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Every child deserves a shot at life

Did you know that every 20 seconds a child dies from a vaccine preventable death?

Photo credited to UN Foundation.

That is about the time it takes to read the first paragraph of this post.   A life has gone that could have been saved by a mere $20.   The cost of buying two tickets to a movie, a bottle of wine or a birthday present for a child.  That is it.  But to many people around the world, that is everything.  

Over the last two days I had the honor of attending the UN Foundation’s Summit as a Shot@Life Champion who in the coming months will be one of 45 citizens across the nation championing this great cause in saving lives around the world.    Through raising awareness and funds for four life-saving vaccines, it is our hope that we can galvanize the nation so that no child around the world will not have a Shot@Life.  A shot to reach these important milestones that many of us Americans take for granted.

So why does it matter?  I can tell you exactly why.  

Child Labor, Marriage, Education and Survival Global Health Global Issues SOCIAL GOOD
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New Beginnings and a Shot at Life

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.

And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
OH! THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

-Dr. Seus

For some reason these inspirational words form one of my favorite childhood books continues to inspires me.  Especially on day’s like today as I get ready to launch off and head out to our nation’s capital to start a new beginning as an advocate for the UN Foundation’s program called at “Shot@Life”.

I will be one of 40 or so attendees of the training program that starts tomorrow and I can hardly wait.

Photo above credit to Wiki Commons.  Children in Kindergarten in Afghanistan.  

Here is a brief overview of Shot@Life’s program and why it is so important to spread awareness and help out .  (Note: All this content is taken directly from their website at: http://shotatlife.org/learn/

The Problem:

This year, 1.7 million children will die from diseases that have all but disappeared in the U.S.  Why? Because one in five children around the world do not have access to the life-saving immunizations needed to survive.

A child dies every 20 seconds

Millions of children are disabled or killed every decade by preventable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, measles and polio. Pneumonia and diarrhea are the two biggest killers of children under five, and account for more than one-third of childhood deaths worldwide.

Global health disparities:

Seventy-five percent of unvaccinated children live in just 10 countries. For children in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, China, Uganda, Chad and Kenya, access to vaccines mean the difference between life and death, a healthy life or a lifetime of struggle.

Immunity at risk:

Germs don’t need a passport. With so many children around the world unvaccinated, diseases that have been eliminated in developed countries — such as measles — can return.  Expanding access to vaccines strengthens our ability to fight disease globally and keep our families healthy here at home.

The Solution:

It’s simple; vaccines save lives. Millions of children could be spared from measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, polio and other preventable diseases if we could simply get them the vaccines they need.

The good news is access to vaccines has grown significantly in the last decade. Currently, vaccines are able to save the lives of 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year. With your help, we can reach even more. With your support, global vaccination programs can save the life of a child every 20 seconds, and stop the nearly 2 million unnecessary deaths that happen every year.

Progress:

Vaccines have won several battles against preventable diseases in the last few decades. Thanks to a coordinated global vaccination effort, the number of new cases of polio – a disease that once paralyzed more than 1,000 children a day – has dropped 99 percent in the last 20 years. The world is now nearly polio-free.

The Measles Initiative is on the path to similar success. The vaccination of one billion children in 60 developing countries since 2001 has decreased measles deaths by 78 percent, changing measles from a disease that used to be the leading killer of children to one that we are close to eliminating altogether. Groundbreaking new vaccines that prevent pneumonia and diarrhea, if distributed widely, also have the potential to save the lives of millions more children.

Why Vaccines?:

Immunizations give children around the world a shot at more “firsts.” Keeping kids healthy is the best way to ensure they reach the milestones Americans routinely celebrate. When a child begins life with the protection of vaccines, the door is opened to more developmental firsts—first steps, first words, a first day of school. Immunized children are more likely to celebrate their fifth birthday, do well in school and go on to be productive, healthy adults.

A healthier world truly benefits us all. Expanding access to vaccines strengthens our ability to fight disease globally and keep our families healthy here at home, while improving economic stability around the world.

