Backyardin'

Backyard celebration. We are all officially moved in!

This whole day has been amazing, really experiencing what living a lifestyle of faith looks & feels like.
This morning went to Trader Joe's to pick up donations w/ leaders from Mission Yr. Drove back to their place in Lawndale to sort & re-distribute. Brought some stuff back to our place for the ladies & I as well as Tina & her kids upstairs. Its great to know what the kids like so I brought home some bananas, nectarines, & apples since we are really trying to encourage healthy eating. Tina was truly blessed by the small gesture. I also brought her flowers from the donation since her birthday is on Thursday! Her face just lit up.
We are blessed to be a blessing.
Her & I are going to meet later this week to talk about some other families in the neighborhood who are in great need so when its our week to take the food & redistribute it we can already have relationships with the families & make sure the food is getting to houses that need it.
Really excited that we are able to partner together & it be about us as a community serving one another not about just giving away free anything. That is where true love & transformation happens, when people are accountable to love.

Once I got home from packing up my garden in Humboldt to bring to my new backyard it was time to get a cookin' for the party.
Hannah wanted to make a bunch of soul food so I cooked black eyed peas, sauteed cabbage, kale/peppers/onions, cornbread, macaroni&cheese, fruit salad, & our fried John King had made fried chicken and ribs. Also Herman came over to help me prepare stuff & to make the delicious peach cobbler, yum!!
What a treat! As most of you know, I love to cook for others! And now in the house its so nice because we take turns doing stuff so I didn't even have to wash a single dish after the party (hallelujah)

Backyardin' for the party

Re-roommates (w/Hannah) We have been dreaming about this for years!

Lauren & Sierra, 16& lives on the first floor of our building. She is expecting a little baby girl in August! We are so excited!! Tonight Lauren helped her design invitation to the babyshower in photoshop & got her started on Target to register. I asked Sierra if I could make the cake for the party & she said yes :)

So glad Josh made it over to spend time w/ everyone since he is thinking about joining us over here in E.Garfield Park! (hoping for one or more loving gentlemen to join him) This is also bringing up interesting conversations about power dynamics within the culture of the neighborhood. I'm not sure the young girls know what it looks like to have friends that are boys. Hopefully we can all be better examples of what it means to love & respect each other.

I love these two women, they mean so much to me. Thank you for your support Laura & Sharon!

When all the backyard fun was said & done the kids upstairs (Jasmin, Jonathan, Eugene, & JeShaun) helped us carry everything up & clean-up. They are so sweet!
We had a goodnight hug. Truly falling in love with them!

Really want to say a big Thank You! to all of our friends who have & are supporting us through this transition. Thank you for seeing the love in our hearts and knowing that this is what we have been called to do. Thank you for being you & loving us for being who we are. I appreciated so deeply those of you who have listened tirelessly about this dream & have come along side of me to see it come to reality. I am truly blessed and could not be more fulfilled in this moment.

Today was just another day where I experienced unconditional love & had the chance to share it with others.