Gabe is incredible. He smiles at the funniest things (like Justin Bieber and getting his nose poked) and he cries at the funniest things (like Aaron making faces at him). We have your typical baby woes but for the most part we're doing good. I'm definitely a little sleep deprived, but that's my own fault. I'm really bad at the whole "sleep when baby sleeps" thing. There's a lot of things to do! I want to keep up with the baby book, there are dishes, laundry, and oh yeah, a shower for me!! People who say that you have no free time as new mom aren't being totally honest. You have free time, you just have to make difficult decisions on how to spend it. Do I shower? Do I eat? Do I sleep? Do I do my laundry? Do I try to clean up? Exercise? Pay bills? And it's only going to get worse now that the baby is being awake for longer during the day. But hopefully that will also equal sleeping more during the night.
One thing I CAN do while at home with the baby is raise money. I'm participating in love146's Tread on Trafficking. It's a fundraiser for human trafficking prohibition efforts. Participants walk, run, bike, or swim a certain amount of miles and others pledge their financial support, or they can just go to the page set up for my personal efforts and make a flat donation. My distance goal is 100 miles (I have all month to complete this), and my financial goal WAS $200 but literally the morning after I registered I had reached beyond my goal (thanks if you donors are reading this!!!) so I upped my goal to $350. I got myself a pedometer to track my steps around the house and on walks with the baby and such, and today, at 4:45 I am at 0.12 miles...haha. I've got a ways to go.
I'm doing this for one big reason: I don't know of anything else I can do. The epidemic of sex slave trade and human trafficking is heart wrenching and devastating. It's a huge, HUGE problem. And because it's so huge working toward a solution can seem even bigger, the enormity of a solution can be intimidating. It leaves you thinking "yes, this is terrible but there's nothing I can do". Love146 is an incredible group that raises money and awareness and works to abolish child sex slavery through prevention and aftercare. Tread of Trafficking is just one way they encourage people to get involved in fundraising, or at the very least, raising awareness about this issue. I'm choosing to participate because I often feel so helpless and insignificant in the face of this issue, but this is something I can do to help, even if it's something small. It might seem too small to matter, but isn't a small contribution better than no contribution at all?
With that last sentence in mind, I ask you, if you're reading this, to consider donating something, even something
small. To make a donation go HERE. If you just want some information on the issue or want to find your own way of getting involved, go to Love146's website: www.love146.org