Above content from http://www.shotatlife.org.

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How can you help?  I will show you the way as soon as I get back from my training!  Stay tuned…..

Child Labor, Marriage, Education and Survival Global Health Global Issues SOCIAL GOOD
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Why I’ll never be a supermom

Sorry kids…I can’t do it all!!!!!  (Max age 7 and Sophia age 5 dressed in their Halloween costumes. October 2011). 

As a product of the seventies, I grew up watching such hit shows as Leave it to Beaver, Little House on the Prairie and other classics that portrayed women and families as an all-encompassing, idyllic unit; as one big happy family.  My TV role models were simple housewives wearing their aprons and huge, happy smiles across their pretty faces while they effortlessly did it all.  Ran the house, cleaned it spotless, cooked fresh homemade meals, took care of the kids, helped them with their homework and had freshly-baked cookies awaiting for them after school (not to mention opened the door at five and planted a warm happy kiss on their husbands dear face).

As time passed and I grew older, of course I realized that this reality was not true.  There were plenty of families who did not follow these rules or were “traditional”.  Divorce rates soared as did secret affairs and the whole meaning of the word family seemed to change significantly across the nation.  No longer were married, one-working parent families the norm.  Instead, double incomes, single-parents and out of wedlock families became more prevalent.

Some critics have argued that the entire meaning of a family has changed and this change has negatively effected our society as a whole.  Whether or not this is entirely true, it is for you to decide.  However, what has also been happening is the other extreme of the spectrum:  The growth of the supermom mentality.

“What on earth is she talking about here”?  you may wonder, perplexed.  I’m talking about the moms who are over the top in their pursuit of being the best mom out there.  Those moms who feel that they have to do it all and do it without complaints.  The moms who are overly successful in their careers or as a housewife, while cleaning their house, caring for their kids, keeping in shape and looking good for her husband.  The perfect wife.  But is that really possible?  

I decided before my first child was born that I would be a stay-at-home mom.  Before having children, I was all about my career.  I worked extremely hard in college and killed myself to get those A’s.  I wasn’t a necessarily gifted student.  I just worked harder at getting perfect grades.  Sometimes I worked so hard that I got sick.  I stressed myself out silly just over trying to do well and feel proud.  I graduated with a 3.7 out of 4.0 which made me feel pleased.  But once I got a real job, I realized why on earth did I kill myself over those grades?  It didn’t even matter.  Yes, it helped to have a nice GPA on my resume but aside from that, no one really cared about the A’s except me.

Fast forward to my working years in the business world, I never truly seemed to find a job that I enjoyed.  I tried and tried and worked hard.  But every job I ever did left me feeling empty inside and unsatisfied.  I was able to pay for myself at 23 years old which felt like quite an accomplishment.  Yet, I realized what a disappointment the real world really was.  I was accustomed to always hearing “the world is your oyster” from my motivating parents.  Yet, was it?  I felt trapped in one unhappy job after the other.  It was almost a blessing in disguise when I got laid off from my job at 32, went on a trip to Australia, got home and decided….”hmmm….isn’t it about time to start thinking about having kids”?

I’ll never forget the comments I received from my working friends about my decision to stay at home.  Perhaps the most offensive one was “I won’t think bad of you if you don’t work”.  That was from my ex-bestfriend.  I knew I’d face a lot of criticism as well as encouragement by others.  For some strange reason, deciding to stay at home and raise a family is sometimes looked down upon by other professionals.  But it was my choice.  A choice that I will never ever regret as long as I live.  The best choice I could have made in my life was to stay at home with my children and I feel lucky to have been able to have this choice.  I realize many mothers can’t stay at home with their children, even if they wanted to.

The first three years as a stay-at-home mom were brutal.  I had severe postpartum depression with my first child and then had a new baby girl four days after my son turned two.  Exhaustion haunted me.  I gave 100 percent of me to my children and there was nothing left.  Nothing for me or my husband.  I believe that caring for young children is perhaps the hardest job ever.  We are without a village as they like to say.  In the past, families weren’t so isolated and you had a ton of other family members around to help you out and get through it.  Nowadays, life is different and families are spread out, like mine, leaving a new mom completely on her own to care for a demanding newborn baby.

