Tuesday's Best - A Skypilation

tuesday + kids on another continent = skype day.

skype day + compilation = skypilation.

first off the shoulder shirts and now stacking bracelets?!?  geraldine is making her mama dang proud. 

what's better than catching up with my reading?  drinking my morning coffee while mohamed reads to me.
um, yes please.

getting ready to say goodbye and geraldine (deen) is already at the door.  places to go, people to see...

close up!

their sweet caretakers make a point to dress the kids in clothes that we gave them.  old navy clearance rack fav.

everybody took a turn shakin' their tail feathers today... josh shook his in my face.  

josh's face!!!  hahaha.  i took the liberty of hiding my annoyed-at-the-bad-connection faces in password locked folders on my macbook.  sorry mister.  you don't blog, you lose.   

sweet smile out of miss mamie this morning.

gerald (far right) didn't make a peep this morning until he asked us for a bible after holding on for dear life
to the one on the table.  when i was a kid i'm pretty sure all i asked for were things like
my little ponies and waterbeds (true story, i asked santa for one once...)

biggest big and littlest little. mohamed and geraldine.

the bigs.  big time missing them.

happy tuesday's best!

It's A Hard Knock Life

when i was a kid i saw the musical "annie" and wanted to be an orphan so badly that i didn't talk to my parents for 3 days.  true story, and case and point of why my parents should have known then that nothing in my life would be ordinary.  i remember thinking it would be so glorious to have daily musical numbers with all of my friends whose beds were lined up down a row from mine and swing mops around as props.  to this day i still want a dog (that's right, i never had a dog as a kid. don't you feel sorry for me?) for the sole purpose of naming it miss hannigan.

fast forward about 20 years and guess what?  i still don't live in an orphanage...  

but my kids do.

in november of last year i became involved with 2 year old twins in an orphanage located in sierra leone, west africa.  in february of this year the adoption ban that had us contained to weekly skype calls and annual visits lifted, and i stated my intent to adopt gerald and geraldine (couldn't make those sweet and hilarious names up if i tried).  that very same week i met my boyfriend.  oh yeah.  what a super sexy package i was.  "oh hey cute guy, i'm adopting twins. you want in on this baggage??" i mean, who wouldn't?  oh yeah that's right, every single guy everywhere.  every single guy except mine.  he jumped right on board.  then a week before my first trip to go meet the twins their older brother and sister, mohamed (6yrs) and mamie (5 yrs), became available for adoption... sooooo... we are currently in the process of adopting 4, yes 4, kids.  go big or go home.  

so no, i never got to live in an orphanage.  but this summer i got to spend 8 days with my kids at theirs. and it is a wonderfully happy place.  they are well cared for and loved immeasurably by their caretakers.  they are wholeheartedly provided for by a variety of generous sponsors.  they go to school. they go to church.  they even go to the beach.  in my opinion, they hit the orphan jackpot.  while they are waiting to come home to us they are happy.  and happy is a hard feat to accomplish when you're working in orphan care.  (shout out to the raining season, the organization that runs the orphanage)

emily over at the anderson crew started an amazing link up to her embrace the camera project.  after realizing that she was all too often the photographer and was never in her photos with her kids she decided to flip the camera around.  after my one week adventure of 24 hour a day parenting and my incessant need to document my trip on film so i wouldn't forget it when i had to return to the states, i learned that she was dead on.

here are some of my sweetest and sweatiest moments with my kids in my arms:

ps - thanks mama kat for the perfect writing prompt today.  i'm off to scrub my bathroom til it shines like the top of the chrysler building.

Sloths, Cackling, and Ellen Degeneres

puh-leeeeease watch this.  hilarious. i cackled.

god bless you, kristin bell.  and god bless you and your fine program, ellen degeneres.

