Every day, four thousand children die of water-related diseases...

A volunteer helping an enthusiastic young lad use our pump

This past Thursday, Lifewater hosted a booth at the Farmer's Market in order to celebrate World Water day coming up quickly next Tuesday the 22nd. We all wore our yellow "Safe Water for All" t-shirts and got the word out in the community about Lifewater and all that we do. (ps, sometimes when I type Lifewater I miss the "w" key and I type Lifeater, so don't be surprised if you read that haha)  In addition to pretty much freezing our buns off, eating some oily veggie chow mien, almost getting crushed in the Farmer's mobs, and talking to some of the san luis crazies, we had a very successful night. We had a pump set up for kids to play with, handed out free water drop cookies, and gave away free frisbees. We had Field Trainers come (volunteers who we have trained and sent overseas) and talk to people about their experiences, which was so great. I think some of the teens took advantage of the free cookies though, because all of the sudden safe water was the most important thing in the world to them.

We were able to share some facts about water, such as:

Chris and one of my bosses Brian Grant

• Every day, four thousand children die of water-related diseases. (That's about three children every minute)
• 1 in 8 people in the world do not have access to clean, safe water. 
• Two in five people do not have the security and dignity of a hygienic latrine or toilet.
• A study by the World Health Organization and UNICEF shows that almost 20 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa relies on a water source that is more than thirty minutes away.
• Water weighs 8.35 pounds per gallon, and many adults and young children carry up to five gallons of water per trip. That means that they carry over forty pounds of water for miles every day. (And that does not include the weight of the babies that many women also carry!) You try carrying 5 gallons of water for 30 minutes and we will see how much you want to donate to Lifewater after that. :)

It sometimes takes an event like this to cause me to stop, sit back, and remember how blessed we are to turn on a faucet, flush a toilet, or even perform luxurious tasks such as washing our faces. I am reminded and blessed to remember why we are here in San Luis, why I am working at Lifewater, and the difference that Lifewater is trying to make. These statistics won't change overnight, but from 2006 to present, the number of people without access to clean, safe water went from 1.1 billion to 884 million. Praise the Lord! I'm so excited to be working with an organization that doesn't sit back and treat statistics like Jane Fonda's plastic-pumped face that will never change.They do something about it! We are movers and shakers!


After celebrating clean, safe water for all, we celebrated St. Patty's day with a beer and some friends at our favorite bar Spikes. (50 beers available and you get a card to keep track of which ones you try! I think I have a whopping 12 punches after living here almost 3 years haha). It was great to hang out with Randy (here with us) and some of our newer friends Adrienne and Richard. Chris used to work with Adrienne and we really enjoy hanging out with them!

We are now getting ready to venture down to Orange County to visit the fam. In N Out is a must on our way down so we are totally stoked. Wooooooo!!!!

Hi, welcome to the blogging world selves

Our lives together have been filled with lots of love, tons of laughter, oodles of adventures, hours of conversations, learning experiences, spiritual journeys, many mistakes, even more apologies, and incredible joy. God has truly blessed us and we are so grateful to be going through life together.

Our little apartment in san luis obispo is where we call home... Chris is blessed with a job at Running Warehouse where he tells customer service reps what to do all day, and I am blessed with a job as an Executive Assistant at Lifewater International, a locally based international non profit.  We attend Calvary slo where our community group and Bible studies are the back-bone of our week. Any spare time we have is spent with our friends, families, at coffee shops, or at Disneyland. I have a passion for cooking, Chris has a passion for eating. Many of our evenings are spent playing nerdy games like Settlers and Dominion, but we do cool things too, like buy locally grown veggies at Farmer's Market and such and go on crazy cruises to Mexico with our friends (you know who you are...) Whether we began with our dating relationship...


















Our beautiful wedding...


















Our blissful honeymoon...

 Or our most recent trip to Disneyland...













we give God the glory for it all and are so thankful we get to have a small part in our friend's and families lives.