Live your love.

Last September, I had no idea what I was in for. I went through a training to mentor a refugee family from Burma. I can tell you that no training can prepare someone adequately. This family fled from political persecution, waited in a refugee camp in Thailand for 5 years while experiencing mistreatment, all to come to the United States... a new, scary place, where they don't know the language, and can't get a job due to the current economic situation, and they don't get their food stamps in time because the system is so backed up, they don't know where to go to reapply for Medicaid because their case worker doesn't call them back because she works with 200 other families... At refugee camps, America is viewed as this Treasure, where there is opportunity and money. This is true.. there is wealth and opportunity in America, but no one told them that it is not equally distributed.. and it was going to be this Hard! This family has been a blessing to me. The kids have ...

Essentially this holiday seems to be a drinking holiday (at least in the US). I've always enjoyed the holiday mostly from growing up in Chicago and seeing the different traditions like dying the river green, watching parades on tv, and wearing green. Our house decided it was a good idea to throw a party.. mostly because we may have to move out soon, and it was a good excuse for everyone to get together. So... I think we invited almost everyone we knew in Denver to come to our house on a school night. It was a blast. We had around 70 people there.. all random... friends, co-workers, neighbors, people we went to church with, friends of friends, family members of friends, etc. It was a bit overwhelming... but a wonderful excuse to get together. So, thank you St. Patrick for this holiday you have started. I'm thinking about making it a new tradition! (pictured is my roommate, Laura with our neighbors Jim & Dave).