Braska Bear

Please hang with me for 30 seconds, all you Reader skimmers. Many of you may have seen postings about the American Express program of Members Project. Now in its second year, Members Project is your chance to join a community that's passionate about making a positive change in the world. Show your support and vote on which projects get $2.5 million in American Express funding. The possibilities are endless. The decision is yours. The coolest part is you DO NOT have to be an AmEx member to nominate a group!!! I just did it myself, and I'm not a member. You all know, if you've been around long, that a fave cause/organization of mine is Reece's Rainbow . I've asked for donations that I've matched. Now I'm not asking for money at all. They are one of the projects to be nominated. This is a neat situation where only nominating (voting online) for a group or cause puts it that much closer to a huge grant that can make a BIG difference. Do you know what an aweso...

Shelley at Embracing Life as Household 6 is doing a cool giveaway with the proceeds going to Raina, one of the precious kids at Reece's Rainbow (my fave organization). If you make a little donation, you get entered in the drawing for her Blackberry Curve . I don't need the phone, but I'm always up for a donation to any of the RR kids! So my money's in the pot! Hop over there and chip in a few bucks!! Here's the deal... if you go donate, and you let me know about it (send me an email if you wanna be private about it), I'll MATCH your donation up to $20 per person. I can't make it clear enough how important this outreach is to kids who truly NEED our help. If you've never checked out their site and those kids, please at least go see what the organization is all about.

This last week on Friday, my friend Ali P came over to visit. Her mom brought me a toy potato guy that you can put eyes and ears on. Isn't that funny? Ali P is only a couple weeks younger than me, and they are moving away to Ohio this week, so Mommy wanted to take a picture of how big we are. She's pretty smart! She can stand up all by herself! Bye Ali P! We'll miss you! On Saturday, we went to say goodbye to Great-Papa F. It was nice to see our family that we don't see every day. It was a nice day, and I didn't even have to wear a coat. It was sunny, so Auntie Rachel let me borrow her sunglasses. Mommy didn't take very many pictures, but she did catch Auntie Rachel throwing me up in the air. Then I showed them all what I could do when I acted like I was Superman! (Mommy note: She is not mid-movement here. She was stiff as a board just like this for like 10 or 12 seconds. It was crazy! And they said she had poor trunk strength! Ha!) And on Sunday, I showed Mommy...

Last night, Mommy and Pop found out that Pop's Uncle Tim, Aunt Doris, and cousins Zach, Larae (like my middle name!!), and Priscilla sent a very special Christmas present for me. It's not the kind I can show you a picture of, but it will help me be able to keep seeing my doctors so I can get big and strong. That's the best gift they could give to me, and Mommy and Pop too! Mommy and Pop just looked at each other all surprised, and Mommy and I made sure to say thank you prayers to God for our great family way out west. So THANK YOU bunches and bunches! What a VERY merry Christmas!

Today I finished my Christmas shopping for all our "team" of people that keep Braska going and gorgeous! We donated to Daria, the Waiting Angel of the Month . We'll give cards to each of our team members telling them of their gift and how it will help this child. It's hard for me to just give money and pray, but right now that's all I can do. And it's alot...nothing's more powerful than prayer. But sometimes I just want to get up, fly to wherever they are, and just spend time holding them, reading to them, and taking them to families who will love them. Lately I've been wishing I could just call someone up and say, "I'll take her!" and be done with it, but it doesn't work that way. Plus my husband would be less than happy with that decision... I would like to set forth this small challenge.... can you spare $5? I think that most likely every person who reads this can. Will you consider sending that to Daria today? More is better, of c...