March 17, 2015

CARE about someone other than yourself.

Caring for others is something so near and dear to my heart. It is the sole reason that I became a pediatric nurse. Being a pediatric home care nurse isn’t just about caring for that sweet little kid, it is also about caring for the family of that little human. It is giving mom & dad a break as soon as you walk through the door after they have had a long, trying, rewarding day. It is taking care of that child in such a way that mom & dad can trust you in leaving for a little bit to get out of the house. It is giving that sweet little one a good quality of life and the most normal life they can have.

I have had a bad week, let’s be honest here for a minute. It was a week full of lots of tears, breakdowns, hurt feelings (I am a very sensitive person even though I don’t want to be), and looking at my life and deciding if the things I am doing are bringing me up, or tearing me down. We all have them. Today in particular was the day that I completely broke down. After teaching dance I headed to my moms to pick up King. With big tears in my eyes I walked into a bedroom to just let a few fall and to gather myself. My mom offered to get pizza for us because she knew what a hard week I was having and I told her that I just needed to go home. I packed up King and headed home. The drive home was one of those drives where my ugly cry came out and my shirt was soaked with tears. I couldn’t catch my breath and I had to keep blinking to be able to see the road. I just wanted to be home, snuggle my baby, and just cry for a little while. I called Zach and asked him to pick up the pizza from my moms and warned him it was one of those days and he didn’t do anything wrong, I just was having a really hard week and it ha all caught up to me. He said he would pickup the pizza and it was no big deal. I got home and checked the porch for packages where my J.Crew package was sitting there. I opened it up and it had the gift I had bought for my mom in it for watching King for me so frequently while I work. I packaged it up and called Zach to tell him I was going to run it over to my mom and to just wait there. The gift wasn’t something big, just a tee shirt I had found for her. When I walked in and gave it to her, all my tears stopped, my sick feeling in my stomach from the week started to subside and I started to feel a little better. We ate dinner and I headed back home. King fell asleep in the car (he wakes up as soon as we un-do the carseat) so I decided to keep driving for a little bit to keep him asleep. I ran inside and grabbed a few neighbor gifts I had put together a few weeks ago and never got out. I ran them around to a few friends and left them on their porches. When I got home I felt back to myself. It was the little act of caring that changed my week from a terrible week back to a regular ‘ol week. They weren’t big gestures, only little treats and a magnet, but it was the fact that I stopped focusing on me and focused on someone else.

CARE.org is changing peoples lives. Yes they are doing it in a bigger way than just saying hi, taking around a little treat, or smiling at a someone passing by, but that doesn’t mean that those little things aren’t important. They are doing absolutely amazing things. From turing fog into drinking water to beating poverty with donuts they are chasing so many’s lives. They are empowering women and girls all while fighting poverty. They provide these women and girls with self help, economic opportunities, emergency relief, and addressing discrimination in all forms. What an amazing cause right? CARE is helping to decrease the numbers of 66 million children going to school hungry everyday, or helping girls to increase their income of 10% by every year that they go to school. Isn’t this amazing?

One person just decided to make a change, to change someones life, and look at how many lives it has changed now!  Think about if we just cared about 1 person and did one small act to help them how many acts of kindness and caring there would be daily in the world. Isn’t that remarkable to think about? Head over to CARE.org to be inspired, to read some of these amazing stories, and to have your life be changed.

Thank you to CARE for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring me to try learn about the amazing ways they are helping all over the world!