horrific crime and I have seen firsthand how the extreme trauma involved just tears lives apart.  These girls have lived under my roof, sat in my classroom and cried in my arms.  I can never find the words to respond to the horror stories that they have lived through - stories that will be forever etched in my heart and mind.  For a long time, these unforgettable stories have plagued me with guilt that I'm not out doing more about it - especially after leaving the Dominican Republic.  While I am grateful beyond words for the miracle of Kenya surviving all we went through in those first weeks of her life, I lived for a long time with a lot of guilt and grief about leaving the country and not returning to our mission there and of leaving our dream behind of opening a safehouse for victims of human trafficking.  And while part of me still hurts inside as I type those words, I know that this was all God's plan and I am so incredibly grateful for those people who still are out on the front lines, the ones that God brought full circle to doing the work that we started... and also that I get to be a part of partnering up with people right here in West Michigan that are fighting for that same cause that stole my heart over ten years ago.

So now that you know why this is an amazing and worthy cause to shop for, let's check out some of their products!  I have purchased lots from Crowned Free and have clothes, jewelry, candles and more here in our home and I love all of it so much!!   

                                         

I mean... how cute is Kenya on the first day of school sporting her Crowned Free shirt!? (this is their signature design)

Here are some more of my fave items from their website to check out ....

Love both of the above for Amara!

And matching for Kenya!

I already have this one in my size and it's one of my favorite shirts!!

Their candles smell heavenly!

I have these earrings and they're one of my fave go-to pairs

Perfect pair of teacher pair of earrings I've been eyeing!

These Ember earrings will be on major sale for Black Friday - but you can pre-order any of the sales now with Katie!

Lots of great items for guys to raise awareness too!

All their note cards and stationary are super cute and perfect for cheering up someone's day!

The cutest throw pillows!

This purse just speaks for itself, am I right???

Love their sweaters and kimonos too!!

I keep all my make-up in this bag and it's a perfect message to wake up to each morning!

Okay so you get the picture - I love their stuff!  But don't just take my word for it - go check them out for yourselves!  Be sure to shop on this page  http://www.mycrownedfree.com/72/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E795&from=DIRECTLINK  through my friend Katie Kiser.

Here's a pic of Katie and I at the Walk for Freedom two years ago.  She is an amazing person and is so passionate about this cause and just pours herself into it with her whole heart.  I have loved learning from her and getting to join in with her on all she is doing in this past year.  Also, if you are interested in hosting a jewelry party (online or in person) or becoming an ambassador yourself, please reach out as she would love to help you to join the cause.

Happy shopping with Crowned Free!!  Please share this post with others and let me know if you make a purchase - I would love to see what you pick!! 💞

Gift of Hope Haiti

So many great organizations to share and so little time - especially when you get all excited to start and then everything crumbles when your house is hit with influenza, asthma, ear infections and more.  But our lives are not really crumbling - no matter how much it feels like it.  Every so often I have to check myself as I am humbly reminded of how much my life is not crumbling.  In other corners of the world, schools, buildings, orphanages, families, children are literally crumbling.  One of those places is Haiti.  I have only been to visit twice so I can't say I truly know and understand as some of my other missionary friends do, but I still feel my heart break when I think of what they've been through and what they continue to go through.  I will always remember my time on that island in 2010 when the earthquake hit and time stopped for so many people that we love.  I was completely removed on the other side of the island but somehow the stories still shook me to the core....  The "other me" volunteering as a special ed. teacher at NPH across the border who lost her life after 3 days alive under the rubble.  My roommate who had to find and unbury his own nieces and nephews.  My sister from another mister who moved in with us after losing both parents and her home - not just from the earthquake, but from the aftermath of disease that rampantly spread afterward.  The stories from my husband and others of bodies literally being bulldozed when they went over to help.  Clinging to my own husband who nearly died of malaria after going to help - feeling both immense gratitude and guilt when he survived when so many others did not.  All of these feelings might seem intense, but remember, I wasn't even on the same side of the border for all of this.  I can only imagine for those who were actually there because I'm not sure I would have been able to bear it.

