Clean Water is a Human Right

This post will have nothing humorous in it.  No witticisms or funny anecdotes.  This post contains nothing more than the plea of this mother for you to help her honor the life of her only son's birthmother who died because she did not have access to clean water in Ethiopia. 

This is my son's birth mom (Etenesh) and his maternal grandfather (Ermias):

Etenesh died in the fall of 2012 from Amoebiasis, a condition caused by living in unsanitary conditions and drinking contaminated water.  She was only in her mid-20s.  To read my entire letter about how this has impacted my view of the world, please read my story here: I Am Not The Babysitter.

This woman gave me THIS incredible gift when she placed her only son up for adoption so that he could have the chance of life with his "forever family":

And now I ask you to help me honor this woman while literally saving thousands of lives by donating to Project-Ethiopia, the fundraising effort that WILL bring a clean water filtration system to the village of my son's birth family. 

Clean water is not a privilege.  It is a human right.  Together we can fix this.  We can make an actual difference.  So let's do this.  And please share this post with your friends and family. 

Class Pictures

Max, First Grade:

Mimi, Fourth Grade:

Wordless Wednesday

This Is America.

Last night while driving home talk naturally turned to the issue of the day.  The election.  It went something like this:

MAX: Mama, you made a big mistake not voting for Barack Obama. 

ME: Why do you feel that way, Max?

MAX: He will give us money and he likes Sesame Street.  I like him, Mama.  Barack Obama is a nice man.

ME: Well, those are certainly matters to be considered and I agree he is a nice man but I just have a different view of government and felt I want our country to run differently.  That's why we all have the freedom to vote and why it is so important.

MAX: You voted wrong, Mama. 

ME: Mimi, what do you think about this?

MIMI: *shrugs* I really don't care one way or the other.

--

This has been America, as seen from a Japanese made vehicle, in 60 seconds or less. 

The End.

Flip the bird...

So.. do you think Big Bird watched Max's video plea for me to vote Barack Obama in order to save Sesame Street?

Max Rocks The Vote!

Blow Hard.

I think everyone who reads this blog is well aware of my issues with g-u-m, right?   This makes Halloween a very difficult time for me and it is even more so challenging because Max at some point realized he is not allergic to it.  And he apparently loves that stuff.  *sighs* 

To her credit, Mimi continuously explains to Max that "Mommy is allergic and she gets sick when we chew it so we cannot do that."  Thankfully, I traumatized trained her early on so that she is well-aware of the repurcussions of me seeing them with this in their mouths. You can click HERE for that story.

So last night all was quiet on the home front and Max opted to have his dessert come from his Halloween candy stash. He chose a lollipop.  As I quickly learned it was not a lollipop.  It was a BLOW-POP. 

It is simply impossible for me to describe what happened next as it would require tranquilizers to calm me but I was visibly horrified and gagging uncontrollably.  No, really.  I was gagging.  Thankfully Mimi assisted Max with the disposal of the product in a manner by which I would not be subjected to seeing it.

Mimi then looked up at me and very calmly said: "It's okay mommy. I will make sure we throw all of it away now."  

Come to think of it, she was talking to me as if I was a mental patient.