Tis The Season

The turkey carcus was swallowed up by some yummy day-after Thanksgiving turkey tortellini soup.  The family has made their way back by planes, trains, and automobiles from our little waterfront rental.  Our cozy ‘Grandmas Are In Charge” Thanksgiving is complete, leaving me stress-free to take care of the remaining bits of our tiny patient. 

Amazing how much has healed in only 2 weeks.

Ralphie!!! I can’t move my arms!

Rich Kahlua cheesecake for breakfast every morning is over…damn.  Thanksgiving 2010 is finito, but marks the kick off to The Holidays.

My favorite time of year.

I was waiting for the house to quiet down back to its late night silence.  For the living room to be free of the holiday chit chat melodies and just full of the diamond glow from icicle lights hanging in the windows.  To be able to stare at our sparkling fresh-cut Christmas tree, standing 7ft. tall, peeking out the glass door with it’s just the right amount chubiness.  Our first real tree in years!  I feel like a true Northerner again.  Letting the evergreen perfume motivate my creative juices to put together a post on how The Holidays are the best fuzzy-feeling times an optimist could ask for. 

10 days since my last story, and I was now filled to the brim with all of the fun tellings of how bright our festive abode has been lately.  To show off my Target Holiday $1 aisle skills in some photographs.  To decorate this blog with “I am thankful for…” paragraphs relaying a message of appreciation I hope to pass onto my absorbent readers as they overlook our picturesque New England fall walk we took last week.  Of course I left my camera on the dining room table - right next to my pile of Make Sure You Grab This stuff that I always forget - so cell phone camera art it was.

Looks like this mom had a rough day!

But top of the list is to get caught up with some of my own inspirational readings through others’ eye-opening blogs, and I came across a heavenly woman who advocates for charities in need of being heard.  This one little faint infant cry was coming from her latest guest blogger, and Thanksgiving 2010 I am most thankful that I had my ears perked up on ‘Mama’s Super Ability To Hear Cries From The Shower’ mode to get wind of this baby boy featured.  I cannot begin to replicate her enlightening, impactful, profound message. So please, click this trooper’s picture to hear Cliff’s story from his angel’s mouth directly. 

As you can see from Cliff’s message, we have lots to be thankful for.  Not to pity his life, because it should be celebrated.  But I firmly believe will be changed by this cause.  We must be thankful that do-gooders exist out there.  That even though this advocate blogger’s life was turned upside down itself, she still found the sliver of time in her mommy days to make another child’s life hopeful.  To pull Cliff from the system where his tentative itinerary is the final destination of a cold institution, and instead detours him to a love-filled, kisses everywhere, bountiful hugs kind of home.

Sliding a $1 bill into the Christmas cheer ringing from the Salvation Army red bucket, even though the guy shaking the bell may look a little creepy, is the right thing to do.  Writing your name with black Sharpie on a cartoon turkey to tape on your local grocery store’s wall after a $2 Food Bank donation to fill a stranger’s Thanksgiving plate will make you feel better about purchasing that 14lb. turkey on the conveyor. 

Now taking this challenge – $5 or more to help Cliff find a mom and dad – will fill your core with warmth.  A mother and father that want him, but can’t afford the $20,000+ it costs to adopt.  Skip the gossip magazine you’d buy at the register, and instead give this little boy the Christmas gift that he deserves. 

If you’d like to take the extra step, please continue to give when you can to Reece’s Rainbow.  It’s the parent organization to Cliff’s cause.  They promote the international adoption of children with Down syndrome by raising money to give adopting families the extra financial help to bring a child with Down syndrome home from a miserable existence in overseas orphanages.  I don’t know how I was in the dark about Reece's Rainbow until now, but I am dumbfounded by it's overwhelming intention of giving all special needs kids a home. 

The lure of hyperlinked almond-eyes on an awaiting orphan, leading to another link listing all of the helpless faces needing homes has me in a mess of tears.  The guilt sunk me into the couch as I stared at all of these souls crying out for help.  I know it’s heartbreaking to see, but don’t let the heart ache make you look away.  Push through the pain.  Click, click, click.  Now I’m staring at pages showcasing which kids have been a glimmer of hope by fundraising families trying to get through the expensive, tangled process to take them in.  Click, click, click.  Feelings of raw envy for the stories of families who have fully adopted from beginning to end one, sometimes two, one couple chose THREE beautiful children.  And I thought it was hard to shower – holy multi-tasking props to you super adoption mamas!  The child’s before picture taken beside the cold crib rails overseas, right next to the glowing after pictures with a rosy-cheeked little girl engulfed in warm hugs by her new family.  Breathtaking. 

I hate to think of how these little darlings were given up in the first place, but gives me hope to see the good outweighing the bad through pictures documenting the new ear-to-ear smiles on these babes’ faces as their new Dad kisses their forehead.    The new Dad that was so selfless to help as long as money was not a factor.

Keep a place in your heart for the godsend Reece’s Rainbow organization that connects all of these forgotten kids to open-armed families.  Or do what I did and consider the true Christmas spirit – when you donate $35 or more to a specific child through Reece’s Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree before December 15, you will receive a Christmas ornament featuring that special child’s face that you have gotten one step closer to a mom to cuddle with.  Tis the season to spread gifts, so why not give a meaningful one instead of that over-sized remote control you found on the end cap at TJ Maxx?

Tis the season. Happy donation giving!