My niece is a teenager!
Happy birthday, Aimee!
Love, Uncle Jus.
A little bit on human trafficking
There are an estimated 27 million people in modern day slavery around the world.
Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80% are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.
Around 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the US from overseas and enslaved every year.
About the same number are murdered in the US every year, but while the national success rate for solving murders is about 70% (11,000), in 2006 only 111 were charged and only 98 were convicted, which is less than 1% of all human trafficking cases nationwide.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.
[All info taken from the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report, apart from the last entry, which was from UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information Sheet, January 2003.]
You're a star
Close your eyes, take my hand;
no need for words--I understand:
you let him in, he let you down,
and you shattered when you hit the ground.When all you ever got from love was hurt,
won't you let me show you what you're really worth?
I can see you building up your walls again;
won't you let me hold you close, my friend?Coz you, you're a star;
yeah, I see all that you really are.
And somehow I think we'll go far;
somehow I think we'll go far.To turn the page and start anew,
to trust and hope again is the hardest thing to do.
To let the past fall away
and breathe in a brand new day.When all you ever got from love was hurt,
won't you let me show you what you're really worth?
I can see you building up your walls again;
won't you let me hold you close, my friend?Coz you, you're a star;
yeah, I see all that you really are.
And somehow I think we'll go far;
somehow I think we'll go far.And the tears fall coz it feels like you've lost it all ...
But you, you're a star;
oh I see all that you really are.
And somehow I think we'll go far;
somehow I think we'll go far;
somehow I know we'll go far.
41
On July 27, 1968, my parents got married.
As one of my models of marriage, I've seen from them what it looks like to choose to love, to choose to sacrifice for the other, and above all, to choose to trust God. I know that they remain firm in the belief that everything good (including a marriage spanning for decades) is only possible by the grace of God, and the testimony of their lives together reminds me that God is good, even through the hard times.
Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you guys.