thrive.

I have a confession. I am terrified to go to a developing country. There are a couple of reasons for my fear, and they both are all about me.

My only current valid reason for traveling to a developing country would be as part of a short-term mission trip, likely through my church.  These opportunities come up every few months at our church, and I have avoided partaking because I am afraid that I would make a mission trip about me. I am not totally sure that my motivation for a trip would be to impact the lives of others, versus making me feel better about myself by the sacrifices I would have made by making such a trip. You know, it's the "hey, look at me, doing good, on the other side of the world" kind of thing I am afraid of.

The other reason for my fear is that I am terrified of feeling like a life that is so different than mine, void of all of my necessities and conveniences, needs to be improved or changed. Sadly, I am a fixer by nature - I want to fix things, situations and people. And even more sad, is that when I can't change things out of my control, I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders and then I obsess because I don't want to fail.

So, that's messed up me.

 

Then, there is my cousin, Louie, and his wife, Gina. Totally not stifled by their own issues and fears, like me.

 

Louie and Gina recently moved their family to Dhaka, Bangladesh, because he is a diplomat in the U.S. Embassy and has a 14-month position within the Department of Justice to the State Department.  

 

I used to babysit him! And now, he is an Ambassador!
Louie and his family taking home their Christmas tree in Bangladesh.

They have only been there a few months, since September of this year, and immediately, they noticed that the families of the Dhaka slums were going through their days hungry. Gina and her friends acted.

Gina started Thrive, which is an organization that is already helping to feed the children of Dhaka. Their current project is rooted in the Korail Slum, Dhaka's largest. While they are researching sustainable methods to meet this need, they are also working on a smaller scale of getting one healthy meal a day into 250 school kids. Every week, Gina and her team search for the best prices for the food they provide and hand deliver the food to the school.

Thrive buys farm fresh eggs for 6.9 Tk each (equivalent to about a dime) on a Monday.
They wash them, rinse them, and boil them so they are ready to deliver to
250 smiling children on Tuesday morning.

Get this. With recent incoming donations to Thrive, these 250 children are already guaranteed at least one healthy meal a week until the end of May 2013.

The children in the school, located in Dhaka. 

All donations to Thrive go straight to feeding the children, which obviously helps them to better learn and grow. Thrive makes ZERO profit. Every single cent/taka goes directly to the purchasing of food. Thrive's members cover all overhead, administrative, distribution, preparation, and fuel costs.  Pretty cool feature of a grassroots effort.

 

 

I know many of you will want to know how you can help. Thrive needs your donations! It has set up some pretty cool ways to do so in someone's honor, and it can all be done online! A perfect Christmas gift for someone this year!

For every $50 donation, Thrive will feed 250 elementary school children living in the Korail Slums with a meal in your honor or in the honor of someone of your choice. They will take pictures to show you how they spent your money and the joy it brought!

For every $250 donation, they will feed 250 elementary school children living in Dhaka with 5 meals in your honor or in the honor of a someone of your choice. Again,  lots of pictures to share, and you will receive a special thank you gift straight from Dhaka.
 

If those donation levels aren't doable, especially around the holidays, then give what you can, and be sure to like their Facebook page to keep in touch and hear the awesome stories of how Thrive is blessing the children of Bangladesh!

Today, I am thankful that Louie and Gina took a leap and are in Dhaka, where they are doing what they can do, one day at a time, to impact the lives of others. I hope you will help their effort in any way that you can... pray, give, and share what Thrive is doing! It will make a huge difference for those 250 children.

Everything... affects everything.

I just finished the book, "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher. Amazing book.

Parents and teens should be reading this book. Teens especially should pick it up, because I bet many of the stories contained within it sound very much like what is or could be happening in their lives.

Here is my favorite selection:

You don't know what went on in the rest of my life. At home. Even at school. You don't know what goes on in anyone's life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're messing with their entire life.  Everything... affects everything.

It is so important for all of us to discuss with our children, regardless of their ages, the importance of how we treat others.

We shouldn't be shrugging off the mistreatment of others, especially children... teens... just because we don't think it is severe enough to "deal with". I find it interesting that we, parents, validate other's feelings based on our own opinions. Hardly fair, especially when dealing with children.

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http://www.hopeline.com/
1-800-SUICIDE

Promise.

This fine work of art was given to me for Mother's Day. I'll assume that since it was a Mother's Day gift, my children are okay with it. It is a perfect reminder to me of my job as a parent.

{ You can get yours here. }

Lost.

I am currently reading "The Lost Girls", which is a travel memoir of three women in their late twenties.

Amanda, Jen and Holly left behind successful jobs, boyfriends and friends in Manhattan to embark on a year long journey around the world. The book is their story, written from each of the girls' perspectives.

The minute I picked up the book, it started me thinking about my own life...

I am not a risk taker, and I have *always* allowed myself to be pigeon-holed into whatever is supposed to come next in life.

Out of high school, of course I went on to college... which meant I eventually had to major in something. I graduated in four years, and I had three different declared majors in those four years. My final decision was made, sitting cross-legged, in the hallway of my dorm, course catalog open, literally pointing my finger at random at a page and voila! Major chosen.

