so much to do...

Yesterday we took some time for a family outing to Ross Farm. It was a bright, sunny and mild winter day, neither Michael nor myself were working, and my studies are still pretty light as term has just begun. Of course Naomi was more enchanted with the ginger cat than the farm animals (despite the 3 cats we have at home), but we did enjoy the roosters' ruckus and the geese getting all riled up.





There will be few occasions like this between now and our departure for Nepal in mid-April, as we will be very busy between now and then. I can't believe how soon April is coming, less than 100 sleeps! I am in school full time, while returning to my winter job, not to mention the time I spend promoting our cause and fundraising. And Michael works full time, with a long commute, and he usually works overtime too. Naomi stays with Grandma a lot, but she may even spend a few more days at daycare this term - luckily she loves it there -when I was a kid, I hated daycare. For me, the same kids who picked on me at school for wearing glasses and dressing oddly (even at 5 I had my own sense of style, although I must say it has improved), got an extra couple of hours to torture me at daycare. Fortunately, Naomi is a happy, extremely social kid, and she doesn't need glasses (thank god for her father's eye genes)so she remains unteased and well adapted.

This week I should start hearing back from a number of organizations who are looking over our project proposal, and hopefully any day now I will have good news to report regarding our potential benefactors. In the meantime, I dread telling Naomi she's getting 2 more needles on Wednesday the 3rd for Hepatitis A/B, and 1st of three for rabies, with still more to come. She's going to hate me, isn't she...

I do have some news to share today: www.ppdconnect.org, a site for women with post partum depression and its survivors, has posted my story. There is link a the left.

We Did It! Another hurdle out of the way

I'm so happy today, we met our goal of receiving 100 votes for our project at www.givemeaning.com, and we did it in less than 2 weeks! This means we will soon be eligible to receive contributions with their assistance, enabling us to give our donors tax receipts. This has been an all-consuming task for me, and for a while I really didn't think we'd get the votes - extra special thanks to Julia Drew Watt for spreading the word and starting the facebook group, and to Kate Venson, with her extensive networking abilities! And of course to everyone who voted! Spacibo bolshoi! We beat Hillary, Barack, Mitt Romney and the rest to the punch! For anyone keeping track, we are able to receive donations at this site, and it won't be long before our sisterlink is up and running and offering receipts. We aren't quite there yet, but I am growing more and more confident. And let me just say I am so impressed with givemeaning.com - I call their toll-free number with a few questions, only to learn that Tom, the head of the organization himself, had picked up the phone to answer my call. What's more, when I mentioned which project I was representing (there are thousands) he said, "oh yes, I remember this one." We had a very pleasant conversation, and afterwords I felt like I had just called Microsoft and spoken with Bill Gates.

I have approached several local organizations for their support of our work with Info-Nepal, and have been getting positive feedback from most quarters. Hopefully I will have some good news to report with sponsors starting next week.

What I dread most at this moment is letting Naomi know she is due for yet another injection on Monday. I intend to bribe her: I bought her a cute little mermaid doll, for my little girl who wants to be a mermaid when she grows up.