Accepted

I just got my letter Friday from Big Brothers, Big Sisters saying that I had been accepted.  Hopefully they will be calling me soon about a match.  I'm really looking forward to it!  Also looking forward to being back at The Y after a week of being sick.  Reading with the kids is always a lot of fun, even if it gets a little crazy sometimes!  Well, that's my quick update for a Saturday night, I'll hopefully be posting new and exciting information soon!

Just some regular updates.

I still haven't heard from Big Brothers, Big Sisters.  That's alright, I've been very busy, so hopefully when they do call things will have settled down.  I am going to The Y today with Amanda to help read to the kids there, last week we helped in the homework room.  I actually had fun helping them with math of all things!  I'm planning on calling the Shoals Environmental Assoc. one of their nature walks sounded really interesting.  I know that's not necessarily community service, but it will be a learning experience.  Other than that, there's really nothing else going on.  But just thinking, I think it would be really cool if there was a group somewhere that knitted hats for children in need.  I know there are programs like that I just have to find them.  I guess I'm going to have to ask around.  Wish me luck!

"10 Years of Hope, Trying to Save Abandoned Newborns" by Kristen McQueary

This article was really heartbreaking.  I've heard of the stories of desperate mothers leaving their children in dumpsters or other places before, but its definitely not something I like to think about.  The article mentioned that  Geras had been inspired to pass Safe Haven laws in Illinois after reading about incident that happened in Alabama.  A young woman had taken her newborn to a Safe Haven i.e. a hospital, police station, or fire station.  Safe Haven laws allow mothers to anonymously leave their children at these places.  The children are then sent to adoptive parents, and bypass the foster care system.  I knew these laws existed but I wasn't aware that Alabama had enacted them.  We do under the Code of Alabama-Title 26, Ch 25 Sect. 26-25-1,2,3,4,5.  It's awful that these laws have to be enacted, but thankfully these mothers now have a legal and safe way to abandon their children.  I wish we didn't have to have these laws, that people weren't put in situations where the best option is to abandon their child.  These laws give these children a chance at a good life, a chance for college and not a life filled with uncertainty.  It makes me have a little more faith in humanity that someone like Geras would get a law passed to help these infants.  But the problem hasn't been fixed by enacting these Safe Haven laws.  There is a root problem, and that is what must be fixed.  People should be educated about safe sex, and the responsibilities that come with having a child. I also personally believe that condoms and free birth control pills should be handed out to anyone who asks for it.  People worry about infants left in toilets, and we have to enact laws to give desperate mothers a different option, and people worry about unfit people having too many children, or populations skyrocketing, well here's your answer.  It's not population control, its giving people the education to know what to do and what resources they have, and then giving them the option to have, not just condoms, but birth control pills for free.  Anyway that's my soap box, and I apologize for ranting, but there it is.  Before women have to resort to putting babies in toilets let's give them the option to not get pregnant, and here's the radical part, let's do it for free!

The Y

This last Monday I volunteered at the Y's Accelerated Reader Program.  Basically how this works is you help kids from 1st to 4th grade read their AR books.  They have to read the books three times, one time you read it to them, then they read it to themselves, and then they read it to you so that you know they understand.  It's a really good program, but they definitely need more volunteers.  Amanda Frazier and I went on Monday when they have a smaller group and we were overwhelmed.  The ratio was about 5 to 1 of us, and we really could not effectively help these kids as much as I would have liked to simply because there were so many.  It was a lot of fun however, and I really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go on Wednesday because I wasn't feeling well, but I am looking forward to going back next week.