I look back at these days in disbelief and astonishment wondering how on earth I managed to survive when even taking a simple shower was a struggle and a reward.  But being there for my children to see their first smiles, watch their first steps and marvel at them in wonder as they grew, has been a true gift.  Perhaps the greatest gift I’ve ever received.

Now that the kids are in school my life is beginning to change.  My son is away all day at first grade while my daughter is away four mornings a week at preschool.  Windows of time are opening up.  My mind is coming out of the mommy fog and my life is coming back to me.  I’m getting to know myself and my husband once again.  I am once again doing the things I love.  It feels good but also a little intimidating.

You see, there is this huge pressure in life to be a supermom.  That over-achiever, that always the best mom.  I try so hard to not follow that path.  To not be the mom always volunteering in class, making the best, healthiest meals, looking perfectly put together and being at every single event in my children’s lives.  But it is hard.  Very hard.  Perhaps I put too much pressure on myself.  I want to achieve and be loved by my family and admired by my peers.  But sometimes (like now that I’ve worn myself out so much I’m stuck at home with a terrible cold and have to go out of town tomorrow) I need to step back and realize that I’ll never be a supermom.  I can try my best to be a wonderful mother, wife and citizen, but I’ll never be perfect.  I’ll always be just me and I’m only one person.

So perhaps it is time to stop chasing rainbows and learn to relax more.  Enjoy my downtime.  Take advantage of being sick.  Let others do the work for once instead of feeling like I’ve got to do everything.  The world won’t disappear.  It will all be waiting for me when I return, refreshed, healthy and ready to seize the day!

Stay tuned….instead of organizing my thoughts on my upcoming New Zealand posts or going on a run or cleaning the house or packing for DC or making dinner….I’m going to take a nap and try to beat this cold! 

CULTURE
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Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. through the eyes of a child

Sometimes in life, there is no better way to understand a complicated issue such as civil rights, than through the tender eyes of a child.  I had the opportunity to volunteer in my son Max’s first grade class last week, and they were learning about Martin Luther King Jr.  Through art and creativity, here are their dreams of the future….

I had a dream…

My son Max’s dream:

That all bombs will be sent to outer space.

For a complete view of Martin Luther King Jr’s life, click here.  Here is another great link regarding his biography on the Nobel Piece prize website.  

Global Issues SOCIAL GOOD
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How technology has changed the art of travel

As I pack for my upcoming trip to China (countdown: 2 days until departure), there is something new that I’ll be bringing along with me on my trip.  It sits there discreetly and unaware.  It is small and shiny yet one of the most life-changing hand-sized objects I now possess:  My shiny new iPhone 4S.

I held off as long as I could on buying a smartphone.  I have a cellphone and only got the texting feature on it a year before.  I found that texting was an easier way to bug my busy husband with a quick question at work.  I didn’t get a smartphone for two reasons.  First, I am a stay-at-home mom who does not work.  Thus why on earth would I ever need one except for my new passion with blogging.  Second, I didn’t want to become one of those people (if you are one of those people, I do apologize!); those internet/text/cellphone obsessed people who are practically glued to their phone, constantly texting, checking emails, and surfing the net while talking to someone else face to face!  I have been in those situations before, as the ignored friend, while I’m trying to have a conversation and the person I’m with isn’t really listening.  How can you listen and read emails at the same time?  Quite frankly, my social life isn’t all that exciting, earth-shattering and time-consuming.  I know I’m old-fashioned but I’d rather just pick up the phone instead of use Facebook or texting.  Thus for these two main reasons, plus not to mention the added expense of having a fancy gadget, I held off for as long as I could without being tempted into getting a smartphone.

