The Gift of Giving! - Breast Milk Donation.

The most valuable gift I gave this year -- worked extra hard the past several months to donate just over 300 oz of breast milk! It was shipped via overnight delivery to a hospital in Southern California to give to premature and critically ill babies in the NICU. 

Adding in a couple extra pumping sessions a day over the past several months was definitely not easy but I am soo happy I was able to do this, and this little chuckers is clearly happy to share :)

If you have ever thought about doing this, or if you are now thinking of ways you can give back this holiday season, I honestly can't think of a more valuable, precious, and rewarding gift to give to a fellow mother and baby in need. Breast milk donation is the only way a premature baby can receive the proper nutrition through an exclusive human-milk diet. Even if a mother is able to produce her own milk, preemie babies need more protein and nutrition than what her body alone can give. By supplementing with donated breast milk, they can up to triple the amount of protein they receive. (Milk fortifier made from cow's milk or formula can cause problems for premature babies because they are not natural human proteins and the baby's underdeveloped systems cannot always handle the cow protein).

Breast milk donation is also used to help mothers who have problems producing milk, or who are taking medications that her milk unsafe for baby, or if her own milk is otherwise not available in the NICU.

The World Health Organization now recommends that babies are given breastmilk for the first TWO years of their life. For the entire first year of life, the Organization recommends babies receive their mother's milk, donated breast milk, or formula, in that order, as the primary source of nutrition. 

I worked with National Milk Bank to give my donation, and I highly recommend going through them if this is something you're interested in -- they were truly incredible to work with, answered any and all questions I had about the process and throughout the screening process, and really made you feel like you are making a huge difference in the lives of these little babes :)

A heavy heart.

My heart is broken. I am still overwhelmed with so much sadness and grief, deep down through and through. I can't shake the thought of and images from my mind of the horrific tradegy that occurred two days ago in Newtown, CT. Friday started off like any other day for me, I dropped Landon off at the childcare center and went to the gym to workout. When I was done I was headed back to the locker room and passed by a tv with images of Sandy Hook elementary school, parents, staff, emergency response personnel, and the headlines. The most horrific, dreadful headlines I have ever seen in my life. A knife pierced through my heart and my whole world stopped as I stared at the screen. People passed by, busily continuing about their day and I couldn't move. I was paralyzed by the headlines and the images of so many grief-stricken parents, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. I went to pick Landon up in tears and fell to my knees in front of him and hugged him. I hugged him hard and tight and kissed his little face and eyes and head and and lips, and then I hugged him some more. For the rest of the day through the second as I am writing this I have been sick to my stomach and crushed with a deep devastation for these families. For the parents of all these small children, for the heroic teachers who risked their lives to save their little angels, for the small children who had to see the bloodshed and dead bodies of their peers and hear the gun shots and screams with their own eyes and ears. For the first responders who had the difficult task of answering to the dozens of families and parents waiting for them in agony to know if their child was alive and okay. For the twenty parents that stood there and were told that their child was among the dead.

My heart is still broken. It's been hard for me to stop my mind from thinking about it and I've been tearing up constantly. It's been hard for me to continue about my normal life, to go about the many errands of the holidays season, and to attend Christmas and birthday parties with a smile on my face and act like nothing is wrong. Because all I want to do is grieve for all those affected by this child massacre. I want to stay inside my house and snuggle my kid all day and cry and pray for those who no longer have their little boy or girl to hold.

I can't watch the news anymore because the focus is on the evil that caused this. Who he was, what his story was, what mental illness he had, how he got those guns. I know his name. The world now knows his name, as I'm sure he wanted us to. But do we even know one of the names of his hopeless victims?

I can't talk or listen to people anymore because it's been turned into a political war against guns and other issues. I hear the vehement protests for and against every issue involved here. There is a new war against guns and for guns. For God and against God. For heightened school security. For greater awareness and research of mental illness. I understand both sides of each argument, because I know each protest and argument comes from a place of love and protection. But I think if never before, now is the time to admit that the problems our world has are very, very complicated and multi-faceted and desperate. And I don't know what the solution is yet. I just know that during this time, as the holiday is approaching, I want to be near my son and husband more than ever, to hold them and squeeze them tight and feel the blessing of them in my life.

