Freedom

My cousin invited Matthew and I to the annual Freedom House Gala last year. This organization is very near and dear to her heart and she wanted us to have the opportunity to hear more about their efforts to combat human trafficking in the Bay Area.

My dear cuz  and moi!

Modern day slavery exists. ...In our world today, an estimated 27 million people live in slavery. Though most people hold the belief that we already abolished slavery in this country, there are more slaves now than at any point in history. Human trafficking—the illegal trade of human beings for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor—is the second largest international crime industry, generating profits of $32 billion a year.

Human trafficking happens in our own backyard. .... Each year around 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year, and between 300,000-500,000 American-born children are coerced into child prostitution. The San Francisco Bay Area, our own backyard, is a major hub for human trafficking. It’s occurring in restaurants, hotels, strip clubs, massage parlors, people’s homes, the streets, and other locales.

Survivors have nowhere to turn. .... Most U.S. communities do not have dedicated safe houses to address the needs particular to survivors of human trafficking. Many shelters only offer short term housing and have few spaces available. Unfortunately some survivors return to their former lives of bondage because they feel like they don’t have anywhere else to turn.

Freedom House offers a solution.... Freedom House opened the first “safe house” of its kind in Northern California, pioneering a model of empowerment and aftercare for human-trafficking survivors that is breaking the chains of slavery.                                                                                         (taken from Freedom House website)

After hearing the heart wrenching yet joyful recovery testimonies of survivors, I felt that it was important for me to do something. So this year, Matthew and I hosted a table and invited some of our friends to share with them the importance of Freedom House in our Bay Area.

Our beautiful friends

We met Cheryl and Don there and were pleasantly surprised they invited my brother, Park and his wife, Hilda as their guests!

My brother and his wife... they held a live auction to raise funds thus the big number.

Bottom line is slavery still exists in this day and age and it exists right in our neighborhood.

Currently, Freedom House has two homes to care for survivors: one in SF for adult women and The Nest, in the South Bay, for girls.

But there isn't one in the East Bay. Some of the ladies I invited to the Gala are determined to pray for one in the East Bay. Will you join us in prayer to make this a reality?

For more info, check out this link:  Freedom House

Alumni Performance

Emily performed as an alumni for the first time!

We had students from the Class of 2000 to Class of 2015.

At the last KHA Band Awards & Concert, we had a total of 20 alumni and former students come back to perform for the very first time. A few of whom have not taken out their instruments to play since their 8th grade Band Concert. (My daughter would be one of them!)

It was one of the best highlights of all our years at KHA.

They performed with the current KHA band of 24 students (in white polos).

The alumni are wearing shirts from their current schools either high school or college.

They performed outstandingly! KHA's band director, Tony Bolivar, was so proud of his current and former students!

The Highlights of "Star Wars Saga"

"Best Day of My Life"

"It Is Well"

Sadly since the Middle School will be temporarily suspended, there no longer will be a KHA Advanced Band but I hope that the Alumni will be invited to come play annually! It'll be the only opportunity for Emily to have to take out her clarinet and play!

The Last Mile

My last Jog-A-Thon was in March. We met our goal of $10K by raising $12,676 for classroom enhancements such as interactive magnetic white boards, in-class libraries, tech centers and charter buses for field trips.

Thank you to all of you who supported her!

Hannah raised $595 and ran 22 laps in 30 minutes. That's almost 3 miles!

My cohort Brad Monk, KHA's Athletic Director, oversaw the event by keeping the kids running the whole time!

It is bitter sweet to say good bye to KHA. The Middle School will be temporarily suspended starting  next year so Hannah will be going to a new school next year to finish out her junior high. She will start a new adventure in August. Stay tuned!

1 out of 5

Hannah's middle school went on a community service project back in January. They volunteered at the Alameda County Community Food Bank where they bagged oranges for 2 hours. They bagged 8,065 lbs of oranges which will provide about 6,700 meals to the local community.

Food bins that go out to businesses and organizations to be filled.

One out of five residents in Alameda County receive food from this organization. They serve over 116,000 people a month and depend on volunteers to distribute the food to the needy.

Hannah and her classmates bagging oranges.

For every $1 donated, the Food Bank can purchase $6 worth of food. They have that kind of buying power. Their goal is to rid hunger in the county and they do that through buying second hand or irregular produce and foods that the grocery stores don't want to purchase.

The bagging part of the warehouse.

They receive fresh produce daily so volunteers are needed daily to sort. The sorted foods goes out to organizations within 48 hours. Other foods that come in the donation bins also need to be sorted.

The warehouse is like a Costco but it never stays filled. It empties out within 2 weeks. That's how effective the Food Bank is.

The Food Bank has a huge freezer to accommodate all the fresh produce.