With the release of the new iPhone 4S, however, I changed my mind and finally gave in to temptation.  For this tiny handheld object will enable me to connect to the internet and call, text, or write home for free from anywhere in the world.  All I will need is a WiFi connection and I’m set.  No more phone cards or dirty old phone booths.  No more trying to call ten times a day in hope that they’ll be home an answer my call.  None.  Instead, this stay-at-home mom who needs to man the fort even from thousands of miles away can do so at the touch of my fingers.  I can call my home to check in on the kids.  I can be reachable in case of a question or a problem.  No more stressing.  No more waiting.  No more wasting time.  I’ll be able to call and be in touch!

It is hard to fathom what life was like before the internet.  How on earth did we survive?  As someone who grew up in the eighties, in an era or shall I say life before the internet, it continues to amaze me each and every day how much technology has changed the world and my life.  When I was a teenager, we had to call someone on the phone if we wanted to chat.  We had to go to the library and search through books and clumsy old microfiche for our research papers.  We had to read books.  It was all so different.

When I went to college in the early nineties, not much had changed.  The internet was still not in existence.  How terrible it was to type up my ten to twenty page papers on a word processor and have to white out each mistake or simply start all over again?  How depressing was it to spend hours on end in the dull, quiet library searching through book after book in order to research papers.  Every time you needed information, it took time to get it.  Information was not at the tip of your fingers like it is today.

In 1993, I spent nine months living abroad in France without the internet.  The Minitel was around (the French early version of the internet) yet the world-wide web did not exist.  I felt like that entire nine months was a vacuum, an abyss, and an absence of contact with my friends and family at home.  To talk on the phone, I would call and hope someone was home.  I could only call every two weeks and talk for a short time because it simply was way too expensive.  Thus, I reserved phone calls for only my immediate family and sent those cumbersome, blue-colored Aérogramme (handwritten letters, glued together letters) to my friends back home.  Of course it took weeks to arrive and weeks for a response.  I felt completely isolated from my life back home and that unfortunately added to my homesickness.

By 1994, at my first job out of college I finally got a company-only email system at work.  Email and the internet still was a mystery and I didn’t have a personal computer either (yes, not having a personal computer nowadays is unheard of but back then computers were more of a luxury than commonplace).  By 1995 at my next job in Chicago, just as the internet was commercialized for public use, I got a better email system and the rest is history.  The internet craze began.  The dot.coms, the lush stock options, you name it, it was happening…until the crash.  Yet, the internet still survived and thrived, and has continued to change the world and people’s lives each and every day.  I know that it has certainly changed mine.

Last April, I went to Morocco with my iPad, installed Skype and called home for free.  It was the first time ever that I was able to call home not using a phone card or being in a phone booth, while traveling abroad.  It felt like a dream.  It was wonderful.

Here is a picture of me inside one of those dirty, old phone booths somewhere in South America (thanks Dad for always taking these pictures of me calling home.  I always got mad but he made a point!)

As time went by, phone cards became easier than using the good old phone shops.  But they didn’t always work and the phone itself was always sticky:

Fast forward to just last November 2010, and here I am in the middle of the Himalayas at God knows what altitude or where, making a call directly to my home in Minnesota from our guide’s cellphone.  I talked for ten minutes and it only cost a couple of bucks.  Unbelievable!  In a country where people average less than $2 a day, they all have cellphones as it is the only means to keep in touch in the mountains.

I can’t believe how much technology has changed our lives and in particular traveling.  The world is getting smaller and smaller as we grow together and not apart.  It is a beautiful thing.  Yet something to also be prudent of.  I never want to let technology take over my life and be glued 24/7 to my phone.  Knowing myself, I won’t be.

But who would have thought twenty years ago that this would all be possible? 

TRAVEL BY REGION
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Growing up Minnesotan

A slice of 1970s Americana: Family trip to the North Shore, Lake Superior circa 1975

Minnesota, known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is the most northern state in the US aside from Alaska. The twelth largest state in size, it is located in the heart of the Upper Midwest bordering Canada, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa, and has a population of a little over five million people.

