Giving back

I haven't posted on here in awhile, mainly because I haven't had that many things to say. Given that this   blog was started to keep family and friends up to date with Blake and my medical school adventures, and our interesting lives in Dominica, things have calmed down quite a bit since moving back to the states. Well..I mean..if you count - moving from Miami to south Texas to Atlanta, medical school clinical rotations, and having a baby - calm, then thats how you would describe our lives now. But to update on our medical school adventures - we love living in Atlanta, it is beautiful here, and there are so many things to do in our free time. We have season passes to the aquarium, go hiking, visit the parks, and I have been taking tennis lessons. Our baby boy is growing up faster than I like to admit, I love him more and more each day, he is learning to swim in the pool at our apt complex, and life is good.

I liked living on the island, but it took me almost a year to actually miss it. I think it only took Blake two weeks, enough time to realize that we wouldn't be going back to start another semester, but for some reason it took me a lot longer to miss it. I rationalized that being pregnant, I couldn't do the things I really enjoyed doing on the island anyways (like scuba diving), so I didn't miss it - but now I'm taking a step back, and even caught myself day dreaming the other day, about taking a vacation to the island.

Thinking about the island, I miss the scuba diving and the friends we made at the dive shop. I miss all the natural beauty, the simplicity, the relaxed life. I miss the kids of InLightIn. I think about them a lot. I saw them as beautiful children back then, but now that I'm a mother, I look at my pictures of them and think of each of them differently - I can't explain it, but I want more time with each of those children now. I miss the Ross Catholics group, and the church community we had. I wish I had taken more time to volunteer with the church in Portsmouth, and had gotten to know some of the local parishioners better. I miss the spouses and student friends I made, that are now spread out throughout the US. I miss island hopping, and wish I would have done a little more, and visited a few more islands.

I think that I started thinking about the island more, after one of my friends asked me if I miss it, and if I miss the kids in InLightIn. This was awhile back, at my son's baptism, in December - and that made me think about the food drive me and a few of my friends did for InLightIn almost exactly a year before, the last Christmas. She wanted to see if she could donate that year, like she had the year before. Over the holidays, a few other people asked similar questions, and I had the conflicting feelings of - "well I dropped the ball on that one..I should contact someone and see if I can get donations to InLightIn" and "I am sleep deprived and have a 2 month old baby to take care of", and of course, the second one won out and I forgot all about it for awhile. Fast forward a few months, and I'm getting better sleep and a better grasp on how to care for a baby {at least I hope..fingers crossed}, and lately I have been thinking more and more about it. I'd like to continue helping the kids of Dominica, my friends and family would like to continue helping the kids of Dominica - but I didn't know what outlet to use. I found this organization that my friend Chris is involved with, Give More Hugs  and the website has a link to donate. If you donated for the Christmas food drive and were looking for a way to help out this last Christmas, please forgive me for dropping the ball, and donate through this organization. I'm confident that the money will be used to help these kids. Or if you didn't help out last Christmas, but would like to, please check it out! It looks like a great organization with a great cause.