Outside organizations like churches, and community organizations come to the Food Bank to gather food to distribute to the needy. Most of the needy are not the homeless but regular families that live paycheck by paycheck; who need to pay their rent or electricity rather than purchase nutritious food for their families.

Our whole family went this time.

The ACCFB also provides food in mobile trucks that go to local schools to distribute food to needy families.

Emily and some of her youth group with Pastor Doug

In May, I took some of our church's high school students along with some people in my bible study along with Matthew's small group to do what we can to help our community.

Matthew with his friend, Gary

We bagged apples, corn, cabbage and carrots. The Food Bank strives to provide nutritious healthy food to their clients. The don't accept candy nor soda donations.

If you would like to donate, know that for every $1 you give, they can purchase $6 worth of food.
http://www.accfb.org/

Ten Years Ago

It is a tradition that our church, FCC  take formal portraits in honor of Mother's or Father's Day.

Mother's Day 2006

Ten years ago I was an extremely tired and busy mother who's time revolved around a potty training toddler and a half-day preschooler.

Mother's Day 2016

Fast forward to today, I still am an extremely tired and busy mother who's time revolves around volunteering and teaching at the school of a middle schooler and planning the 'future' of a high school freshman.

Mother's Day 2010

I'm still working on how to balance work-volunteer-home-family-wife-mother-ministry duties along with losing all the baby weight (how long do I have?), curbing the graying, hair loss, dementia and wrinkles and carving out some desperately needed 'me' time.

Mother's Day 2016

People ask.. "When are you going back to work full-time?"

My response!? "Full-Time? I'm turning 5-0 this year! I'm thinking about retirement!!"

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Hi-Tech Sushi

We finally hit a new kind of restaurant! Our Buffet Club Pres and VP recommended that we give this one a try. Now I'm not too into those sushi places where all the dishes are the same price. Not because of the cost, but because of the quality of the food. I remember we ate at a place where all the sushi was $1.50 a dish. Well.. all I can say is you get what you pay for.

This new sushi place was $2.25 a dish. I was a little hesitant because that is still cheap for sushi. But I did not have to worry.. everything was delicious!

Our godson, Kyle was home for spring break from Cal Poly SLO, but his sister had to go back to college thus she's on the phone her mother is holding.

But the kicker wasn't only the cost nor quality of food but the hi-techness of the way the food is served.

They had a nice variety of sushi: cooked and uncooked.

All the tables were against the assembly line of sushi that you can grab whenever you want.

If you don't see what you want or want it be made fresh, you can order it on the iPad that is above your table. After you order it, a few minutes later it comes zipping down the conveyor belt and stops conveniently at your table.

The soups came locked with a lid. No spilling!

Once you have finished with your plate, you dispose of them in the plate chute which is also located at the end of each table. Efficient huh? No need to flag down a waitress to take your plates, nor keep them all stacked up to calculate afterwards.

I wonder what it looks like on the other side of this chute.

The computer keeps track of all your plates. And after every 15 plates, you get a free Hello Kitty surprise toy!'

We had 48 plates.. but at $2.25 each it's not a bad price!

Now you may think there isn't anyone waiting on you but there are. They fill your tea or water cups or if you order ramen or something that isn't on a small plate, they can take away those plates.

Their ramen was surprisingly very good for $4.80 a bowl. My girls loved it!

Overall, it was a must-try experience and the food was really good.  I was glad that we got to try it with my cousin and her family!

NOTE: BIG downside to this place was the wait. We arrived 30 minutes before it opened to put our name down and the first page and half of the 2nd page were already full. We had to wait 2 hours for our table. (Arrived at 11 ate at 1) They don't take reservations and it always a ton of people waiting at the door. No big tables. I think a max of 7 (which was our party) was the biggest they could accommodate if we wanted to sit together.

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar
19600 Vallco Pkwy
Cupertino

A Soft Opening

New restaurants are opening all over the Bay Area. We know this because of our friends, Grace and Owen, who frequent these new establishments for free. They go for free because they are invited to their 'soft' openings.

A soft opening is when a restaurant opens to a select few, usually friends and family of employees, to do a trial run,  to get the kinks out before officially opening to the public. Now I'm not sure if Grace and Owen are actually related to anyone who works at these restaurants but they get invited for some blessed reason.

And so did we.. through them!

So this new year of 2016 we got to eat at the new MOD Pizza in our town for free!

And we invited our friends, Scott & Helen

It's pretty similar to Blaze Pizza and Pieology but with a mega size pizza option and milkshakes.

The kids ate everything and loved the unlimited drink station.

It's the new trend of make-your-own pizza. It was good but nothing different from the others.

Thanks Buffet Club Pres and VP! Until we eat again...