The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota Indians who inhabited this part of the country along with other Native American groups, and means “sky-tinted water”. The stem, “mini” or “minne” means water, and is used as part of many other Minnesota places such as Minneapolis (City of Lakes), Minnehaha Falls (Waterfall), and Minnetonka (Big Lake).

Minnesota has a long geological history and contains some of the oldest rocks found on earth known as the gneisses dating back to 3.6 billion years ago. Volcanic activity swept across the lands dramatically effecting the landscape, however, the real significant impact on the Land of 10,000 Lakes was the ice sheets and glaciations 12,000 years ago that formed and carved out the rivers, lakes and valleys that make Minnesota so beautiful and serene.

Minnesota is awash with nature and beauty, having over seventy state parks, large forests (birch, pines, spruce, poplar) and prairies, almost 13,000 lakes (including one of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior) and many rivers (the Mississippi River actually starts in Minnesota). The lakes and gorgeous lands create the perfect habitat for elk, caribou, moose, black bear, timber wolves, bob cats, linx, bald eagles, owls, hawks, loons, ducks and beavers.

Probably what Minnesota is most known for is it’s notoriously cold, long and brutal winter. Yet, what most people who are not from here do not know is that it is the land of extremes. The summers can be hot, sticky and reach a sizzling 100 degrees F while the winters can bear down to 20 below zero plus an additional 10-20 below wind chill. Yet, despite the weather, Minnesotans are quite active and run outdoors year-round.

The winters offer plenty of outdoor activities to embrace winter and enjoy the snow (82 inches of snow last year!) such as ice-skating, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, sledding, and snowshoeing.

Summer in Minnesota is fabulous and quite frankly, there is no other place I’d rather be than hanging out at one of the 10,000 plus lakes, breathing in the fresh, clear air and watching the sun set well past ten.

Fall is awash in beauty as the leaves turn their magical tapestry of colors into brilliant hues of scarlet reds, burnt oranges, golds and yellows. The September days are cool and perfect as the sun heats the majestic bright blue sky up to a perfect 70 degrees F. The falling leaves trickle down in the breeze and it is incredibly serene.

Growing up Minnesotan meant a lot of things to me. Summers swimming in the lakes, biking, playing outside until well past ten and eating popsicles, popcorn and brats on the grill. Fall meant our family trips to the North Shore of Lake Superior to see the incredible fall colors in all their glory. Winter meant ski lessons every Saturday in frigid temps, building snow forts and making snow angles. Spring meant rebirth and survival as everyone came out of their hibernation from yet another long cold winter.

<em>How do we do it? you may wonder. Why do we do it? Others say. Because we love it! You must embrace it for all its worth or else it’s time to move!

Here are some oldies but goodies, pictures from my childhood.

Loading up the good old family-mobile, our wood-paneled station wagon, for one of our many road trips:

Our first trip to Brainerd, the Chain of Lakes, circa 1975:

Minnesota TRAVEL BY REGION United States
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Out of the Baby Blues…and into Africa

 

As a child, I had always dreamed of Africa.  It was a place of imagination.  A place of wonder.  A place full of wild animals and people who lived in huts.  I place that a young, dreamer of a child like myself always wanted to explore.   Africa to me conjured up images of elephants, giraffes, lions, and zebras roaming freely among nature at its purest; a place that I held fiercely in my young mind for many years to come.

One year after the birth of my first child, Max, my father and I had the chance to finally fulfill my childhood dream.  We went to Africa.   Physically getting to Africa was a piece of cake.  All I had to do was board a plane.  Mentally getting to Africa was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.  I had to overcome over three months of severe Postpartum Depression, and pull myself out of the darkness and up onto the road to recovery.  To this day, that was the most difficult, life-changing experience I’ve ever had to survive and at the thick of it, survival didn’t seem possible. 

