possibly it was the frock, or the twinkling toenails, but mr magnificent and i had a very good time last night at the International Care Ministry banquet.

ICM is a fantastic charity that works in the philippines improving quality of life through creating homes, providing medical care (daily and funds for emergency), education and food. i am hoping to take sebastian on an ICM mission trip soon where he could help build something.

the event was held at the jw marriott ballroom and it was fantastically decked out. the live and silent auction prices were displayed in the hallways and there was a buzz of excitement. who would auction the smartest and win the skiing in telluride, colorado prize? the trips to bali, capetown (i WISH!), washington, south of france, the antartica cruise, fiji & australia, peru? who would be playing the british open courses and who would be staying and playing at wimbledon and have courtside seats at the french open?

magnificent bought me a prize. it was one of the prizes where as many people could bid as they like and there were an endless supply of prizes, and love.

ICM’s feeding program provides destitute families with rice as a supplemental food source. as a gift to me, magnificent paid over $1,300us and joined one of these neighbourhood feeding programmes. this gift will fund the feeding programme for one community, providing weekly gifts of four kilograms of rice for six months to 25 families. can you imagine that? it is estimated that this gift is providing essential nutrition to approximately 125 malnourished people.

i will even receive a birthday card signed by some of the recipients to say thank you.

this is a great gift, a meaningful gift and charles knew how much it meant to me to receive it.  do we have $1,300 to be casually flinging around? no, but we have food in our pantry and the knowledge that some families don’t, and knowing we had the chance to change their life, was enough to change our lifestyles for a few months.