First Shots

Today Eli had his first shots which perhaps was more traumatizing for me than him, as I'm sure it is for most parents. I had obsessed about these immunizations, reading tons about vaccines, the pros and cons, and then making the decision to vaccinate or not was made all the more confusing by our impending trip to return to Ghana where things like Polio still exist. After consulting doctors, doing my research and talking it over with folks, I came to the decision to just to it. There are far too many other things to worry about than the vaccines at this point...like Malaria for example. But, of course, there is still a little twinge of worry...did we make the right decision, what if he has a bad reaction, what if something happens down the road to him and we find out maybe the vaccines were to blame but most of the worries are irrational I know and as I'm learning we cannot control everything that happens.

In the end, I think we handled this milestone pretty well. Grandma Angie was by our side snapping photos and video to document screams, semi-tears, and red faced Eli! Now he's knocked out on me and I assume today will be eating and sleeping, eating and sleeping. At least I know all this eating and sleeping is paying off. The boy weights 15 lbs and is in the 95 percentile of weight and 77 percentile of height!

Fundraising for Street Children in Ghana

The last few weeks have been filled with preparing for a fundraiser I've wanted to have to raise money for Chance for Children, the organization I work with in Ghana. The organization supports street children by providing many different programs to them and one of the ways they raise money for their program is by selling handicrafts that the children make or are learning to make. This includes batik fabric, beaded necklaces, recycled paper greeting cards, and more. I had the opportunity to host a sale at our local farmers market last weekend which was great and meant a lot of exposure to the community. Much of the preparation for this consisted of my overly ambitious goal of sewing finished products from the 48 yards of batik fabric that Alan brought back with him that had been created by the organization for sale. I figured I could raise more money by selling products like placemats, napkins, aprons, and hair ties than with just the plan fabric. But of course I came out with this overly ambitious idea before I had a real solid feeling for the amount of time a baby requires! I remained determined though and every time Eli was napping I'd run upstairs in our attic where I set up a little sewing room and I'd sew like mad not knowing if I'd get an hour or 10 minutes.



We got the word out through friends and our community here about the sale and soon enough I had a little article about the sale and NGO in 2 local publications!





The sale was a great success and we sold almost everything! Tons of people came after reading the articles and many were very excited about the work of the organization and were more than willing to purchase the crafts. I managed to raise over $1000 which felt amazing and pretty much sold out of everything! It really made me realize how living in a small community where the networks are strong and well-established can really pay off at times like this. Let's just say this kind of thing would not have happened in NYC!

Now, with the help of a local attorney who specializes in social media law, we've taken the fundraising a step further and have created a way for people to donate to CFC online! She'll be using CFC and this experience of going online to fundraise, in a workshop she's holding for local non-profit and business leaders on June 30th. This is a new experience for me and I am learning as much as I can about how to use social media to publicize a cause and spread the word about how to donate. Check out our Chipin page!

Good Friends

I got on the computer tonight to share some pictures from last weekend and realized that I had every intention to post the pictures early last week but with little Eli around, tasks like this get much delayed (of course no one is complaining but it's just funny how quickly time flies by with a baby). Last weekend was full of not just good friends but great friends who I haven't seen in a while and who got to meet Eli for the first time. It was so much fun to see them and for me to show off Eli a bit and who now is smiling more and more often and working his charm.

My amazing friend Marisa, who I met about 3 years ago in New York when we worked at the same organization for high risk teens and their families in the Bronx, came to Georgia for the weekend to get some time with me and Eli before we head back to Ghana. As she puts it, she didn't want to wait to see Eli as a toddler and figure she'd have to make a special trip to see him as a baby. I am so thankful that she made the special trip and we had so much fun just playing with Eli, watching his new tricks, and taking him around town a bit.






And also, in the same weekend, my very good friend Leslie, who I met the first day of 6th grade and have stayed great friends with ever since, was in town from Raleigh, NC for a wedding and stopped by for a while with her adorable 9 month old, Charlie so we could introduce the boys and she could meet Eli for the first time. The last time Leslie saw me was at my baby shower when I was gigantic and so it was fun to show her little Eli. Charlie took great interest in Eli and Eli's vibrating chair and really loved giving him love pats. Can't wait until Eli can give the love pats back to Charlie but for now he was pretty oblivious to the new baby friend.