It had all secretly started months before the birth of my son yet blindingly, I was unaware of the symptoms.   Pregnancy was supposed to be a time of great joy and happiness.  You are surrounded by attention from family, friends and strangers.  You are often complimented on how “cute” you look and how “happy” you must be to be expecting.  Yet, I didn’t always feel that way.  I missed the old me, the active adventurer who loves to run, bike, golf, hike,ski and do anything outdoors.  I found my changing body to be difficult.  I suffered serious morning sickness for sixteen long weeks, crazy moodiness and hormones, and then had difficulty sleeping.  By the second trimester, however things were finally perking up.  I was feeling better, stopped eating saltines in the middle of the night, and was finally walking around the lake again and playing golf.  My rollercoaster hormones subsided and I finally felt “happy” again and excited about the new bundle of joy growing inside of me. 

I rolled along for the next few months until complications struck and I wound up in the hospital with pre-term labor at 34 weeks. Scared and sick, the anxiety of pregnancy crept in and I was confined to weeks of bedrest, isolation, boredom and fear.  I was absolutely miserable.  Being confined and all alone in my house for a month straight was not good on my body and soul, especially given my physically and socially active spirit.  It was hell.  But what came after the birth was even worse than I had ever imagined.  A day or two after the birth of my son Max, something was not right.  Instead of joy and happiness at the birth of my first child, I felt anxiety, fear and dread.  These feelings combined with a huge drop in hormones and lack of sleep worked in a vicious circle perpetuating the problems and making me completely unable to eat or sleep or literally do anything.  Completely and utterly taken off guard, postpartum depression had hit me like a brick.  It was the most horrifying experience and state of being I’ve ever had in my life and unfortunately it took weeks to finally get the right kind of help and get my life back under control.  It took a ton of support, love and care by my husband, my family (especially my mother and mother-in-law who spent weeks with me) and doctors, to pull me out of the darkness and debilitating anxiety and fear that I was in.  At my worst point, I was sleeping only an hour a night, had lost all 35 pounds gained during my pregnancy in a month and couldn’t even hold my baby.  I was beyond afraid and shrouded in darkness.  I didn’t know how on earth I’d ever manage to survive let alone care for a brand new infant.  About six weeks into it, I finally found the right professional help and slowly was able to pull myself up to the surface over time.   Although each day was a struggle, I finally could see a light at the end of the tunnel and knew that I’d get through this horrible thing, I would survive.  Everything would be ok.  It wasn’t my fault.  I wasn’t a failure. It was just something that had happened.  I felt relieved in finally realizing that soon I’d be able to resume nurturing and loving my child.

Six months had passed and I was truly on the road to recovery.  My son Max was finally sleeping through the night and no longer colicky (he used to cry for hours on end as a baby which fed into my anxiety, depression and sleeplessness).  I was running again, sleeping again, and rediscovering myself. I was feeling good and so relieved to be myself again, not this miserable, crying, depressed new mother. I found a new support group of new moms, a babysitter and was able to get my life back to normal.  It was around this time that the idea brewed about taking a special trip with my dad. 

My father and I had done a lot of special trips together, one-on-one, throughout the years.  We went to Ireland to visit my uncle, Peru to climb Machu Pichu, Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef and the French and Italian Alps to go skiing.  I had thought that our traveling days would be numbered once I had a baby, however, I remembered a promise my mother had made me after I got married.  Like her parents did for her, she promised to babysit my children one week a year as long as she was able.   Thus, here I found myself a year after the birth of my first child, doing something that was completely unimaginable just a few months before:  Boarding an 18-hour plane ride to South Africa.

I left right after my son turned one and took his first steps.  Leaving him, after all that we had been through together was extremely difficult.  I had nightmares for weeks before I left and had this insane fear that I wouldn’t come back.  Going half way around the world didn’t feel right.  How on earth could I leave my son?  Conflict and anxiety arose once again, but thankfully my mother and husband were able to talk me through it.  I knew deep down inside that getting away would be the best thing I could do even though it didn’t seem right to leave my son. 

