Showing his age

Look what Greg brought home from the dentist.

Time for me to look for a newer model, I guess.

Airplane affection

Is it a new trend, after a flight, to hug the person sitting next to you when saying goodbye? Or have I just had the good fortune of sitting next to exceptionally affectionate people on my last two flights? Or maybe I'm somehow giving off the impression that I'm much nice than I am. Or people just like hugging pregnant ladies.

Or maybe, as their breath would indicate, they were both just drunk.

If I asked you for $5

You'd give it to me, right? And if you asked a few of your friends for $5, I'm sure they'd do the same. Well, that's the idea behind my beautiful friend Sarah's brilliant new campaign. Except instead of passing the money amongst ourselves, it will be going to provide direct relief to those families struggling to survive the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.

I'm sure you can understand why this issue is very close to our family's hearts. So what do you say, can you spare a five?

I'll turn it over now to Sarah, who will give you all the compelling reasons you should help however you can.

___________

guest blogger: Sarah Lenssen from Ask5for5
photos courtesy of Cate Turton / Dept. for International Development


First, thanks to Deirdre for allowing me to post on her blog today! Today, more than 25 bloggers, including this one, are standing with me to Ask 5 for 5 for Africa. Here's why....

I began pursuing a BIG dream two weeks ago. After deciding I could no longer avoid the news about the famine in the horn of Africa, I had that gut feeling that I couldn't sit this one out. I HAD to do something because I could. Something bigger than I could do alone. That's when #Ask5for5 was born.



Two of my children, Ashen and Bereket, were adopted and are from the region affected by the drought in Ethiopia. They would be two of the statistics if they still lived there. I see my son’s and daughter’s faces in the photos of those suffering in the refugee camps. It could have been him. It could have been her. The thought haunts me.

And moms just like us are watching their children go hungry day after day. I can't imagine what it's like, but I have to—I have to be there to help them, because it could have been my children. These families have lost their livestock, their crops, food prices are inflated at the market if there is any food there, and they don’t have any more lifelines to tap into. Many are traveling hundreds of miles through parched land in hope of finding help. Many are dying along the way. It is estimated that 29,000 children have died in the last 90 days in the famine in Somalia alone.



But I KNOW we can do something about it. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed, we can rally ourselves and our friends to respond! I set up a fundraiser through See Your Impact. 100% of your gift will go to the relief and development organization World Vision, where it will be combined with government grants to multiply up to 5 times in impact!

You’ll receive updates on just how your funding is being used to help save lives affected by famine in East Africa. I'm amazed at how much we've raised already -- over $7,000 in just four days! We blew through our first 3 goals in just 3 days and are well on our way to $10,000 and beyond!

I need you to help me save lives. It's so so simple; here's what you need to do:

1. Donate $5 or more on this page (http://seeyourimpact.org/members/ask5for5)
2. Send an email to your friends and ask them to join us.
3. Share Ask5for5 on Facebook and Twitter, and join our page to stay updated too!

I'm also looking for 100 bloggers to stand with Ask5for5 to spread the word during Social Media week, September 19th - 23rd. If you're interested, email me, ask5for5@gmail.com.

Thanks! Please donate and email your friends right now—don't wait for a calmer moment, because if you're like me, other demands inevitably crop up and you won't get to it. A child's life hangs in the balance, but you can help save her!

Filbert's first photo shoot

I'm terribly late in posting these, because I thought my scanner was dead. Turns out it was just saving files someplace I didn't think to look. Pregnancy brain is real, people.

These are from our big ultrasound at 19 weeks (I'm now 24). Everything checked out great, and it turns out that all suspicions were spot-on and Filbert is, indeed, a boy. And like his siblings, he is pretty darned adorable.

Also like his siblings, he picks his nose. Already.

Things have changed in the 3+ years since last we did this. Now the ultrasound includes 3D images in addition to the 2D ones. Normally 3D pictures of other people's kids freak me out a bit, so I wouldn't have chosen to have it done. I'm glad they did it, though, because when it's your own kid it's actually sort of cute. So weird to see the little features at such a young gestational age—at this point he was less than a pound, and somewhere around 12 inches long. Unfortunately he was hiding his face, but we got a good enough view know that a) he's a looker, and b) he's keeping up the family trend of enormous noggins.

I love how he looks like he's snuggling up and having a good nap. It gives me hope that he might be a better sleeper than his sister. (And it gives me warm fuzzy thoughts of snuggling him out of the womb.)

If all goes well, this will be our last ultrasound of the pregnancy, so no more pics until he makes his debut. It's a little ways off still, but I'm getting excited to meet the little guy!

Pigtails!

But don't call them pigtails or she'll yank them out. They're either ponytails or fairy tales. Duh.