If you are here thank you for reading 10,000 Smiles. For the last few days aprilmaura.com was invaded with a virus. I appreciate your patience. Now let's be reminded why we should smile. I am not entirely spoiling the ending of the book Beautiful by Katie Piper, but I...
‘My life before [the attack] was very self-absorbed, self-obsessed, and it took a tragedy for me to reassess my life and how I felt and what I thought was important. Don’t wait until there is tragedy in your life. Don’t wait until you lose somebody. Don’t wait...
Dwarves raiding your pantry, conflicts with elves and escaping rock giants are all a part of Bilbo Baggins' adventures in the movie and book The Hobbit. While I don't have literal giants trying to crush me I have cultural obstacles to face. Watching Bilbo's story...
I too can't help but smile, when I see my 10,000 Smiles Project. Sometimes I receive forced smiles but later that individual really does smile or I believe subconsciously their mood is a little bit brighter. Sometimes I go out on the project not in the sunniest of...
I was going on my fourth month living in China and was due for a haircut. The only problem was that I didn't speak fluent Mandarin. How does one get a haircut without speaking? I browsed the internet looking for answers and advice on getting a haircut. While I was...
What is beautiful? Katie Piper contemplating her life a year after she was assaulted. "In the last twelve months, I’d seen humanity at its worst, and its best, too. Had it made me a better person, deep down, underneath the scars? Had it made me more ‘beautiful’, in a...
In January I entered a National Geography contest (link is here). It was my first photography contest and yes I didn't win but the project gave me invaluable lessons trying to create a story using photographs. Below is my essay and captions attached to the pictures....
Nurturing a Healthy Family Brings Smiles To be a parent is a high calling, a huge blessing and responsibility. It's more than meeting the child's physical needs but nurturing and guiding them too. In the book Released from Shame, Sandra Wilson explains clearly how a...
"How we look determines how we live...if we live." Ann Vaskamp Where do you look for hope? (faith in God, your family, materials, and/or your job?) Where do you look for rest and restoration? (fellowship, relationships, drinking, shopping, television, etc?) These are...
The Wise are Smiling Two men are talking about the Egyptian Pharaohs and one is calling all of them liars. The other man says, "I accuse only the first. The rest were simply repeating the story they were taught. Old lies are passed along, not by new liars, but by new...
