A little over a year ago I celebrated another birthday. My birthday happens to be on Christmas day and my anniversary 10 days before Christmas, so the amount of gifts I receive in the month of December is always overwhelming. As I sat with my lovely gifts I felt a huge sense of sadness. I couldn't get my mind off the images I have seen firsthand in the world - hunger, poverty like the average American can't even imagine, disease, those without hope or a future. My mind kept going back to faces of women and children I had seen in Africa during my teenage years when I was a Missionary kid. Images of dirty lakes and ponds with kids bathing in them while women collected drinking water for their families just feet away. Children with torn clothes and no shoes running through trash piles. And the one that haunts me the most: a child dying in the arms of a friend sitting beside as we helped out in a medical clinic. The young child died of an illness that could have been so easily prevented if they had received proper medical care in time. I will never forget the sounds of the mother wailing at the loss of her child. Never. How could I sit there with my ridiculously large pile of gifts while this what I have seen in the world is the reality for so many?
That day I promised myself and my family that for my following birthday I wanted to help others instead of receiving gifts. We all know that when you tell a child you are going to do something, there is no turning back. As my 8 year old son always says, "A promise is a promise." I knew if I told them what I was planning on doing then they wouldn't let me forget or back out. For most of the year I tried to find something I could invite my friends to for my December birthday that would get them involved. Nothing I could find helped the people I wanted so desperately to help. And then I found Noonday.
A friend with similar convictions had found about Noonday and had signed up to become an Ambassador. As I researched the company, I realized they were doing exactly what I had felt the urge to do a year before. Women who also had the burning desire to help women and children across the globe were telling their friends how they could have a super fun trunk show in their own homes and share the stories of the artisans that created the one of a kind pieces of jewelry, accessories, gorgeous home decor and more. Each gorgeous item sold puts food on the table of a family that might other wise go without food. It enables children to go to school. It lets mothers to be able to put shoes on their children's feet. It allows them to afford medical care they would otherwise never receive. I was so excited that I immediately booked a trunk show in my home for my birthday and encouraged my friends to come to my birthday party, but instead of buying me another gift I didn't need, purchase one of the lovely fair trade items and made a real difference in the world and give it to someone else or keep it for themselves.
Before I even had my birthday party, I knew just a party wasn't enough for me. I agreed with the mission and purpose of Noonday so much that I signed up to become an Ambassador. Personally, it lets me keep helping those across the globe that I wouldn't be able to otherwise while still raising my three children. It allows me to meet amazing people that are answering the call they feel to adopt children both domestically and internationally and provide them with forever homes while using Noonday as a fundraiser to bring their children home. It lets me give other like-minded women a fun experience with their friends of hosting a trunk show and spreading the mission of Noonday while buying gorgeous jewelry and other fair trade handcrafted items. It gives our family an opportunity to give more to causes we are passionate about (we are committed to giving 100% of our Noonday profits back to orphan care and other charities we believe in). And mostly it just feels so good to find an answer to the "what can I do?" question that was weighing so heavily on my heart. That heaviness is lifted and it is filled with an excitement and a passion knowing that I am really helping those I had such a desire to help but couldn't figure out how.
I encourage you to go to my website and read some of the stories of the artists who are creating these amazing items and whose lives are being changed by each and every purchase made. Why Work Matters: and Coral's Story are both very touching to me and give you a glimpse of why Noonday means so much to me. I hope the stories inspire you, too.
"...when you satisfy the needs of the oppressed, your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10
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