It’s Different This Time . . .

You guys. It’s different this time. It’s so different.

This time I’ve been to Mexico. This time I’ve met the women. This time I’ve talked with them, seen where they work, where they live, seen where many of them sleep crammed together on bunks and open spaces of tile floor in a church sanctuary. This time I’ve smiled with their children, played trucks and peekaboo and laughed out loud.  This time I’ve entered into their space, their lives, their reality.  Connected.

This time I’ve seen the joy on Andreaa‘s face when I went crazy about the detailed beauty of her Frida Kahlo painting, complete with threaded earrings and a real flower headband.  This time I sat over a birthday dinner for our artisan partner Marisol and talked and wept about life and babies and the postpartum depression that both of us experienced after the birth of our child. This time I met aunts and sisters and cousins and mamas and friends, and also lots of strangers who had never met prior to being “stuck” together in a refugee sanctuary, who are now all bonding together to make ends meet in a world that is fighting against them.  This time I saw in the flesh the embedded trauma of exploited women, the seemingly hopeless struggle of displaced refugees, and the deep and very real need for this work.

This time I took selfie’s with our partner artisans whom I’d only heard about and seen pictures of prior.  This time I was there! In the flesh, face to face, talking and laughing and smiling and connecting!  This time they got me to try raw jalapeños for the very first time!  And this time I was undone with gratitude at the chance to be connected in this very real way to these very real women.

So this time, as you look through these photos, marvel with me that I was the one who had the distinct privilege of actually taking them. (and for those of you who know Jenni Biggs, you know that taking photos is one of my love languages!) This time, I stood with these women, face to face and side by side, and we communicated with language and sometimes even without.  I watched how they work together, enjoy creating, and are incredibly grateful for the opportunity you give them for safe and fair employment…a rarity for many in their shoes.

This time, this amazing trip, made the purpose of Do Good Shop spring to life on a whole new level.

These women are our sisters, and in a world that has gotten even more harsh and difficult, we came together in love, connection, and desire for the common good.  

And friends, this time more than ever, I am here to tell you that I have seen with my own two eyes and experienced with my own heart and very being that you, dear shoppers with a purpose, are 100% making life and hope possible for these women, for their children, for their community, in some of the most dark and dismal of circumstances.  You are bringing light to the dark places and hope where only despair has been.  This time I am here to tell you firsthand that you are making such a difference!

From this …. 

To the final products that do good . . . 

YOU are truly impacting lives in the best of ways!

As Sarah, the director of non-profit Open Road Global (who hosted me this trip!) always says . . .

Let’s keep going!

So thankful to have YOU, a group of loyal, compassionate shoppers teaming with these amazing women to create real, sustainable life change. 

Yes indeed!  Let’s keep going!