Sidewalk Sale in Saltillo

I am super excited about an event we are having in Saltillo on May 2nd.  I hope all of you North Mississippians can come out and shop!  It will be a great opportunity to get beautiful and meaningful Mother's Day gifts and Graduation gifts.  We are a non-profit corporation.  All of our proceeds help mothers in Uganda to provide for their families as well as helping schools in Uganda.

Hands

This morning when I woke up, I looked over at my phone.  I was checking to see if Jason had texted me, because he was on his way to New Jersey last night.  Thankfully, I did have a message from him, so I knew he was safe.  But when I put the phone down, my hand caught my eye as I was turning back over to snooze for a few minutes.  I lifted my hands in front of me in the morning light.  And I realized... I have hands!  What an amazing thing.  Something that most of us have, and totally take for granted. 

Lately, I have been getting "age spots" on my hands.  It has really bothered me a lot and I have done a lot of complaining about it.  I was telling my mom about it just the other day.  I said I am only 32 years old!  I should NOT have age spots!  Ugh!  And this morning, God showed me the beauty in my hands.  He showed me that I have all 10 fingers!  I get to do amazing work with these hands.  Seriously, Amazing!! 

The Father has used these hands to change diapers, give hugs, wipe tears, wipe noses, carry beads, count necklaces, make phone calls, type emails, design pictures and brochures, hold babies, hold the hands of hurting people, stroke the hair of my children, scratch their backs... It brings tears to my eyes to think of all the phenomenal things God has let me do with these hands.  And now, I am seeing my hands differently.  I am looking at my hands and instead of seeing age, I am seeing blessings.

Thank you, Father!  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I thank you, God, for my hands.  And I thank you for all the work that I get to do with these hands.  And, Father, I pray that You will give me Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of more work to do with these hands!!

My first blog entry :-)

Awhile back, I was talking to a dear friend and I said... Some people do Junior Women's Clubs, Civitan, whatever... and I do Aggie's Arts.  It's what I do.  It's my thing.  My friend told me that should be my tagline at the end of my emails.  So, I decided to use it as the title of my blog.  :)

I have a wonderful family.  My absolutely precious and wonderful and supportive and handsome husband of almost 12 years, Jason.  And my beautiful, talented, funny, intelligent, generous children... Mattie, Carley, and Isaiah.  They are ages 9, 7, and 5 respectively.  I am living my dream of being a Stay-at-Home-Mom.  I thank God every day that I get to live this dream.  I am blessed beyond what I ever imagined!

There is, however, a huge part of my life that I never dreamed of... and that is Aggie's Arts.  I would *never* have believed you if you had told me ten years ago that I would go to Africa twice and spend all my free time working with an African mission project.  I mean, Africa is scary, right?!  I've always been all for supporting missions and all, but actually going to Africa... not even on my radar.  But, God had plans for me.  He had me get a business degree, marry the perfect man for me, and move to Huntsville, Alabama.  He planned every little detail that brought Jason and me to this place and to this ministry.  

Today, I have the amazing privilege of serving as Executive Director of this 'little' ministry called Aggie's Arts.  That's what I do.  :)  In our house, we always have beads hanging around, we have a clock set to Uganda time, most of our table-talk involves things going on with Aggie's Arts, and my kids regularly get lectures of how good they have it here in the US.  But mostly, all five of us just LOVE what God is doing with these ladies and with these beads.

Aggie Paech and Amanda Page

October 2011

My reason for writing this blog is that it seems every day I find myself wanting to write about or tell someone something about Uganda or our Aggie's Arts ladies or our Aggie's Arts happenings.  So, I decided a blog might be a good outlet for that.  I hope you enjoy!

My Amazing Husband and me

Just before I left for Uganda in February