Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

I had no idea that slavery was so prevalent today. Here are the statistics. As a mother of 4, I want to know the facts...please pray for the millions of victims enslaved today!

THE REASON
Roughly 2 to 4 million people are trafficked in and across borders each year.
Human trafficking is now a leading source of profits for organized crime, together with drugs and weapons, generating an estimated 9.5 billion dollars per year. [i]
The overwhelming majority of those trafficked are women and children.
The average victim is forced to have sex up to 20 times a day.
The CIA calculates that profits from one trafficked woman alone averages around 250,000 American dollars per year. [ii]
Traffickers acquire their victims in a number of ways:
Sometimes women are kidnapped outright in one country and taken forcibly to another.
Traffickers also entice victims to migrate voluntarily with false promises of well-paying jobs in foreign countries as au pairs, models, dancers, domestic workers, etc.
When they arrive at their destination many are placed in physically confining conditions, their travel documents and passports are taken away and both they and their families are threatened if they do not cooperate. Women and girls are forced to work as prostitutes in heavily guarded brothels and strip clubs.
An estimated 1.8 million children are exploited by the commercial human trafficking industry[iii].
Children are abducted from rural areas and trafficked into a range of exploitive practices, which include bonded labor, sexual exploitation, marriage, illicit adoptions, and begging.
Young girls, some as young as 12 years old, are forced to work in brothels, massage parlors, prostitution rings, strip clubs, or used to produce pornographic materials.
Children are recruited and trafficked to earn money by begging or selling goods.
Child beggars are sometimes maimed by their captors to generate sympathy and generosity from potential buyers.[1]
Victims are forced to live in confining and unsanitary conditions and are subject to many abuses.
Malnutrition, sleep deprivation, emotional abuse, and beatings.
Lack of healthcare and forced abortions.
Many contract STD's and hepatitis A & B.
Children are deprived of basic education and any sort of parental upbringing, and are completely dependent on their captors for food and shelter.
Europe and the Sex Trafficking Industry:
The UN reports that Western Europe contains most of the highest-ranking destination countries in the Human Trafficking citation index. These include:
Greece, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.[iv]
Austria, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Kosovo, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK.
The former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe have replaced Asia as the main source of women trafficked to Western Europe. Victims come from:
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova.
Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Lithuania.
Victims typically originate from a country that was once part of the Soviet Bloc. From their home country, they are transported through a series of different countries before they are trafficked into either Italy or Greece.
As many as 20,000 women, including 1,000 girls between the ages of 13 and 15, have been sold so far into Greece's alarmingly booming sex trade industry for thousands of euros each. They are mainly from the Balkans and countries of the former Soviet Union. (www.helleniccomserve.com)
One million men - about 30% of the nation's sexually active population - call on these women regularly (about twice a month)! (www.helleniccomserve.com)
A Real Life Testimony From a Victim:
O.N. has been in Italy for 4 years. She says that she was kidnapped from her home city in Albania where her parents rented a house. At the time of the kidnapping she was returning from visiting her brother who lives there with her parents. One day, at approximately 6 pm. she was forced into a car at gunpoint. Once in the car she was tied up and gagged. She was then taken to the sea, forced into a rubber motorboat operated by two young men, who possessed a passport for her. She can remember that the photograph used for the passport was one taken of her during a birthday party for one of her friends.
After her arrival in Italy, she was taken from Milan to Rome and then from Rome to Mondragone (a seaside village) where she was placed in a small apartment with two other girls. During the first week she was not forced to work, but she was informed of the type of work she would be doing. For four years she worked the streets, day and night. She had to bring in 1 million Lira each day. She was regularly drugged and she developed serious health problems. Her protectors took all the money that she earned, although they claimed they had opened a Milan bank account for her. Eventually, she was arrested by the police for prostitution and returned to Albania by ferry. She wants to see her family, but is fearful of her father and that her trafficker might find her again.[v]

for more info you can go to www.theA21compaign.org

pictures

Happy New Year

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We did. I was very ill with a stomach bug, and unfortunately Cole now has it. I'm praying the rest stay well. But on the bright side, it should keep me from gaining the usual 5 or so pounds...

I will try to post pictures soon.

I just finished reading an awesome book. My friend Vicki gave it to us for Christmas and it was the best gift ever! It is powerful and I recommend it to everyone...The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I hope it will transform my relationships and life. It is a fiction book but I believe it gives true insight into the character of God.

We are trying to catch up on the house stuff and recover from the virus. Hope all of you have a hope filled New Year!

life with 2 toddlers if VERY BUSY

We made it to church today. I feel like I accomplished something! We all went to Walmart on the way home, I accomplished 2 things! God is so good, even when I am so bad. We haven't been to church for the past 3 weeks. Of course we had reasons, but I managed to find time those weekends to watch LSU football, so did I really not have time for church/God, or did I choose other things (the world) in stead? Not that I'm implying that you have to go to church to be Godly or saved or good. But I seem to be more Christ like when I am plugged in to HIM. For me that means, going to church, listening to Praise and Worship, spending time reading His Word (the bible). It's true, when life gets busy, you better make time to pray first. Lets hope I can put these "truths" into practice with more regularity.

