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Friend, let's have a little personal confession moment. I am an emotional eater. Just about any day that falls on the calendar is a good day for food. And, if you'd like any recipe, restaurant, grocery store item recommendations, I'm pretty much your girl. So, as mother of three (including one teenager), as well as trying to be mother to four (insert long wait for fourth child via mountains of paperwork, interviews, and international adoption process), this point of my life has a variety of emotions. They aren't even what I would classify as "negative" emotions. Mixed in with the stressful, "pretty sure all my hair is going fall out before this is said and done" moments, and more often than the "what am I thinking, I'm not even doing a good job parenting the ones I have" moments, are plenty of "life is wonderful" and "God is just blessing my socks off" moments. Cue emotional eating. Graciously, God has been...

I teach a class on Wednesday nights that's going through the book "Orphan Justice" by Johnny Carr. You may remember it was one I recommended people read. I'd even go so far as to say, that book was the spark that started this whole adventure of trying to speak up and reach out to the fatherless. Anyhow, this week's chapter was entitled, The Unseen Enemy - Orphans and HIV/AIDS. On my way to class that night, I shared with my middle child that we would be talking about HIV in class. His reply was, "Oh yeah, I know what that is, it's that disease they have over in Africa." I quickly explained that, yes, HIV is prevalent in Africa, but it's found in all parts of the globe to varying degrees. I don't know about you, but I can remember when HIV, or rather AIDS made it's big debut in the headlines. Some said it was a disease for needle-pushing drug users, others labeled it the gay man's disease. Either way, people were terrified. It was...