The day of my departure was very hard.  I cried and cried as I loaded my bags into the cab and saw my tiny yet somehow bigger son blowing kisses at me through the window. But once I made it to the airport, met my dad in Atlanta and had a cold glass of white wine, I was fine.  In fact, I was more than fine.  I was me, that crazy, wanderlust, adventurous woman who couldn’t wait to fulfill a lifelong dream….a trip to South Africa! 

Stay posted…..there will be more stories to come about my first adventure sans enfant to South Africa!

CULTURE South Africa TRAVEL BY REGION
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The Greatest Gift of All

It’s been a long, exhausting, unrelenting week. Our harsh, brutal winter has continued to hang around, bringing bouts of cold wind, rain, and even a few miscellaneous snowflakes. The barren trees have yet to bloom. Yet there are signs of life’s rebirth and rejuvenation. The birds are back. I hear them singing their beautiful, glorious, celebratory songs outside my bedroom window every morning at dawn. The light of the sun, when it does break free out from the clouds, feels different than before. It is more alive and brighter and when it does appear, it warms my soul and brings life to the world. We are still in that strange, confusing phase where spring is playing tricks on us. One minute, it is there in all its glory, sun shining, birds singing and buds blooming before your very eyes. Then the next minute, it disappears, behind the gray, dark clouds and rain thirsty land.

As a stay at home mom of two extremely active and busy kids (aged 4 and 6), it is actually ironic that I have even noticed that it is almost Mother’s Day and the leaves have yet to bloom. Where on earth do I have the time to sit and ponder about the absence of spring and wonder when it will every arrive? Furthermore, how can I actually sit here and daydream about the great joys and revitalization that spring brings to us hearty Minnesotans each year. Easy! I’m a stay at home mom, meaning I am in my house or out and about each and every day of my life, facing the elements and watching nature change before my eyes. It would be impossible to miss. Yet for some funny reason I seemed to miss spring every season when I worked. I seemed to miss a lot of things that I took for granted when I worked.

As Mother’s Day approaches, of course everyone asks “What are you doing for Mother’s Day”? “Are you doing anything special”? “What do you want to get?”. For me I don’t want a trip to the spa (but of course that sounds phenomenal!), or a huge brunch at a fancy restaurant or some kind of beautifully wrapped present. At almost forty, it is easy to see that I have the greatest gift of all. The best thing possible. I have my kids. (Yes of course my husband counts too…without him, we wouldn’t have our close, tight-knit family of four).

Somehow we survived the brutal Minnesota winter with over 82 inches of snow….but we had fun!

There are days (sometimes many) when I am at my wits end, pulling my hair out, stepping outside the door and swearing beneath my breath. There are days when I can not take the crying, complaining, fighting, demanding behavior of my children. There are even days when I run upstairs and hide, lock myself in my closet and burst into enormous, sobbing tears. But every single one of those days pales in comparison to the last six and a half years of my life that I have spent loving, laughing, cherishing and spending time with my kids. Yes, giving up jobs and careers is a huge sacrifice for many families. Some families can afford it but choose not to. Other families dream that a parent could stay home with the kids, but simply can’t. There is no right or wrong. There should be no judgement either.

I am just utterly blessed for these special, precious moments that I’ve had with my children at home, watching them grow and learn about the world with excitement and hope. When asked what you wish your child could be or have when he or she grows up, my reply is simple: I want them to be happy, productive, self-sufficient, loving adults who care about others and contribute to the world. I don’t need a doctor or lawyer (yes of course it would be nice but I am not the one to decide or demand their future profession). I need a child who cares and can make a difference in the world or brighten the day of someone less fortunate than themselves.

All my travels have taught me that we live a crazy, insane life in the United States. Although there is plenty of poverty, violence and drugs abound, there is also enormous possibilities and potential. Unlike Nepal or India where people can barely make ends meet and live on less than $2 a day, most Americans are truly deeply spoiled. My dream is that my children can understand how fortunate they are and use this knowledge to make the world a better place, one step at a time. Perhaps I have too lofty of goals but that is what parenthood is about: Inspiring your children to dream big.

Happy Mother’s Day, all you Mom’s out there!

CULTURE