Consider Donating to the NAAF

Today my act of kindness (#8) is very near and dear to my heart.  I committed to donating $8 per month to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.  This small donation will only be $96 a year, but it's what I can afford.  All I have to do is give up eating lunch out once a month.  $8 per month to help fund research and find appropriate treatments for this disease.

As a child, I suffered to accept myself.  I hated my bald spots.  I was so embarrassed by them.  One year at camp when I was 11 years old, I kept my hair in a ponytail for 5 weeks, because I didn't want anyone to see that I had bald spots.  I think I pulled out my rubber band once and washed it.   I hated being different.  I hated when people stared and ostracized me.  It's hard to be different when you're a kid, because kids just don't understand.  Plus, I didn't understand when I was little that by educating people they'd begin to accept me. 



Wearing a sailor's cap to cover my spots

I'll never forget in 2nd grade, when I had a lot of uncoverable spots and my Mom bought me two wigs: one long and one short.  I used to interchange them all the time, so I know most people knew they were wigs, but apparently not all the kids caught on.  We had a substitute that day, and we were working on something.  Darryl came up to me to ask me something, and his hand caught the side of my wig pulling it off.  Rebecca shouted, "Lauren's head is falling off!"  I was mortified, and the substitute had no idea what to do.  She put my hair in a paper bag and sent it home with me that day, instead of calling my parents or taking me to the Principal's office.  I can look back on this and laugh now, but as a child it traumatized me. 

Knowledge is a powerful thing, and as I grew older I learned this.  When I lost all my hair recently, I was upset.  I was embarrassed again, almost reliving my childhood.  I just want eyelashes and eyebrows and for my head not to be cold when it's 20 degrees out.  I want to fit in, like everyone else does, even if they won't admit it.  But, I began to accept myself and spread my knowledge of alopecia areata to everyone I knew.  I began telling people about the disease, including my children and their friends and my nephew (who insist that I am not a mammal because I don't have hair!). 

With a little more research hopefully they can find a definitive cause of this disease and begin working on a cure.  To be a child with alopecia areata is so hard socially, but it shaped who I am so I wouldn't change it.  I'm just happy I can give back to the NAAF, as they have inspired me to embrace myself and my hair loss and educate those around me about it.  





With my Adorable nephew this year.

Act of Kindness #7

So far, we've completed 7 Acts of Kindness, and I have a few more in the works too!  On Friday, I stopped on the way to the kids' daycare and I ran someones newspaper up to their front porch.  This was thrilling, but almost felt like I was doing something bad like TPing someones house!

We also finished our present to our families from the Volunteer Information Center.  We bought them presents and groceries (the two ladies I worked with shopped two nights until midnight to provide Christmas for these families)!  How amazing!  One of the families came to pick up the gifts, and they were so appreciative!  They hugged us and thanked us about fifty times.  This is what the season is really about. 

Today, I decided to write letters to the soldiers.  I got all the kids in on it, and here is the result!  I added my own personal message in Darling Daughter's message, and Hubby wrote a letter of his own too!

Darling Daughter's letter!

 

Son Number One's letter to a "solger."

 

Son Number Two's letter to a soldier.  That's Spiderman by the way.

 

Our piles of letters will make it out this week, and they'll be put in a care package by Military Missions. They send a ton of letters to soldiers, and they always need people to write them, so why don't you all write some letters and get them in the mail!  It doesn't cost anything, and it will make a soldier's day! 

 

 

 

The address to send them to:

 

Military Missions Inc.

3650 Boston Road

Suite 146

Lexington, KY 40514

 

  7 Complete for Emilie Parker, and the other victims of the Sandy Hook School Shooting

Four Out of 26 Ain't Bad

I haven't done my weekly weight loss tips this week, and I'm fairly sure it won't be returning until next week.  I think next week I'll try to focus on what you need to do when things get crazy hectic and it's Christmas time and all you want to do is stuff your mouth with cookies, brownies, and oh yeah, my favorite rolos melted inside of two pretzels.  Yeah, we'll start there next week.

Today I focused on my 26 Random Acts of Kindness that I'm doing in honor of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, especially Emilie Parker.  I woke up this morning thinking about it, and I had this major dilemma: We have absolutely no money right now.  I mean NONE.  We just spent all our money on Christmas and paying a fortune to Caden's gym, oh not to mention daycare, and then there's Number Two's private preschool.  So I really needed some cheap alternatives.  Non-money giving, non gift certificate giving ideas.  Some of mine did involve money, but it was a nominal amount.  Oh, and I only did 4 today, and here they are:

1.  I wrote cards to my children's teachers, and I put photos of the kids in them with their names, ages, and the year.  I told the teachers how much I appreciated what they did every day, and that I understood how hard being a teacher must be, but that the difference they are making in our children's life is huge. 

2. I went through the drive thru at Dunkin Donuts today, and I paid for the person behind me.  I wrote a little note for the man at the drive through to hand to the lady with her coffee about doing 26 acts of kindness and passing it on.  This was probably the most rewarding thing I did today for some reason. 

3. One of my co-workers seemed a little down in the dumps today, so I bought her a Twix bar, wrapped it up and had another co-worker secretly deliver it to her.  She figured out it was me, and she is going to do 26 Acts of Kindness too!

4. I sent Christmas cards to the First Responders in Conneticut.  I actually grabbed this idea from a post on MSNBC today.  The addresses are:

Monroe Police Department
7 Fan Hill Road
Monroe, CT 06468

Newtown Police Department
3 Main Street
Newtown, CT 06470

Connecticut State Police
Public Information Office
1111 Country Club Road
Middletown, Connecticutt 06457

Pay It Forward

 

In Honor of Emilie Parker: 26 Acts of Kindness

I've been attempting to process what happened in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14. The truth is, there is no way to process it.  There's no way to accept what happened to those 26 people in Sandy Hook School and to Adam Lanza's mother.  There is no way to accept that someone could go into a school and kill Elementary School children: children waiting for Santa to come, children who hadn't even lost their first baby tooth, children who's whole life lay before them just waiting to make a difference in our world. 

Over the weekend, I read about Emilie Parker.  Her image struck me, with her blond hair and blue eyes.  She looked like she could be one of my children, giggly, wiggly, and excited for Christmas right around the corner.  But Emilie's short life ended on December 14th, because of one random act of violence.  Emilie Parker's Dad made a statement about her death, expressing sympathy EVEN for the killer and his family.  I was amazed at this, so shortly after his daughter's death, that he could begin to forgive the person who took this precious gift from him.  He has something to teach each and everyone of us about forgiveness in this tough time.   Every time I thought about Emilie's little face this weekend and her father's statement tears would brim in my eyes.  But tears don't solve problems.

So, I'm going to take on the challenge that many across America are and perform 26 random acts of kindness in honor of the 20 children and the 6 teachers who died at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14. 

Emilie Parker can't be here to spread her spirit, her love, and to draw cards when people are feeling unhappy or down anymore, but by performing 26 Acts of kindness, we can help her spirit live on.