Angela Thomas

Last night and this morning, we had our church women's retreat and Angela Thomas was the speaker. I have never heard her speak before and she was a pure delight! She was just ADORABLE!! Her accent was adorable...she talked like Dolly Parton and she was just so much fun! So open and real. I laughed and cried. Such a delight! My mom was so sweet to get tickets for Hannah and me.

We got there early enough Friday night to get good seats and eat yummy dessert. My mom made one of the cakes.....chocolate mocha cake. It was DELICIOUS!! There were also some GREAT mini cupcakes with cream cheese icing. My dinner consisted of solid sugar and was great! :) We met my dad's office partner's wife, Nana, there and sat with her. She is such a sweet person. We also met up with our old across the street neighbor (her family bought my sister friend's house across the street), Ellianna McCray. She was so cute and I want her wardrobe!! Here is a picture of all of us. We sat on the second row, which is where I always sit when possible. It's not the first row but it's close enough where I won't be distracted by others and I can see clearly. I like being right up there in the front. The worship was great before Angela came out. 

Mom and I with sweet Nance. How cute is her fun yellow scarves?! Some 10th grade girls made them for all the workers and they arjust so cheery. Such fun!! Nancy and some of the other leaders gave out a ton of door prizes before Angela came out. They did so many sweet things for all of us women.

My precious friend, Hope, is doing a Bible study on Wednesday night with all of us and she chose Angela Thomas' book, Do you think I'm beautiful? We haven't started it yet but I can't wait to, especially after getting to hear Angela talk.  I hadn't had a chance to get the book yet and I'm so glad because I got it at the book table at church and got to get it signed by Angela. We also got our picture with her and she was just precious!! I asked her if she minded (because a lot of people might) and she said, "Of course not" and smiled so big. She was just so down to earth, loving, kind, and humble. She was so sweet to Hannah, too, who was a little nervous to get her picture with her. She read a lot of Angela's books. I have never read one and if I ran into her somewhere, would probably not have recognized her, even though I follow her on Twitter so Hannah was a little more intimidated than I was. 

Hannah stood by me at first and Angela said, "You come over here and stand by me." It showed her soft and caring heart.

She wrote, "Shine!" in my book!! Can I tell you how much I love that?! I mean I LOVE that!!! SHINE!! SHINE!! SHINE!!! I don't know that I love a word more!! It made me so happy! I had just gotten a tee shirt that said, "Be the Sunshine", and I told her how much I loved that saying and she said she had a story to tell about that the next day. She told it this morning in her talk and it made me laugh! I just loved her! 

They told us last night that the first 300 people at the church this morning would receive a cute little handbag! Needless to say, we were all there bright and early! Have I mentioned that I have a handbag addiction? Well, it's a well known fact that all my family and friends know. I LOVE purses! LOVE them!! And I like them well made. I guess I'm a purse snob. I have gotten some cheap ones and I can tell when I carry them. They fall apart. I don't mind buying cheap clothes or shoes or jewelry...but handbags...I DO mind! Now, I have spent money on a purse before that faded after a few months and I will never buy that brand again, even though they are so cute.  I have learned that just because you spend money on a handbag, doesn't mean it's good qulaity. I bought my first black purse in about 15 years about a month ago and I LOVE it! It's Michael Kors and made WELL!! I always love colorful bright purses but I think I'm hooked on this Michael Kors! I am going to have to see if they make them in different colors. Okay, back to the conference...see, I told ya I had a handbag addiction...I can't quit writing about them when mentioned! :) ANYWAY, I met my mom at her house this morning and we rode together. Hannah was there even before us at 8:15. Mom and I got there about 8:30 and picked out our cute little handbags (they had 3 different colors...blue, red, and cream) and then saved our seats a little further back because Mom didn't like the loud music at the front. It was still great, though, even sitting futher back. I did have to move over a seat because of the woman's head in front of me. I'm second row spoiled! :) 