Now Haiti is in shambles again.  Can I honestly say I sob uncontrollably and that my heart breaks now the same way it did nine years ago after the earthquake?  No, I cannot.  I am absorbed back into the American culture and all my own daily drama.  But should I not let my heart break for those suffering in the same way?  Allow my heart to break at least enough to feel inclined to do something about that suffering?  Shouldn't we all be broken by the kind of suffering happening in Haiti - happening anywhere?  I think a lot of us turn our backs because we don't know how to help.  We don't want to gift money at the chance it might get into the wrong hands and may just be a loss.  So with all of that said, here is a way to give to an organization that will absolutely get resources into the right hands that will help in the right way - a sustainable way.

So now let's rewind even further back to 2007 to meet Mallery Neptune.  I was riding my plane back to Grand Rapids and couldn't help but notice the American girl sitting behind me - even younger than my 25 year old self but carrying an itty bitty Haitian baby.  I was instantly intrigued - what was she doing?   Where was she taking this baby?  I don't remember a lot about this day but somehow we've kept in touch on social media and I have no words for what she has done since that day (but I'm going to try to put some together anyway).  During these past twelve years, Mallery has put together a foundation, school, children's home, clinic, store, online shop and more - all to pour back into families in Haiti.  Her mission is not just to come and love on orphans but to love on the entire family unit and bring restoration back to all.  It's a sustainable mission and one I can totally get behind.  I could go on and on but you can learn lots more by clicking here and reading Mallery's words for yourself: https://haitipoverty.org/

There are lots of ways to give but one of the most fun ones since holidays are right around the corner is to SHOP! (and actually feel really good about it)  Every single thing in their shop is handmade in Haiti by people there.  Your purchase will transform lives.  AND your friends and family will love their beautiful quality products - I just visited their shop and was seriously drooling over every last thing.  Here's just a preview of some of their amazing items:

From gorgeous kitchen and home decor items....

                                       

                                       
                                        

                                       

To the adorable children's collection...

                                      

                                                  

                            

To beautiful, timeless fashion.....

                                      

                                      

                                       
                                      

There's seriously something for everyone on your list!! 

Visit their website https://www.giftofhopehaiti.org/ to start your shopping - check out their amazing sales too!!  Also, go give them a like on Facebook at Haiti Foundation Against Poverty and Gift of Hope Haiti, and follow them on Instagram.  I promise you won't regret it!

Haiti needs us now more than ever and we can all do something to help - I hope you will consider this incredible organization as a way to do it.  I can't think of a better way.

More to come soon about more amazing friends you can support - stay tuned. 💗

Love,
Kristin

Beekeeper of Aleppo

This was one of those books that stick with you - still on my mind after
dropping it off at the library yesterday.  Lots of books do that for me, all in different ways. Over the past year, I’ve read three World War 2 novels (love them all) and kept thinking to myself about all I would have done if I were alive at that time… how I would have intervened, done something, stood up for what’s right - I was frustrated by the characters who stood neutral in the face of suffering, the bystanders, the ones who could have done more and didn’t.  But then I read this book set nearly in present day and realize that while children were drowning trying to cross the Mediterranean, I was watching Netflix. While people lost their limbs, eyesight and more from being bombed, I was sitting in line at Biggby. While babies were kidnapped during the night in refugee camps to sell off for organs, I was perusing the Dollar Spot at Target. I know none of this makes me a horrible person (and of course I do more with my life than the things I listed here), but the truth is that I have let myself become desensitized in reintegrating back into our culture - something I never thought would happen after leaving the DR.  Some of it needed to happen - I came back traumatized and seeing the world through an extremely different lens, too extreme in some ways that I couldn’t cope. I felt like I couldn’t fit in anywhere and I was always misunderstood by those around me. And while I am aware that it is entirely ridiculous to compare myself to a refugee or to people suffering in the developing world (trust me, I KNOW that my privilege has made my story a million times different from theirs), these were always the stories and the people my heart was able to connect to after my trauma. Of course, my experiences and trauma were a millimeter sized drop compared to their ocean of trauma and suffering and pain, but I empathized with their stories in a way I couldn’t have before.  Because even though I knew that God, and everyone I knew, had moved heaven and earth to help us, and I had unspeakable gratitude for it, I still struggled with the feelings I could never express out loud. Leaving the country with the clothes on our backs, leaving behind all of our belongings, the people we loved with no good-bye, our jobs, our dreams, our ministry - all gone in a second - to come back to a world that has moved on without you, to hospitals, bedrest, injuries, doctors, specialists - and people expect you to say and express nothing but gratitude…. Because we were the lucky ones. And we absolutely were - I will always be the first to recognize my privilege. And while my story is nothing in comparison, we do this same thing to the refugees who have suffered trauma and pain a billion times more than I could ever understand.  Refugees that I have known and loved - who have watched their family members shot down in front of their eyes, run for their lives, are covered in physical scars, raped hundreds of times, gone without food or water for days, walked alone across country lines as children and when they get here, we tell them to be grateful. We tell them that they are lucky. They get to be here and experience the American dream and they should be thankful for it - when we don’t know their nightmares or the very real and haunting things that come with PTSD and their experiences. And we forget about all of the ones still trying to get here and the ones who will never have the chance - we live our lives and drink our expensive coffee and shop for things we tell ourselves we deserve and say that what we do is good enough because at least we’re not doing XYZ like that guy over there.

