Never ending LOVE!

There is so much going on here at 435. But if anyone can multi task with the best of them, the award would go to Chris and her team. Not only are those girls ironing, and organizing art fair but they are shrink wrapping and moving for the BIG move this week. YOU GO GIRLS!!!!

I can hardly believe we have already grown this building. It feels like just yesterday we moved in. Lynette and I had a HUGE office all to our selves and thought of ways to fill it. Now there are 4 more ladies who have joined us and I can’t imagine how we ever did it with out them. Growing for us was a little scary at first. We are so picky about the people we hire. When you have a work environment that seems more like a family, you can’t just let anyone in. But boy have we been lucky with the ones we have found or in better words found us. Each person brings something to the table, a different personality and a heart for others, so I am pretty confident that it doesn’t matter how big we get, Matilda Jane will always attract the rights ones.

Besides that jazz though, I am getting SUPER excited for the auction that starts next Wednesday at 12 pm EST. I think my favorite thing about organizing these auctions is speaking to those vendors or artist who are donating. Not only am I in awe of their talent but I am sure they are some of the sweetest people who have walked this earth. I never feel like I can say thank you enough to them, as many of them have made custom MJC pieces in their spare time to help us raise money. They are not given anything in return and that in itself is what I love the most.The generosity of people amaze me, and I think that is why I fell in love with MJC. The never ending LOVE we share for anyone who needs a smile.

I don’t think I fully understood the effect this could have on someone until we took the trip to Rwanda. Like Kiara, I think about these women daily. It can be the littlest thing or even a  big decision I have to make, but I always wonder how they would handle it. We were all really sad when we left. I think mostly because we all had the fear we would never see them again. These women fit so well within the MJC family and deep down we knew one way or another our paths would cross again. Since we have been home though, we have gotten to email with Ivan (the great) who was our translator and such a great man. We have also kept in touch with Ivan (the terrible) who was the night manager at the hotel we stayed at and we could not have asked for a better friend. I love that they want to keep in touch and see how we are and I know it makes are day when we open up facebook and have one new message from one of them. I even got a email from Mary Sunshine who is one of the 11 women, I think I will cherish that one forever.

 

This is Mary Sunshine!!!  Doesn’t she have such a great name, and it sure does fit her too. Just seeing this picture makes me miss them more. I know they are super busy sewing those items though and I hope they know how proud of them we are.

This post might be all over the place but I want to share more pictures from our trip. Some are from the safari that we took the first Saturday we were there. It had rained the whole week and then Saturday came and the sun shined all day, it couldn’t have been a better day. Our driver came and picked us up at 4:30 am for the 3 hour drive. We were all so excited to see more of the country side and we were not disappointed. It held so much beauty we will never forget, and some of the cutest kiddos who just wanted to say Hello.

Told you it was breath taking… I still have a hard time believing my very own eyes saw this in person. Did I mention how cool it was that we had a legit safari vehicle, I mean the one with a sunroof and all.

Lastly, I will end this post with two of the many favorite photos I have from this trip.

Love this photo for all the reason that are clear. The children are so stinking cute and they were so excited to get their photo taken. Shortly after this photo was taken there were about 50 other kids who joined the group then it became a little overwhelming. I will have to say though, Jennifer did warn us, but it was so hard not to snap a few photos.

Lastly is this photo. Each morning the women came in a prayed and most days would sing a song. Their voices were amazing and something we looked forward to each morning. After that, they would sit at their machine and kick off their shoes. I loved how at home they felt. That this building is a place of comfort and hope and too me I see all of that in this picture.

Anyway, I hope you like hearing these little tid bits of our trip as much as we like sharing them. I am sure this will not be the last post. After all the items they are making are not even for sale yet and you ladies will love them. They are a great mix of Matilda Jane,  Africa and the journey in between.

 

Till next Wednesday

XOXO

Kayla