It's a Small World

You know the saying...."it's a small world?" I found out this weekend that the saying is completely true. After a short hiatus from blogging I just had to get on this weekend and tell all of my lock family about my experience. Do you know the familiar face picture with me?

Ok, for those of you who don't know......it's Chocolocs and while in church on Sabbath she recognized Praline21 as she ushered during the service. Afterwards, Chocolocs found her way towards me, our eyes met, we immediately recogninzed each other and embraced like Celie & Nettie from the Color Purple!

Turns out that Chocolocs is also a Seventh-day Adventist and was in town for a wedding. She's friends with the Groom and I'm friends with the Bride, who is also member of my church. Wow, too much information but we just could not believe how this all took place. So, here she is all the way from Michigan for a wedding and ends up visiting my home church!!!! Can you believe it?

Chocolocs has the most beautiful head of locs, bright in color and a perfect bill of healthy locks. If I had to compare, I'd say hers looks exactly like Blaqkofi's and if the two of them were ever in the same room together....they'd be lock twins.

As for me, I'm just letting my 3 year old locks do their own thing, not much in to styles these days. I'm loving the flow of them as well as free styling due to my work out frequency of five days a week. Yep, I'm addicted and decided to make serious lifestyle changes including changing my diet. With that lifestyle change comes the convenience of wearing locks!

Chocolocs, it was a pleasure meeting you, your locs are to die for and I hope to see you again in the near future.

Bermuda

Praline was invited to Bermuda to sing in the annual Bermuda Institute Christmas program. She did three traditional Christmas solos and there were six other groups/soloists that performed along with the Bermuda choir and Steel Band. You can read a little about her own experience here. Of course, she needed a chaperon so I had to tag along!

While there, the first day I woke to this beautiful rainbow...I love rainbows because of its spiritual message to me and took this picture from where we were staying. (Genesis 9:16 (Whole Chapter) "When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it. I will remember that my covenant will last forever. It is a covenant between me and every kind of living thing on earth." Genesis 9:17 (Whole Chapter) So God said to Noah, "The rainbow is the sign of my covenant. I have made my covenant between me and all life on earth.")

The weather was chilly and the humidy was wonderful to our locks, pretty much had to freestyle the entire time and it worked well.

Another SDA Sister Locked Up!

What you say??? What you say? Finally, after months of following blogs, researching locks and meeting several of the DFW SL ladies while out and about.... she did it! And guess what, she did them all by herself, well with just a little help from your 13 year old with parting. (SDA = Seventh Day Adventist)

I was so proud to see her when she showed up church sportin those baby locks! KR also locked her husband's hair almost two years ago and then two weeks are another one of our church members liked hers so much she asked her to do them for her too.

I went with a freestyle today only beacuse I'm crazy during this time of year and can't find time to put my Wrap-a-locks in. I miss my WAL

KR - Big Shout out to ya!!! Maybe you'll join us in Blogdom. hint...hint!

Snippet of Mahalia Jackson Song by Praline

Ms Praline performed in our church play recently and everyone had a phenomenal time! Big thanks to our Youth Leader, Mrs. "R" for putting all of her efforts in keeping church our youth excited about attending church.

My Locked & Natural SDA Sista's

We worshipped in the park this past Sabbath and I could not resist taking pics of my church sista's and their beautiful locks (two on the ends) and natural twists (middle). When we get together we almost always touch each others hair and talk about new products or styles.

This particular day was humid and cloudy so everyone was pretty much freestyling! Can you believe they did each others locks by starting them with smaill twists and maintaining them with a baby safety pin, you know, the little gold ones. Yes, they do a wonderful job and none of them have had any type of hair classes or certifications.

My buddy in the middle just grew out her perm a year ago and is lovin her natural twists for now.

For those of you who wonder about Corporate America, don't, because one is a RN, one is a HR Director and the one just left teaching in a Private school to now homeschooling her children.

How AWESOME is that????

The Cadet Sisters

We have the awesome pleasure of housing the Cadet Sisters (click onthe name, pronounced Ca-day) this week and who would have known the blessings God had in store for our family by opening our home to them??

They are also Seventh-day Adventists and are in Texas to preform at for a Youth Convention.

Last Sabbath, we went with them to four engagements and we were completely filled with the spirit of praise and song!

Their mother, Ketty is the epitome of a Christian woman who has completed home school for three girls and they are now in college. She is now home schooling the remaining three girls and they love home school.

The spirit of love, peace and joy has been increased in our home and I cannot even begin to tell you about the delicious dishes they have prepared for us each day.

Ketty and her hubby, Eddi are both natives of Haiti (creoles) and if you remember my previous post about my Paternal Haitian roots, this experience comes at a time that could not be more perfect. They actually know of my surnamed family members and I've learned that they were very prominent people in Haiti.

The Cadet girls were reared in Illinois and they now reside in Utah. Their ministry is one to be appreciated in a time where most girls are doing the unthinkable. They are humble, polite, kind, helpful, joyful, loving and most of all they love the Lord!

Roux and Praline are both enjoying the company, Roux feels like he has six adopted sisters and Praline is taking in all of their musical and travel experiences. Here he is pictured like the big man on campus!!! ((lol)) They went to the mall and the girls picked out these shoes from him.

Ketty has been preparing the best dishes, here is the latest and I was full as a tick! This dish consists of peas & rice, smothered tofu and potatoes with grilled onions and bellpeppers. The Cadet's are vegans and we practice the vegaterian diet at home only so Beignet is especially over indulging himself in all of this good eating!!!!

Natural Adventist Church Family

I attend the a Seventh Day Adventis Church and it's so uplifting to be part of such a wonderful group of people who promote accepting the design the Lord has made each of us. We have many natural people that are members of my church family and I wanted to highlight several but couldn't get to as many as I wanted because the holidays have rolled around it's difficult to get everyone together. I'll try later next year but for now here are a couple of my brothers. (I forced them to take this picture) They love their locks and are always encouraging others to go natural and/or lock. Both have lovely locks and I can't wait to get where they are.

In case some of you are wondering, Seventh-day Adventists are a group of people that believe Jesus is the Son of God, trust in the Holy Bible, worship on God's original Seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday), and believe in God's health laws so that we do not defile our temples of the Holy Spirit. Our church is made up of individuals and each has different ideas, different ways of doing things and different ways of saying things. But even within such diversity, strong common threads of belief run through every Seventh-day Adventist heart. It's what makes the church unique and Seventh-day Adventists happily share the princples of His kingdom with others. We desire to live our own lives as a demonstration of Christs character. People from any race, creed, ethnic orgin, background or religion are invited into the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And seeing people accept Jesus Christ and His Word is what helps to keep the mission alive! Ok, sometimes I get a little excited talking about my church family, I digress..back to natural hair.

Ironically, we all wore lots of black last Sabbath, we are a little washed out but I really wanted to highlight my natural sisters and I used this pic anyway. This is only a small number of us natural gals and here we range from ages 9 - 58. Yes, one of the ladies in the picture is actually 58! We have such a wonderful time worshipping together and often times we get too carried away talking about our natural hair, styles, products, new ideas, challenges, well you get the point.

I often think back, hummmm now that I'm thinking; wow it has actually been 10 years instead of eight that I have been natural. Time really passes when you are having fun. So, what I was thinking was, who would I be if I had not gone natural? I don't really want to know because this journey has been so gratifying and self defining that it's made me accept the true LaChanda. And for that, I am eternially thankful to thank God for being my shepherd, for leading me beside the still waters and restoring my soul!

Peace to ya!