I went to church this morning in hopes that the service would somehow make me feel better. That it would help me understand and bring my heart whole again. But it didn't. I couldn't stand there and sing "Hark the Herald" and praise God and laugh at the pastor's jokes. I wanted to grieve. I realized today that I can't find solace in the news, on my news feed, in talking to other people, or at church, and unfortunately I live too far away to attend one of the memorial services in Newtown. But I can and will do what feels right for me to do. I will continue to pray, I will continue to grieve, and I can and will hold my own vigil. Starting tonight and for 10 minutes every night, for 26 nights for each any every single one of the victims of Friday's shootings. Dedicated solely to them and their parents and their families. I will light a candle, I will find a quiet, dark place and for 10 minutes I will pray for their lost life and that God be with their families in this heavy time of sorrow.

Below are the names of all of the victims I will be praying for for the next 26 nights. I am starting tonight with Victoria Soto. She hid her first graders in the cabinets and closets after hearing the gunfire. When the shooter came into her classroom, she told them that her students were in the gym. He then gunned her down and moved on. She saved the lives of all those children and I know there is a special spot in heaven for her, and I know she will continue to be an example to everyone who hears her story.

We are living in a very dark world but my candle reminds me that darkness cannot extinguish even the tiniest flame, and that the darkness will only make their light brighter.


- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female
- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male
- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female.
- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female
- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female
- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female
- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male
- Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female
- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female
- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female
- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male
- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male
- James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male
- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female
- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female
- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female
- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male
- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male
- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female
- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female
- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female
- Lauren Rousseau, 6/1982, female (full date of birth not specified)
- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female
- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female
- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male
- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female

During the Vietnam war there was a man who stood outside the White House every night holding a single candle. After several weeks, the news discovered him and a reporter came and said something like, “Sir. Do you really think that standing here with this candle is going to change the world’s mind?” And the man looked at him and said, “I don’t stand here with my candle to change the world. I stand here to keep the world from changing me.”

Praying for peace for people everywhere. That people may find comfort, and know that God is close to the brokenhearted. Psalm 34:18

I don't remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don't even know exist until you love a child.

Parents, you do not owe your children the best experiences. You owe them your meaningful presence.

Great, great service on parenting @ Willow this past weekend. Please watch & God bless
HERE

Step outside yourself.

Sponsor a child.

As mother, I want to be able to give everything to my little one. But I think part of being a good mama and raising a good family is to give back. Lately, I've been feeling a big urge to be more charitable - to submerge myself in an experience "outside of myself" and become part of a greater cause. So I decided to sponsor a child in Africa.  

Meet Sinawo.

I was moved to tears searching through databases of which child to sponsor. There are so many and they are all so adorable and the sadness completely overtook me. Every year, nearly 9 million children die before they reach age 5 because of preventable causes - hunger, disease, & poverty. By sponsoring a child, you are giving them an education, healthcare and medicine, food, and most importantly, hope.

This has been such an enriching and rewarding experience and it's sure to deepen once we hear back from and establish a relationship with little Sinawo. We're excited to write letters to him, send birthday and Christmas presents, and hopefully someday meet him. And when Landon is old enough to read and write he's going to have a little pen pal. I strongly encourage others to do the same - it is truly an incredible feeling and great way to give a little back so that one child can gain a lot life.

saving tiny hearts

Last weekend we attended the 6th annual Saving Tiny Hearts gala downtown. It was an incredible night, filled with amazing people with amazing stories, and lots of goosebumps and tears.

I am beyond happy that my husband is involved with this charity. When he was very little, he lost a brother to a congenital heart defect.  Congenital Heart Defects are the number one birth defect in infants. In the US alone, over 25,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect. That translates to 1 out of every 115 to 150 births. (To put those numbers into perspective, only 1 in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Downs Syndrome). Nearly twice as many children die from Congenital Heart Defects in the United States each year as from all forms of childhood cancers combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for CHD.

Saving Tiny Hearts is a grassroots organization that has helped raise over $800,000 in funding to support research projects to help prevent and cure Congenital Heart Defects that have caused many deaths and serious heartache in many families.
Please visit SavingTinyHearts.org to learn more about saving tiny hearts and to help support this cause.