(photo friday)

i have been missing my soul sister Amani a whole lot lately.
its been making my heart ache.

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Making up for missing Photo Friday!

So yesterday I did not find a picture I was moved by enough to share here. Today though I was browsing 24 hours in pictures and found one that definitely speaks from my soul. I am so saddened when I think about Palestinian youth. All of the youth involved with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are being short changed. On the one side children are limited to life within the parameters of Israeli law and land allocation and on the other children our raised to see the hindered children as in their proper place. I know that a life of freedom and a childhood of seemingless endless opportunity is not available to all children but thinking of the ones raised within such strict confines angers me greatly.

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Photo Friday

I went looking through 24 hours in picture for an image that touched my spirit today. Anytime I think of the sister city Juarez to my hometown El Paso my heart saddens. I hate to hear the labels the area has adopted the past few years. The murder capital of the world, the heart of the drug war. Its almost unbelievable when I moved away from El Paso all was well in Juarez. At least for the most part. And even though the area has a bad reputation my mind never wavers from envisioning the citizens of Juarez as people caught in the cross fire and I wish there was an easy solution. These children are mourning the death of a young boy who was murdered at a house party. It can be so easy to group citizens of Juarez in with the thugs that have invaded the area. The boy who has passed and his mourning relatives are just children caught in unfortunate circumstances. I wish there was a way to help.

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Photo Friday

Looking back at September 2005! The boys were 11 months old and both on the verge of walking.

They spent their days roaming the jungle of toys that was our apartment.

At that stage in life we were a young family with little else then a couch, a table (minus chairs), a bed and two cribs but in true Lori fashion we had a ton of toys. Life was perfection.

In this photo Gideon is on the right and Yeshua on the left! Looking at them at that age warm cuddles come to mind! I love my boys and can hardly believe they are starting Kindergarten on Monday.

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Photo Friday

I like to look at the pictures featured at guardian.co.uk in their 24 hours in pictures series.

To me its like a small easy glimpse at the world I live in and it helps keep things in perspective for me. Today this picture hit close to home for me. These children represent why I feel the way I do about immigration law and how we should handle those who already live within our borders.

Like many Americans I do not want immigrants crossing over illegally and burdening our education system and health care system but the truth is that millions are already here. Millions have their children studying along side our own. Millions have utilized our emergency care departments. And millions have been able to support their families, avoid deportation and obey our laws. Additionally, they have not burdened our social services. These people have work hard and many times they are paid below minimum wage. Yet they are still striving to achieve the American dream.

There is absolutely no reason to make these people leave. Personally, I think if a person can verify that they have lived in our country for at least five years, supported themselves and not broken any laws above traffic violations they should be allowed to embark on a path to legal citizenship. Pehaps we can change our laws and how we handle immigrants in the future and deport people we know have unsavory characters and have broken our laws. I can go as far as saying that if a person has previously been deported they should not be accepted. But as for our law abiding, hardworking immigrants I beg you please dont deport this child's mother.

For more information visit migrationinformation.org

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