Back to Mexico

I've opened a page on youcaring.com to raise money for my mission trip to Mexico. 

http://www.youcaring.com/mission-trip-fundraiser/Going-to-Mexico/38498

Where your donations go:
I am raising money for a mission trip to an hogar para los niños (children's home) in Tlacolula, Oaxaca, Mexico called Foundations for His Ministries or FFHM. 100% of your donations will go towards funding the trip (airfare, transportation, food, and such). Lord willing, any overflow of donations will go straight to the kids themselves. 

Last year I thought the home was an orphanage. The children are not up for adoption, most have at least one able parent. However that parent is often incarcerated, abandoned them, or the children have been removed from their house by the Oaxacan version of DCFS (Department of Children & Family Services) called DIF (Desarrollo Integral para la Familia translation: Integral Family Development) for abuse or neglect. The picture I've used for this website is features three siblings from the home: the little man I’m holding is the twin of the little guy wearing the blue polo and their little sister is next to him. They live at la hogar para los niños because their mother abandoned them. Afterwards their dad moved back in with his family who after a short period asked the family to leave.

A bit about me:

I have an autoimmune disorder called Lupus... in the simplest of explanations I don't have a properly functioning immune system. I have very few white blood cells and my body attacks itself (my joints, my eyes, etc) instead of fighting sicknesses. 



Although Lupus often weakens the patient's physical strength it replaces it with something else. Those with Lupus learn the strength necessary to ask for help. Today I am asking for your help. In May I will be returning to Tlacolula, Oaxaca for a weeklong trip but i can't do it on my own. Lupus is undoubtedly a part of who I am, but it doesn’t define me. 



I still have goals, dreams, and passions that I am not willing to give up. I may be losing my hair, have an abnormally low white blood cell count and a body that acts like it is 25 years older than it actually is, but I’m the same girl I was before I was diagnosed. The main difference is that now I know a week in Mexico is the most my body may ever be able to handle. It's another way to prove that the plethora of blood/urine tests, hospital stays, countless prescriptions, flare-ups, and bumps along the road do not define me. At the end of the day my life is what I make it. I am a 23 year old college senior with a broken body and a deep love for children and Mexican culture. I am a girl who will not give up, who will not surrender. 


Thanks for your time.