refugee aid

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News and social media feeds are filled with articles about refugees. It's hard to separate the truth from farce. The truth: refugees need help. I would hate it if others assumed that I am a bad person because I come from a country where there are bad people.

"Imagine leaving behind your home and all of your belongings to seek safety and shelter for you and your surviving loved ones. Imagine running from somewhere to nowhere. Imagine surviving shootings, bombings, torture, and starvation for months or years. Millions of refugees do this every year. Less than half of one percent of refugees are granted refugee status which allows them an opportunity to begin a new life."

There are many ways we can help. You can help financially or just with your time. There are many who would like to help, but don't know where to start. Two resources you can look into are the app Serve Refugees and the website I Was a Stranger. Both resources will give you information on what refugees have been going through and what is happening with them now. They will also give suggestions on how you can help.

Serve Refugees is an app that gives you information on how to serve or employ refugees. The service opportunities range from educating yourself, serving refugees, or giving to them. Some opportunities only take fifteen minutes of your time. I love how this app is set up. If you want, you can even earn points to get entered to win prizes. Here are some of the ways you can make a difference using the Serve Refugees app:

1. Watch informative videos
2. Intern with Utah Refugee Connection
3. Attend a CCS family mentor meeting
4. Tutor refugee children
5. Sponsor or Volunteer with a Burmese Refugee Scout Troop
6. Teach basic sewing skills to refugees
7. Order items off of an Amazon registry list for refugees
8. Create bathroom or cleaning kits
9. Donate new bedding, car seats, washers and dryers, clothing, bus passes, and athletic equipment
10. Become a friend to a refugee family

I Was a Stranger is a website created by the LDS Church. It contains informative articles and videos, and also has ideas for helping refugees. The videos are well-made and very informative. In addition, there are examples of how others are helping.  You can post your own stories of refugee relief on social media with #iwasastranger for a chance to be featured.

I personally have gained a testimony of the importance of helping. I wanted to find a way to keep giving and helping, so I decided to donate 10% of all purchases in my Etsy shop. I use the money to complete projects for the refugees, or donate the money to organizations focused to help in refugee aid. I have loved the opportunity to help in even a small way.

celebrating the holidays in style

The holidays are so fun with a kiddo. I love that Elle is old enough to get excited about stuff. She loves "San-sa", Christmas lights, and snowmen. Earlier this month it snowed pretty good, and it wasn't bitter cold outside, so Elle and I built a snowman. The snow was perfect for building snowmen - wet and sticky. It didn't stay cold for long, but our snowman held on pretty well.

Elle loved that snowman. Every time we ran errands Elle would say, "Bye no-man" as we drove away. Our Frosty just kept leaning further and further. He never tipped over though. One day it rained, and the rain dissolved him. Elle was pretty sad that day. We were at church, and on the walk home she saw her melted buddy, "Aw, no-man...". It was a pretty sad day.

The gingerbread house was a much bigger hit than the gingerbread cookies. Elle loved eating the frosting and candy. Eventually she caught on to the whole decorating part, and stuck on a few "cannies" of her own.

That's a pretty good looking gingerbread house if I do say so myself. I was lazy and bought a kit at Target. It worked out great. It was nice not to have to make the frosting and buy a bunch of candy.

After asking around, I heard that Riverwoods and Trolley Square have the best Santas, and that you can take your own pictures. We decided to make it a night and go to Trolley Square and hit up Temple Square after to see the lights. Elle wasn't so sure about Santa even though I tried to prep her the best I could. We even FaceTimed Santa a few time earlier that day, but it didn't work. Even with the candy cane offering she wanted nothing to do with him.  Maybe next year, Santa.

 

Temple Square was a hit. That picture isn't the best quality, but it shows the joy that was on Elle's face the entire time. She loved the lights. It was definitely worth the 1.5 hour drive up to Salt Lake (twice as long as it should have taken).

It really is a sight to see. This was my second time seeing the lights, and it is breathtaking every time. We were really lucky with weather, too. The temperature was in the 50's, and since it was threatening rain it wasn't incredibly busy either.

It ended up being a pretty late night, but we had a lot of fun together as a family. We are home-bodies, and don't get out much. Every time we have a night like this, though, I wish we would fight our laziness and get out more.