The Wood Between the Worlds

One of my major goals for last year was to do service and/or raise money for Mamababy Haiti in honor of Elsa.  One of the very first ideas that I had was to sew a bunch of blankets and stuff and sell them, donating all the proceeds to Mamababy Haiti.  I named my brand "Sweet Meadowlark" as a way to honor and preserve a little girl who didn't stay long enough, but still touched the hearts of many.  As time went on, I realized that I really did not have enough time or motivation to make that a reality, but I did decide on a one-time fund raiser instead.  THANK YOU once again to everyone who donated money to Mamababy Haiti for Elsa's birthday.  I do believe that we have now reached my goal of raising $500.  Incredible.  And I can tell you that the money has helped with WONDERFUL things, most namely a generator for their clinic/birth center so that they can have lights and running water at all times.  This is such a blessing to the people of Haiti.
It took me a few months, but I finally mailed out the blankets to the winners of the drawing.  I LOVED the way they turned out, and I hope the families who get them loved them too.  I thought I would post some pictures of my sweet meadowlark blankets:

November 19, 2011:
The Mamababy Haiti 5k "Give Thanks and Run", the weekend before Thanksgiving!  My midwife put together this race, which is an awesome fundraiser for her non-profit birth center and health clinic.  Brent had to work, unfortunately, so I gathered up all my kids and coerced them into running the 5k with me.  Now since I was "running" with a 6 and a 9 year old, we'll use that term loosely.  :)

For the most part, they did great!  Except {somebody} had to go {poop} in the middle of the race, and of course there was nowhere to go.  I really don't remember how we survived that little challenge.  At the end, Joshua was really glad that he did it...but Toby wants to run the 1 mile kids run next year instead.  I was secretly grateful to have the kids run with me since I was ~8 weeks pregnant and needed an excuse to not go as fast as I normally do.  

It was fun to get out there in the nice weather and see some great people!

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to friends, family and strangers who have been touched by Elsa and MamaBaby Haiti and have shared love and money to this great cause!  My goal was $500, and we raised $355!  I'm going to throw a corny cliche at you now: reach for the stars and you'll end up with the moon!  I'm very happy that we could contribute so much money to such a worthy cause.  And feel free to make another donation any time you please :-)  ...or now that you are an official MBH donator, you should buy some official apparel!  As for me, I am going to keep donating a little every month until I reach my goal of $500.

But now for the moment everyone has been waiting for!
{I picked names out of a bowl because not everyone replied to the same blog entry,which is not a problem because it was a little confusing!}

The winner of the photography mini session with TM Custom Portraits:
Emily J.

The winners of a Sweet Meadowlark baby blanket:
Betsy B.
Kylie G.
and I decided to give one more away because I am feeling so blessed by all of you:
Kristina Z.

Please send me a message within 48 hours with your contact information to claim your prize!

Blessings to you all!  XXOO

You still have time to donate to MamaBaby Haiti tonight!  I'll pick the winners of the drawing tomorrow morning...

Thanks for your support!
If you're looking for the fund raiser/drawing...click here!

P.S. If you didn't tell me how much you donated, I'm assuming it was $5.  Please let me know otherwise, so I can tally the total amount we have made!

{Give away info at the bottom}

Ok...first off just let me say how underwhelmed I am by the response from my fund raising efforts for Mama Baby Haiti.  BUT, no prob!  It's really my fault.  I didn't promote it AT ALL (too busy!).  AND, I made a little oopsie in calling it a giveaway.  What I should have called it is a drawing.  You donate $5 {via paypal}...you enter a drawing for some really awesome prizes!  And I should have elaborated more on how awesome these prizes are going to be:

1 ~ A mini session with TM Custom Portraits.  I think that is at least a $100 value!  TM is my best buddy and she takes STUNNING photos.  If you don't live in Portland, now is a good time for a road trip!  Or, you could make other arrangements...TM does occasionally travel to Utah to visit family and would probably be happy to arrange a time (although I can't exactly speak for her, haha!).
2 ~ And I am giving away two beautiful, new, LARGE handmade blankets from my own personal collection {which I have dubbed "Sweet Meadowlark"}. These blankets are 1 full yard of sweetness with a modern cotton print on one side and velvety soft minky on the other side.  They are the only blankets that my baby will sleep with.  The retail value for these blankets is about $40 each, because of their size and quality of fabrics {but I don't sell them, I only give them away}.  They are great for your baby, toddler or would make a very sweet gift.

Those prizes TOTALLY rock...and all you need to do is donate $5.  Come ON!!  ;-)  We all are blessed with so much more than people in other lands.  Please donate, and then make a comment on this blog entry.  OK??!!  I'm going to close the drawing on my daughter's birthday AUGUST 16.  So that gives you two and a half weeks to get around to making a donation.  I PROMISE this is a GREAT charity, which can REALLY use the money.  And all of the money will go straight to helping the people of Haiti, as I personally know the founders and know they are paying for a lot of stuff (rent, supplies, food, water, medicine) out of their pockets.  They are mostly there to help mamas and babies, but they have also given food to starving children and medical care to anyone who needs it.  It is staffed completely by volunteers.

NOW>>>In celebration of my own Sweet Meadowlark...I am going to GIVE AWAY one of my above ^^ mentioned blankets, completely free {and separate from the MB Haiti drawing}.  All you have to do is make a comment on THIS blog entry.  Any nice old comment will do.  Birthday wishes for Elsa.  How fit I'm looking.  How much you love me.  :-)  Etc, etc.  And I will close this give away on Elsa's birthday as well.  You do not need follow my blog or advertise for me, but you can if you want!        

