New Life has been in the works since January 2009, when my second child, Malakai, was born! I wanted to donate my extra milk to babies in need and began researching places to send it. My heart has been tied to Africa since last summer, and I found a place that sends donor milk overseas, but the cost seemed enormous and the amount you could send so small. In my research, I heard that it is almost the same cost to send it over as it is to just start a local milk bank there.

At the same time this was happening, I watched a video of two children found in a remote village of Africa who were literally starving to death. The children were about 7 and 4 and both had polio. They couldn't walk and weighed about as much as my rambunctious 2 year old, about 20 pounds. You could see a ring around them in the sand, the only movement they could make every day - circles in the sand, around and around. No change, no life, never getting anywhere and worse off every day. There were no adults around, these children were abandoned, lying in the sun all day, being cared for by their 8 year old sister who could only bring water to wash their wasted bodies.

The sight of these children broke my heart. I kept wanting to look away from their shriveled and dying bodies, but something in me told me to stare them straight in the face and really feel their situation. Really cry for these kids and let my heart change. I shared it with one of my closest friends and she gently prodded me for more information, and I could barely talk about it - it was so painful to acknowledge their desperate and awful reality.

The emotional response from the team that discovered Sam and Esther was disbelief, grief, shock, and sadness. The children were taken from their spots on the ground, sent to a nutritional rehabilitation center and placed in homes with loving guardians.

I learned so much from this video. For the first time, I saw the importance of hope. Hope is everything. And I also learned how important it is that those of us who HAVE -- that we bring what we can to those who DON'T. So much suffering is 100% preventable. I love this quote:

"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid God might ask me the same questions". ~Anonymous

So I have been asking for awhile, what can I do? How can I help? There are many things I could do, but what is it that I need to do? Then this last June, I had an opportunity to go to Ethiopia with a friend to pick up her strong boy. While there, plans came together to start an Infant Feeding Center in the capital city, Addis Ababa, where many people are hungry or malnourished, where often the driving force in a mother's decision to relinquish her child to abandonment or to an orphanage is the lack of food. Our goal is to feed these mamas and babies so that they can stay together, to stand in the gap for them in this way and give them the support they need to be healthy and raise their children. Moms will eat at the center twice a day, and will also receive breastfeeding support/education for their infants. And you guessed it, a donor milk bank will also be incorporated to provide breast milk for infants who need it most. We'll also have a supplemental infant food pantry stocked with formula and rice cereal for those babies not nursing. Pregnant women, children to age 3 and their siblings will also be targeted, although when the 'soup kitchen' program starts, we will not turn people away. We believe that there will be enough, and we choose to see and care for the people who come to our doors.

I am super excited to see how this will develop. I'm making contacts, gathering a team of people and writing a proposal to present to the people who can support us. Many details go into this, as you can imagine and much thinking on it to be done. So thankful for all those who have shared in the excitement and offered their hearts to this as well. Will keep posting! Stay tuned!