Life has gotten a bit overwhelming with 2 toddlers. They can so mess up faster than I can clean up. It is a rare gift that they are playing by themselves in the play yard. Of coure at any second, one may hit or bite the other and it is ON! Now I hear Cole and Quinn fighting in the yard. I will ignore it, until one is bleeding. not only must I fight the minute by minute battles of raising 2 toddlers, but I must wage the war against the world for my teenager! Thank God Cole is a Godly kid on his way to becoming a Godly man, but I must not forget to pray and battle for him daily, and many times the battle is against his self!!!! His teenage it's all about me...me...me...

Parenting is exhausting. At times I feel like a total failure. Maybe that is why I am a nurse. I am so angry at a few of the mom's whose babies I see in home health. I came home Friday so full of FIGHT!!! REady to bring home 5 children I know are neglected (1 8/0 boy, 1 4 y/0 boy, 1 2y/o boy, 1 15 m/o girl, and a 5 m/o infant) they are underweight. The mother yells and makes the 8 y/o care for the 3 middle children. Her youngest infant just came home from the NICU and she refuses to feed him as the MD ordered and in a few days he has dropped over 1/2 pound. So, I guess I'm not that bad a mother. I have another mom, of 7 (5 under 4) and she is precious, tired, overwhelmed, but so trying to do her best. I pray for her and am so thankful to have the support I have from Beau, Cole, Denise, Nonna! I can so get on my pitty pot about not having 3 sisters, a mom, a Mother-in-law, etc. etc to help. But I am so blessed.

I will try to post more pictures soon. Beau and I are both working alot more. Trying to pay for car repairs, clothes for the kids, the hight cost of food, Christmas, and our big family trip to Disney. We are available much, so forgive us if we don't call more. I will cut back on my hours after the holidays. We've almost paid off the truck and that will give us a little more breathing room.

oh and Geaux Tigers. We are not fairweather fans. WE LOVE LSU!!!

Hurricaine Gustav

Wow, what a week it has been! We survived the storm just fine. A few trees down, lots of debris, but no structural damage. The aftermath was not so "fine". 3 hour gas lines, no power, no running water. 4 hot cranky kids, 2 hot irritable parents....need I go on. I had no idea what a wimp I am. I am totally dependent on air conditioning. the humidity was the straw that put us over. We broke down on day 3 without power, and bought a generator. We still didn't have running water because we are on a well with a pump. But at least we were cool in the camper. Of course with gas over $4 a gallon, we could only afford to run the generator for 12 hours a day. We were blessed to have power back on day 4 at about 7 pm. The twins were so excited to be back in the house with the lights and air on. The ran around with their arms above their heads squealing and laughing, it was just too cute. There are still hundreds of thousands of people with out power in southern Louisiana. Baton Rouge is still under a mandatory curfew until 65% of the households get power. It isn't being reported in the national news, but it has been very hard for the people here. Many homes have been destroyed by fallen trees in our area. This is the worse disaster in Baton Rouge history. Our children will return to school tomorrow, but BR will be out at least another week. Please be in prayer for the people of Louisiana, especially as Ike threatens the Gulf Coast.

p.s. There have been many "heroes" here. Our National Guard (along with many nearby states National Guard) have been a huge presence handing out supplies and keeping our streets safe, many other states and federal law enforcement officers have also come to help our local law enforcement keep order (than have been fight in the gas lines and people stealing generators off of front porches). Many churches, especially ours, Healing Place, have stepped up and been the hands and feet of Jesus. Giving out food, water, ice, and even free gas. Sending out crews to help clear trees and debris. It has been a long week with many life lessons. I for one, found that I was not spiritually prepared for this storm/trial. I will be making some personal changes, so that I will hopefully be more Christ like during the next trial. I had no idea my attitude was so closely tied to a/c and running water... lesson learned, I hope!

Kade has a shoe fetish (these are mine, but he tried to take every shoe on the beach)
Elizabeth's footprints (in middle walking towards the right)
Isn't she a beautiful baby.....

1st Oreo, she learned to open them right away

Yes, Quinn's hair is blue (it's blond now). Look at Baby Faye hang on!
This is the norm at dinner...we have a little picnic table we feed them on, but they climb on that too.

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny pink polkadot bikini. Isnt that a cute suit! She loved the water, and kade prefered to wander the beach stealing shoes! We had a great time, but it was so non stop. Cole had swimmer's ear and his canal was almost swollen shut (poor guy). So I didn't have my usual help. Beau went home for 4 nights in the middle of the 10 night trip. I won't do that again!!!