During the break, I went and introduced myself to a girl that I had been watching since the night before because she looked JUST LIKE MACY with blonde hair!! It was the strangest thing!! I mean, she could have been Macy's twin!! I just had to go talk to her. She was so sweet and reminded me so much of Macy even in personality. It turns out she goes to Ouachita and knows Pug. She is 21 and born in 91. I felt an instant connection, I guess because she looks so much like my May. It was CRAZY! Anyway, she was standing by the World Vision table. I sponsor a Compassion child and feel like a bad sponsor. I send the money every month but that's about it. I feel bad about it. I get these sweet letters from my child and I write back occasionally but not everytime. I feel guilty and definitely don't feel like I need to sponsor ANOTHER child and be a bad sponsor. BUT, I looked through all the pamphlets of kids anyway. Well, I saw the pamplet above and picked it up because Uganda caught my eye. Macy LOVES Uganda. Well, wouldn't ya know it...his birthday is on February 11th...Macy's birthday. I told Hannah, "LOOK at his birthday!"and then I asked a girl that I met last night if they had trouble getting people to sponsor the boys. I mean, I would normally pick a girl and did with Compassion (I picked a little girl close to Rosy's age). The girl told me that the World Vision girl had actually told her that they did have problems getting people to sponsor the older boys so that did it for me......I sponsored him right away. So what if I'm not the best writer...at least I can help in someway. I also am going to ask God to bring those kids to my memory (which is pretty bad) and help me remember to send them letters more often. I asked him to bring my girl to my memory a few weeks ago when I got the cutest little drawing from her. Like I said, she is a about Rosy's age and I don't want her to feel rejected. When I texted Macy and told her I was sponsoring Ronald and told her to look at his birhtday, she was so happy! She said, "Oh my goodness! And he is from my country!!! :) " I think it's funny Macy calls Africa her country. Her heart is in Africa. I sometimes wonder how she has any genes of mine in her. I'm so proud of her! Anyway, I have a new kid! Ronald! :) From Africa! :) He's 10. :) Lord, help me to be a better sponsor!!!

Uh-oh.....I'm about to talk purses again. ;) Are these not ADORABLE?! And guess what's even better?!! These bags bring FREEDOM to hundreds of women who were trapped into sex slavery!!! Just read the label if you can see it! You can get one of these bags at freesetglobal.com. 

Here is what their website says:

Freeset is a fair trade business offering employment to women trapped in Kolkata's sex trade. We make quality jute bags and organic cotton t-shirts, but our business is freedom!

We would like to see the 10,000 sex workers in our neighborhood empowered with the choice of leaving a profession they never chose in the first place.

I LOVED this weekend's conference! Just LOVED it! Angela Thomas...what a SUNSHINE!! Truly!! What a fun person!!! I just loved her so much! After listening to her, I bought a few more books. I had to make myself stop looking at the table because just the names of her books wanted me to buy them. One of her books is called When Wallflowers Dance. When I read the back of the book, I knew I had to have it. First of all, the title has DANCE in it, which is my favorite, other than laughter! Secondly, how could I NOT buy a book that says this on the back: 

Makes me want to cry. She is talking about her dance with Jesus. Yep, had to have it! And of course how could I not get the "Be a Sunshine" tee. My mom got it for Rosy because she is our ray of sunshine! Our sweet bright spot! Precious angel baby! OHHHHH, and the coolest thing about the conference...21 women gave their lives to Jesus! TWENTY ONE new sisters in Christ!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! How awesome is that?!!!!!!! YAY!!! I am sure I am leaving something about the conference out but Mar is waiting for me to find something clean we can watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Pureflix...between the three, we'll find something.

One more thing (I'm writing this last but it is certainly not least).....one of my favorite professors (Dr. Harper Gaushell...we all called him Dr. G.) from graduate school, died yesterday morning of a heart attack. It has been on my mind on and off since I heard about it and I pray for his family when I think of him. It makes me so sad. I haven't seen him in 7 1/2 years but I really liked him a lot.  He was so fun and a great professor! He had a Halloween party at his house every year for his students that was so fun and he would dye his white dog different colors for the seasons. Just a really fun man. He cared a lot about his students. I have a picture of Macy at his house petting his orange dog. He loved his wife and children. He would talk about them a lot in class. He taught me the difference between thinking and feeling. He would take us outside by the bayou (that our class of 15 overlooked) and we would role play. I remember him talking about living in Hawaii and how Americans were treated differently if they lived there. I also remember telling him what a blog was. He didn't know at the time because blogging wasn't popular then.  He was an encourager. And now he's gone...in the blink of an eye. Life is a vapor. I am sad for his wife and kids. I'm sad for ULM who suddenly lost a great professor and I'm just sad that a sweet man is not longer on the earth teaching people what he knows. I know he will be missed so much by so many. Here is a picture of how I remember him so well.  Makes me want to cry when I see his smile. 

2 Corinthinans 5:8

"Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord."

Dr. Gaushell, you were a wonderful man! Until we meet again!