LOVE you, people!   
Thank you for all of the love and support you have given me over the past two years.  Now...
Please enter!  Please enter!  

There's this little charity that I've talked about before...maybe you remember Mama Baby Haiti?  One of my midwives who helped out when Elsa was born traveled to Haiti in February 2010...6 months after Elsa made her brief appearance on earth, and right after the people of Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake.  You can read about some of her experiences here.  In short, the conditions there were so poor that women and babies were suffering for the lack of facilities and resources.  Some of the babies died.  My midwife learned to say "I'm sorry" in Haitian Creole to these mothers.  I remember reading her blog entries with tears streaming down my face, having suffered through that heartbreak just 6 months earlier.  However, many of these deaths could have been prevented (as was not the case with my sweet little Elsa) if the mothers had proper care and resources.  My midwife and her colleagues started Mama Baby Haiti before they even left from this first trip...and their motto became "No more Mwen Regrét Sa". No more I am sorry.  They have opened a beautiful birth center and medical clinic where volunteer health care providers catch babies and treat various maladies. 

Over and over I have tried to imagine HOW I could make a difference by taking something hard that happened to me and use it to help make life better for someone else.  Because if I could possibly help another mother from going through loosing a baby, then I would in a heartbeat.  Well, lots of my friends up here in Portland are participating in the Portland Triathlon as a fund raiser for Mama baby Haiti, and I thought that sounded perfect!  I would love to do another triathlon.  However, when I discovered the date I realized that I would not be able to participate.  So (and I know this is late notice) I decided that I am going to try to raise funds in conjunction with the half marathon that I am running tomorrow instead.  I don't need all the money tomorrow...I'll keep it open a few weeks.
But my goal is to raise $500 for Mama Baby Haiti. 
Can you help me with that?
If 100 of you can donate $5 via paypal, we can reach that goal!!  $5!!!  That's an easy way to help some of our fellow humankind.  (You may donate as much as you want though!)
And to sweeten the deal a little bit, I'm doing a drawing in conjunction with this fund-raiser!
I'm going to offer up a few awesome prizes:

1 ~ A mini session with TM Custom Portraits.  I think that is at least a $100 value!  TM is my best buddy and she takes STUNNING photos.  If you don't live in Portland, now is a good time for a road trip!  Or, you could make other arrangements...TM does occasionally travel to Utah to visit family and would probably be happy to arrange a time (although I can't exactly speak for her, haha!).
2 ~ And I am giving away two beautiful, new, LARGE handmade blankets from my own personal collection {which I have dubbed "Sweet Meadowlark"}. These blankets are 1 full yard of sweetness with a modern cotton print on one side and velvety soft minky on the other side.  They are the only blankets that my baby will sleep with.  The retail value for these blankets is about $40 each, because of their size and quality of fabrics {but I don't sell them, I only give them away}.  They are great for your baby, toddler or would make a very sweet gift.

Those prizes TOTALLY rock...and all you need to do is donate $5.  Come ON!!  ;-)  We all are blessed with so much more than people in other lands.  I PROMISE this is a GREAT charity, which can REALLY use the money.  And all of the money will go straight to helping the people of Haiti, as I personally know the founders and know they are paying for a lot of stuff (rent, supplies, food, water, medicine) out of their pockets.  They are mostly there to help mamas and babies, but they have also given food to starving children and medical care to anyone who needs it.  It is staffed completely by volunteers.


So if you think you can help me out with raising some goodness for the Haitian people AND you want in on a fun prize you may enter the giveaway by doing the following:

1)Required to enter the giveaway, you must donate $5 or more and make a comment on this post.  You do not need to tell me how much you donate, but I would appreciate it if you could either make a comment on your online donation form Mama Baby Haiti that it is in memory of ELSA MEADOWLARK, or send me a private email letting me know the amount (so I can track my goal) to katespidey@gmail.com.
2)You may receive addition optional entries by a) publicly following my blog {I want to make more new friends}, b) blogging about this fundraiser/giveaway, and/or c) facebooking/tweeting (whatever you do) about this fundraiser/giveaway.

Please show Mama Baby Haiti some love in honor of Elsa Meadowlark!
xxoo!
Drawing will close on Elsa's birthday.  August 16.

It is now 24 days into 2011.  And it's the same old thing every year...resolutions!  Sometimes I achieve them, often I don't.  But it is good to have something to work toward, and I think I'm getting a better idea of what I *CAN* achieve.
So 2011!  Let's have a good year!

Among some other resolutions, I'm hoping to:
1) keep my house clean and organized
2) be fit and run at least 1 half marathon this year (loose the baby belly)
3) do some fund raising for MamaBaby Haiti

9/11/10
Twice  a year the Andaluz Waterbirth Center hosts a potluck dinner for all of their clients families and friends.  In the spring it is at the Portland Children's Museum.  In the fall it is at the Hoyt Arboretum.  We had the opportunity to catch the last 30 minutes of the fall potluck at Hoyt (as Brent had to work that day).  We missed the cedar plank salmon that my midwife's husband makes every year, but we got to sample some of his very tasty chicken.  We got to see the fire dancer perform!  It's always a good time with Andaluz.