So what am I getting at here?  What is my point in writing all of this?  It is this: No matter how helpless we feel and how small contributions seem to be, we can always always ALWAYS be a part of ending someone’s suffering.  Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision once said: Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God. And I don’t want to be so acclimated back into our culture and my cushy life that my heart stops breaking for the things I have seen, the refugees and victims and survivors I have known. That I am so caught up in comparing my house and car and clothes to someone else on Instagram who looks better, younger, prettier than me instead of focusing on what I was meant to do in this world.  And I don’t want to give my kids a cushy life where they get everything they want either - even though right now I’d say they have it pretty dang close…. To the point that they have everything they could ever physically need, everything they want and ask for and they still have and get a whole lot more.  I remember the nausea I felt watching Kenya open gift after gift after gift at Christmas after coming back from the Dominican Republic and knowing so many kids back on that island couldn’t afford medicine or were on the street selling drugs or their bodies to simply survive. I remember flying in from Haiti on the day of my wedding shower twelve years ago and feeling nauseous about opening wedding gifts that I didn’t need while others didn’t have clean water to drink.  I write this at the risk of sounding ungrateful to the people who gave us these gifts, which I promise I am not. But what if we just did things just a tad bit different?

I swear I’m not trying to be a total Grinch and I don’t want to overthrow Christmas or totally give up Biggby, Target or Netflix either (though I could definitely stand to cut back).  But what if instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on stuff for people that they don’t really need this Christmas, we tried to be more intentional and be the hands and feet of Jesus over the Christmas season? Even if we each changed out just one gift - we bought someone just one gift that gives back - a gift that we don’t have to feel nauseous watching someone open while we simultaneously think about the people who are suffering and dying like the ones I just read about in my book.  Okay so maybe you don’t fight a feeling of nausea at Christmas like I do - and that’s okay, I'm not asking you to - but I can’t unsee, unfeel, unexperience or unread the horrors that I know either). Or maybe you’re thinking you have no idea what store to go to buy gifts that help other people?

Okay so BOOM (that one's for you Tracye ;) - I’m finally getting to the point of this whole thing (being concise was never my strong point).  From now until Christmas, I am going to use my long forgotten, neglected old blog to start writing again (and yes I’m starting now because I have friends who put their tree up ON Halloween - if you’re one of these crazies who already has their tree and lights up, I do still love you).  Anyways, each post about a different person, organization or cause to support. Something you can buy and give that will give back - that will make a difference - to people like the ones suffering in Aleppo and in refugee camps and like the ones I’ve seen in Haiti. Like the ones I know who have been coerced into human trafficking and the ones who are at risk and need someone to prevent it. And I’ll also share about people right here in our community doing good work, reaching out and trying to “be the change” for people here too.  Because God’s children are here and there and everywhere, on every corner of our planet (sidenote: I cringe when people praise me for adopting “one of our own” instead of from another country, after our international adoption fell through - if you are a Christian, then every single child on the planet is one of our own. Another sidenote, please don't praise someone for adopting a child at all, but that’s another soapbox for another day).

Since this is long enough, I will save my first shared cause in another post mañana
because if you have read this far you already deserve a trophy (or maybe you
know me well enough to know my history of long windedness and you just
love me anyway).  I don't promise that any of my writing will be any good (because hey
I'm tired guys) but I do promise that I will only share amazing organizations that I
know are doing amazing work for the people who need and deserve it.
Stay tuned from now until Christmas to learn more about how you can change the world
and stop suffering with each gift that you buy for others this Christmas season. 💗