Think Pink - Lee National Denim Day

Today is Lee National Denim Day in support to the Women's Cancer Programs of EIF to support the fight against breast cancer. My company is a woman-owned business and had a team to support the day. Jacinda and I were featured on the team home page.

This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart since I lost my own grandmother to this disease when I was just 8 years old. We have come so far in the treatment, but I am hoping and praying for complete eradication of this wretched disease and for that reason...today I am wearing PINK in the hopes that in my daughter's lifetime she will see an end to breast cancer!

Four Months!

Well little Miss Jacinda Hope Bizunesh, it has been four months since we have been together.

How much you have changed in that short time! Before I met you everyone described you as this quiet little girl who was very, very shy. Oh if they could see you now!

And I will admit it, you fooled me too for the first few days! But then the real you started to emerge and what a delight that was to watch!

You make me laugh every single day. You have stretched me to my limits on more than one occasion, it's true, but even those occurrences show me so much about who you are.

Your English skills are amazing! They simply blow me away. I am sorry that my careless speech has introduced you to saying "Crap" and "Crud," but we'll both work on that. I love that you LOVE to go to school and I promise you that I am going to whip these administrators into shape and you will get the services you need! I will fight tooth and nail for you and I think they know that now.

I love to see how proud you are when you "get" something! The way you sound out your words now and are able to actually able to grasp the meaning behind those words almost makes me cry everytime. When you read your story to me last night I couldn't have been more proud.

And let me brag on your spelling for a moment. Little lady, you don't even know what some of these words mean and yet you are consistently bringing home perfect scores on your spelling test. I know every parent thinks their child is brilliant, but you are!

I love to listen as you say your sweet prayers to Jesus every night. Oh how I long for Him to be so real to you and for you to grow in His ways and understand all of the teachings that are being poured into your heart. I want you to KNOW why you believe what you believe and will strive to make sure, you never feel like things were just shoved down your throat. If I can get you at this young age to understand that knowing Jesus is all about a relationship and not a religion then I will feel like a successful parent.

Your sense of humor astounds me. Your sense of style amuses me. And the way you love our family melts my heart. You are the completion of so many months of dreams. A year ago I still hadn't seen your face and now I wouldn't know what to do without you.

Remembering Sept. 11th

As I face my first 9/11 as a mother, I reflect on that sad day eight years ago. I was working as an assistant editor for The Gazette, a weekly publication owned by the Washington Post, about 40 miles from Washington, DC. At the time I had a bi-monthly column that I wrote. This morning I searched the archives of the paper to find my column from that week 8 years ago. What is so strange to me is how reading the words can take me back...just like that.

Here's the column I wrote at the time:

Moment of Change
It's very strange how things can change so fast.
On Tuesday morning I woke up, got dressed and drove into work. My radio was set to the local country music station. I pulled into the parking garage, turned off the car and walked to the office still humming Travis Tritt's "It's a Great Day to be Alive."
When I rounded the corner to my desk, our editor, Vivian, looked up at me with tears in her eyes and asked, "Have you heard?"
"Heard what?" I asked, as my heart fell into my shoes.
In the next few moments, I realized that in the time it took me to walk from the garage to the office, reports of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City had made it to media outlets.
Like the rest of the world, we were still reeling from the apparent tragic accident, when the second plane hit.
Somewhere deep inside I immediately knew this was no accident. "We're under attack," I whispered.
All work in the office stopped. We huddled around the radios and listened to the sound of panic in radio announcers' voices.
And just when we thought things may have settled down, reports of the plane crashing into the Pentagon came flooding across the airwaves.
I will never forget the look of fear in the eyes of my co-workers. For just a moment I allowed my mind to wonder, what if we're next?
It was terrifying.
I can never imagine the fear and horror those on the planes and those in the office buildings must have experienced. My heart goes out to them and I will continue to pray for all of those affected by this tragedy.
I can't imagine that life will ever be the same again. The tragedy is still too fresh and my emotions too raw.
When I left work late Tuesday night I turned the ignition on and mysteriously the notes of Tritt's song again filled my car. But this time I didn't sing along.
I turned the radio off and drove home in silence, reflecting on the day that everything changed.

The Loose Tooth

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Jacinda. She got up one morning and realized that one of her teeth was loose. She showed her mommy.

"Look Mommy, my tooth" she said.

"I see," her mommy gently wiggled the tooth. "It is loose, but not too loose. It will take a while and then one day it come out."

Jacinda nodded.

All day in school Jacinda pushed her tongue against the wiggling tooth. By the end of the day, it was much looser. When her Grammy picked her up from school, Jacinda showed her.

"Look, Grammy, my tooth!"

"I see," her Grammy gently wiggled the tooth. "It is loose, but not too loose. It will take a while and then one day it come out."

Jacinda nodded.

That night at dinner, Jacinda pushed her tongue against the wiggling tooth, between bites of chicken and rice. The tooth was getting looser.

"Look Mommy, my tooth!"

"I see," her mommy gently wiggled the tooth. "It is loose, but not too loose. It will take a while and then one day it come out."

After dinner, her mommy went to do some chores and Jacinda decided to watch TV. Smack dab in the middle of her favorite TV show, Jacinda wiggled the tooth and POP! it came out.

She ran to find her mom.

"Look Mommy, my tooth!"

Her mommy looked up. "Wow, it is your tooth!"

Then Jacinda's mommy told her about the tooth fairy.

"She's like Tinkerbell, only she will come to take your tooth and leave you a surprise in place of it."
Jacinda was afraid.

"Will she eat me?" she asked.

"No," her mommy smiled. "The tooth fairy is good."

So Jacinda put her tooth into a pretty bag

And put it by her bed.

She went to sleep. And the next morning, she found that her tooth was gone.

But there was something in the bag. It was a five dollar bill!

Jacinda knew that the tooth fairy had made a visit. She told her mom she had seen the tooth fairy.

"She was brown and green and very nice." Jacinda said.

At breakfast, Jacinda tried to wiggle her tooth with her tongue, but it was gone. And in its place was a brand new tooth starting to grow.

"Look Mommy, my tooth!" Jacinda said.
"I see," her mommy looked in her mouth. "It is a new tooth, but not too big. It will take a while and then one day it will be as big as the others."

Jacinda smiled.

Posing Princess