Guest Posts and Getaways

today is my favorite kind of friday. the kind where me and my boyfriend take off work at lunchtime and drive to a gorgeous lake house where no one can find us. gimme gimme gimme.

in honor of this glorious weekend i have a special treat for you.  it's me!  are you so excited?  no?  oh, bummer.  well, in case you change your mind i had the privilege of guest posting over at love, life, and louboutins for my lovely friend, danielle, today.  check it out!  i promise, you'll love her.

aight.  it's the freakin' weekend baby imma bout to have me some fun.  peace.

read my guest post here.

Williams Syndrome

i have slipped into a deep, inconsolable, depression.

last night i saw michelle williams of destiny's child second draft fame and i said nothing to her.  nothing.

i mean, i spent numerous formidable teenage years driving around in my friend's mazda 626 blasting some DC (oh yeah we abbreviated their name and totally understood each other when we referred to them as such and i'm sure we were like the only fans ever to do this. whatevs).  7 o'clock in the morning on the way to school.  10 o'clock at night driving one mile radius circles around the popular gas station to see if any of our other friends had shown up yet to hang out in the parking lot (did i mention that there isn't a whole lot to do in suburban minnesota?) because we, obviously, couldn't be the first ones there.  point being... we'd pop one of those cd's into our discman, plug in the tape adapter, and wear.those.records.out.

this morning i woke up giddy from my MW of DC sighting and began telling everyone i knew who would be even remotely excited about this.

(read this one bottom to top, and try not to pee your pants when "anonymous friend" calls me blue ivy's godmother)

this is the cuban restaurant we were at.  you know, because michelle likes to keep it real.

hope you were ready for this jelly.

love, blue ivy's godmother

ps - a great big bootylicious thank you to savannah at rolled up pretty for today's link up!  go check out her hot new gold glasses.

Tuesday's Best and 100 More Children

the kiddos had trouble hearing us this morning... good thing they know a little sign language!

the covering (the orphanage) moved to a new building this weekend.  while we are fundraising to build a permanent home for the kids we are leasing space and, this past weekend, they packed up and headed to a new building that i had the privilege of touring while i was in sierra leone this summer.  we asked the kids if they liked their new home and they all seemed pretty excited about it.  mohamed said his favorite part about the new center was the wall.  wait, whaaaa?  did i hear that right?  a wall is your favorite part?  yep.  the outside wall in the courtyard.  probably because he can bounce balls off of it.  you know what this means, right?  josh and i just hit the jackpot.  someday we are going to be able to get him cardboard boxes for christmas that we will most likely score for free outside of a liquor store and make him the happiest kid in the world.  merry christmas to us!

moving to this new building means that the raining season now has the capability to house up to 100 more kids.  i mean, think about that.  100 more children will have homes.  100 more children will have three meals a day.  100 more children will have someone to care for them.  100 more children will be told that they are not forgotten and will learn what love looks like.  the raining season is about to double it's impact in west africa.  

  this also means that we here in the states have some work to do.  sponsors, forever families, the dollar spot, chuy's creamy jalapeño dressing to drown our stresses in... we need it all.  our nashville fundraising committee has some work to do, and i couldn't be more excited to get my hands dirty.  its going to be a busy fall!!!

happy tuesday's best,

m

Giving Back Is The New Black

ladies and gentlemen... 

i'd like to introduce you to the first installment of gung ho giving!!!!  (applause)

gung ho giving is all about jumping in where we are needed and doing so whole heartedly.  this installment will be a regular thing here at gung ho heart, because giving back is the new black.

if you or someone you know would like to submit a request to have your cause/benefit concert/lemonade stand/car wash/ping pong tournament or any other fundraising endeavor considered to be a part of gung ho giving, please do so by e-mailing details to me at megan@gunghoheart.com.

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because i just returned from africa and learned firsthand what it is like to live in a jungle climate i figured that our first go at gung ho giving should be just as hot.  

THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 11th

2pm

HOT YOGA PLUS

COOL SPRINGS, TENNESSEE

minimum donation of $20 at the door for a 60 minute class, and every single cent will go to the raining season, the organization that runs the orphanage where my kiddos live.

now you can get fit and legitimately feel good doing it.  you're welcome.

hope to see you there!

Tuesday's Best - our first family photo

our first family photo.

swoon.