With the exception of my husband, there is no way on earth that any twenty year old knows what he/she wants to do for the rest of his/her life.

I went on to grad school, and beyond that, all early adult milestones were met right on schedule.

I now am happily married with three wonderful children and two dogs. We are financially stable, living in suburbia with a finely manicured lawn. I have worked at the same company for twelve years. We are living the American dream, which is awesome. Seriously. I love my very comfortable life, and I understand that, especially today, I should have no feeling towards it other than gratitude.

:::yawn:::

At times, I wish I would have realized along the way that me, Matt, the kids and the dogs could be a bunch of gringos living in Costa Rica, for example, selling beer and recreational equipment on the beach. People *need* that stuff, you know.

Don't worry... it is just the middle age crisis talking. And, it is hitting me like a bunch of bricks that Audrey is only four years away from having to make some serious life decisions.  

ONLY FOUR YEARS. Let's face it. It is less than four years.

I feel it is so important for Matt and I to be cognizant of not boxing Audrey into any path - intentionally or unintentionally. I want her to responsibily ask "Why not?" with any opportunities that come her way instead of doing what she *thinks* she should do based on what she knows and has seen growing up. I don't want fear  - her own or the fear that others show - to hold her back... not in a hey-you-can-be-President-of-the-United-States-one-day kind of way... but in a find-and-follow-your-passion kind of way.  

Or else she is going to be a 40 year old lost girl.

How in the eff did I get to be {almost} 40?

Bittersweet.

Yesterday was the fourth grade Talent Show at our boys' school.

Much to Matt's and my surprise, Isaac and his friend, Max, had a plan to sing the song "Fine By Me" by Andy Grammer. They practiced a few times and had even planned their outfits.

When we got to school for the show, Isaac met us in tears and with butterflies in his belly. He felt absolutely sick and was a mess from his nerves.

His nervousness and tears were all the talk of his class, so his teacher, Mrs. Mack, started the hunt to find him. She wanted to pump him up, raise his confidence, and see him shine.

By the time she found him, he and I were on our way to let the teacher that coordinated the talent show know that he was bailing. Getting in front of 400+ people to sing {understandably} was not going to happen.

When Mrs. Mack saw him crying, she grabbed him, gave him a big hug, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Mrs. Mack & Isaac, 4th Grade Farewell, 2012

As I looked at her, she kept crying telling me that she hates to see {her} kids cry. It was so touching to see my child's teacher care so much about his feelings.

Tomorrow is Isaac's last day of elementary school. He is *so super excited* to head to his new school full of new adventures, new schedules, and new people... but he is also very sad. 

This morning, he told me that he is so lucky that Ian will still be in elementary school for three more years, because he has every intention of heading back to that school each and every single day to see Mrs. Mack.

Makes me smile.

Starting over.

Hey, look! 

I changed my blog. Again. 

New plan. 

Blog daily about *one* thought for the day. Categorize that thought by the hat I am wearing while having that thought.

Shazam. I love structure.

Moms and their stuff.

I am a part-time stay-at-home Mom. I work outside of the house two days a week.

During the "stay-at-home" days, my kids are all in school, so I spend much of my time doing traditional "Mom" things... laundry, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, more laundry, and a ton of managing the happenings of those that live in our home.  

I don't do those "Mom" things for the recognition, God knows. I do them because I am a caretaker by nature, and those are things that just need done. Does anyone appreciate the effort I put in to making everything in our house run smoothly? My husband does, of course, because if I didn't do it, he couldn't do what he loves and do what fuels his energy... which is his work. Do my kids appreciate what I do? The verdict is still out on that one.

Here's the thing with being a Mom. Most Moms get squat of verbal or physical affirmation that their children (and probably many husbands) appreciate what they do. You can figure out the reasons for that on your own.

When was the last time your child thanked you for buying the groceries? Or, for coordinating the car pool schedule?

If you know me personally, you know that I am on the PTA committee at our elementary school that just put on a pretty kick ass 5K fundraiser this past weekend. After four months of meetings, input, more meetings, coordinating things and people, more meetings, a boatload of mental stress, and a lot of sleepless nights, we pulled off a successful party of over 600.

To be honest, at crunch time (i.e. the two weeks prior to the race), life sorta sucked. Tasks were big and time was short. Family life suffered. Laundry didn't get gone. Meals were take out. Children and husbands were inadvertently neglected. Tempers were short. Phone calls were long.

But, we did it. We planned a pretty impressive race. Since then, we have recieved so much positive feedback and appreciation  from participants for creating a wonderful race atmosphere and an awesomely organized event. It has been incredible.

And, you know what, despite the sacrifices of the past four months, it feels good. It feels great!

It is tuly awesome to successfully do something outside of the house, yet, in the role of a Mom, and to have someone tell you that all of your hard work and effort was worth it... that you are appreciated.

It fuels us, doesn't it? 

Hmmmm... something to ponder as we approach Mother's Day.