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Wednesdays for Water
I want to talk to the mamas this week.
I posted this video last week when I announced that I want water for my 30th birthday. (30 gifts of $30 will provide 45 people with safe, clean water forever. That would make me super happy about turning 30.)
This week I want to huddle with the mamas, and I don’t even want $30 – I’m asking you for $19.
Did you hear “19” in the video? If you didn’t watch it, go back and click Play. It’s only three-and-a-half minutes long.
I bet the mamas heard “19” more than anyone.
About every 19 seconds, a mother loses one of her children to a water-related illness.
Several months ago I wrote about how Mommy Eyes changed the way I see the world. It happens again every time I watch this video. I grab my little man and hug him close for a moment, while he squirms to get away and chase his ball, and kiss his squishy face and thank God – thank God – that I don’t have to worry about something so basic as our water. Read more…
Eight Month Outtakes
Eight months (and nine days, now) old.
There was a new baby at church yesterday and I know people always say, “I can’t believe mine was ever that small!”
But I really couldn’t. I was sure this was a tiny baby. I asked her mother, as we sat in the Moms-And-Babies room watching the sermon on the big teevee, how big she was when she was born. That baby was born bigger than mine, and that was a few weeks ago.
So yes, brain, the Meatball was that small once. Smaller, even.
I feel like if I say, “It goes so fast,” or agree with other moms who tell me that, I should earn Time Pause points, or something.
Like it should only go so fast for the mommies who don’t really believe it, and that’s why they’re so surprised when it does. But for those of us wise enough to say, “I know. I know!” so that we’re not surprised by it … it should go less fast. If I acknowledge the surprise at the start, that makes it not a surprise, that means the thing that was going to surprise me should not surprise me … by not happening.
Makes total sense.
I just haven’t gotten it to work yet. Eight months.
Husband wasn’t home, but a friend came over and stood guard. ‘Cause, as I mentioned last time, he likes to try to throw himself off the chair now. Sit still? Ain’t nobody got time fa dat!
It goes so fast. It goes so fast. It goes so fast.
(I’m going to keep trying.)
Like ’em? Want more?
Six Month Outtakes
Five Month Outtakes
Four Month Outtakes
Three Month Outtakes
Two Month Outtakes
One Month Outtakes
September Campaign: India
Charity:Water – the organization that I mentioned Monday – officially launched their September Campaign today.
Charity:Water started when the founder used his 30th birthday – in September – to raise money for clean water. They raise money year-round now, but the September Campaign is always the highlight of the year. (Although I don’t think you have to have a September birthday anymore to start a September Campaign.)
This year the September Campaign focus is India, and I’m just in love with India already. I couldn’t be happier to give my 30th birthday away.
I really like that the Gram Vikas gets the whole village together to participate in building the outhouses and the shower facility. The observation from the older man at about 6:30 almost brought tears to my eyes,
In our village, after the Gram Vikas program started, untouchability disappeared.
The caste system mindset in poor, rural areas of India is devastating , but so easily overcome. Gram Vikas works in Orissa State in India, which is also a hotbed of persecution against Christians. If the whole village has to come together – rich and poor, Hindu and Christian – social equality starts to take hold.
This is how Gram Vikas works in a village: Read more…
Slow Down, Mama
Husband took this picture (from a less than flattering angle – I actually deleted and re-attached it several times) Saturday.
This looks like me and the baby sleeping in the chair. It looks like us enjoying a nice little weekend nap.
But this is actually me being schooled.
We’ve been very busy lately. Stretched. Stressed. Tense. It’s been difficult.
Sometime Friday, I decided to reinstitute the Saturday Sabbath in my life. Sabbaths are really hard for me, but it’s necessary. (I committed to a year of Sabbaths in 2011, and wrote a few things about it here.)
I steeled my soul in preparation of the following day. I would not clean. I would not weed. I would not write for anyone but myself, would not open Photoshop or my work email, and I would not – under any circumstances – do laundry.
(Okay, that last one didn’t really require steeling. That one made me happy.)
Early Saturday afternoon, the baby was sleeping and I was at the kitchen table, laptop open, with my work email and Photoshop splitting the screen.
Things need to get done, after all. And by tomorrow morning. What am I supposed to do? Fail? No. No way. I’ll Sabbath on Monday. Read more…
My 30th Birthday Campaign
It’s happening.
I’m turning 30.
September 14.
I thought about – talked about – throwing a big, blow-out party, but then I thought we could do better than that.
(Okay, and I don’t have the time/energy for a big party, and someone told me ’80s-themed parties are a thing these days – which totally killed it for me, and I don’t want to clean my house just so you can all come over and mess it up. There, I said it. The fact remains that we can do better than that.)
So in lieu of dressing up like a character from The Breakfast Club (not that you can’t still do that, I guess … send me a picture if you do), or bringing cupcakes, or Facebooking me a Starbucks gift card –
I want water.
It costs $6000 to fund an entire well that will provide an entire village with clean water.
That’s a huge project though, and more than I don’t want scores of people trying to use our one little restroom for my birthday, I don’t want a buzz-kill for my birthday either. This is the 3-0, after all. I’m fighting buzz-kill as it is. Read more…
Spits and Wiggles 