It’s ironic, in a sad way, that I was writing about burns and tragedy yesterday. For, you see I just found out that today is Nie Nie Day, as declared by Design Mom, and Nie Nie Day is in honor of Stephanie of Nie Nie Dialogues. On August 16, 2008, Stephanie and her husband Christian were in a very serious private plane crash in Arizona. Christian suffered burns over 30% of his body, and Stephanie’s body is burned over 80%.
I can’t even imagine the pain and suffering, not to mention just being away from your children (and for them to be away from you) for the amount of time that these two sweet people will have to endure.
As part of Nie Nie Day, many bloggers are hosting silenct auctions to raise money for the Nielsons. Of course at Ruby & Roja we wanted to participate, so go here to bid on a Plush Design Package. Also be sure to read the post at Design Mom today, to check out all the other amazing bloggers coming together, rallying around and helping a “man down”.
May God bless them immensely with all this bloggy love.
If you thought I was a busy bee before, hang on to your hat. It’s getting a whole lot busier, and a whole lot greener up in herrr.
I am the Managing Editor of the shiny and new site called 5 Minutes for Going Green. It’s a new sister site of 5 Minutes for Mom, and I’m over the moon about this new baby of ours. We have a team of amazing writers on deck to bring you stories, tips, hilarity and more. I know you will absolutely LOVE it, and we need your help in spreading the word! So come on over, add us to your reader, post about it, tweet about it, tell your friends go crazy!
And while you’re at it, don’t stop there. Check out the other fabulous sister sites that were also born today. It’s a whole family of hip and smart women, that I know you will adore.
Big hug and smooches to Janice and Susan from 5 Minutes for Mom for bringing me on board and making all our dreams a reality!
This week has been incredible. I know everything happens for a reason, and the timing of things is perfect, and so I wondered why in one week, two big bloggers wanted me to guest post on their blogs about my life. Not wondering in a questioning way, just in a curious way. It is more than an honor to be asked, to imagine that these people think my writing worthy of their personal space. But more importantly, I’m thrilled they wanted to know about my life. They asked questions hoping to learn more about what it’s like to be a mom of autism, and I can’t thank them enough.
It’s still surreal to me, that this disorder, these boys and their souls and struggles, are a mystery to others. What is my day to day, never escaping except for a few moments here and there, reality, is completely unknown to most people. So many people still don’t even know what autism is. I am profoundly grateful for these bloggers to allow me to share once more about my life, my boys. Our world.
I am guest posting over at Rocks In My Dryer today. Shannon asked me to write about “what I wish you knew” and it was a cathartic experience for me. I did not realize that the post and the resulting comments would be propping me up so much today. I did not realize I needed them, each and every one of those people–most total strangers, and their kind words, to get me through yet another day or week. Thank you Shannon, again, for the honor.
If you have not yet read my post at I Should Be Folding Laundry, please head over there and read it, or even if you did please head back and read the comments. People are incredible, and I think their humanity and beautiful spirits could bless you today as well.
I so often wonder if writing about my boys is too much, if you all are tired of hearing about it. I don’t know really what is interesting, I only share what is on my heart and what makes up my world. To see the support not only today on these other blogs, but daily from all of you is humbling and awe-inspiring, and truly what this community is all about. Thank you.
One thing that I find utterly fascinating, which I’m sure most of you all *don’t*, is writing about writing. Blogging about blogging. Talking about what to talk about. It’s all so very Seinfeld, and often quite hilarious (again, probably just to me).
I’m guest posting over at Jo-Lynne’s home, Musings of a Housewife today, talking about what I want to talk about. Or something.
It got me thinking about what specifically inspires me to write, to blog. What inspires you?
Some days it’s a funny thing my child said, like yesterday when my son was attempting to insult his brother and said “Charlie only likes pretties, and I like awesomes”. That kid cuts deep, I tell ya. Or when I was perplexed by repeated phone calls from Direct TV telling me they were coming to my house for an upgrade, and when they never arrived I found out they went to my mom’s house (figure that one out for me, because I can’t).
Other times it’s a look in my baby’s eye, that little sparkle that tells me he loves me. Or the intriguing way his tiny teeth push through the gums, one by one, ever so slowly (goodness are they slow). Onlly a tiny white speck peeking out on some, others quietly bulging waiting their inevitable turn.
Those things remind me of life. Of beauty. Miracles.
Most of the time I don’t plan out my posts unless there’s a burning topic I can’t wait to share. Or a giveaway (finally tomorrow I will be posting a biggy!). Typically I go with what moves me in the moment, perhaps a stunning photo I accidentally took of someone or something, and it sends me off on a thought process of just how important my family is to me. Or how funny life can be. Or how awesome blogging about blogging really is.
I like to think if Seinfeld had a blog he’d be talking about blogging. And it’d be genius. But he wouldn’t have the baby sparkle. That’s one thing I have that he doesn’t. That and the never ending laundry pile, but still.
The business of trying to prop up two fledgling new careers (mine and hub’s), on top of working really hard at not losing our minds each day as we battle back and forth with autism and it’s havoc on our home, does not leave much time for writing most days.
Especially today.
So I figured I’d tell you about what I’m up to, what I’m reading, who I’ve got my eye on today.
I’m reading about Growing Your Traffic over at Rocks in my Dryer, great info for veteran or newbie bloggers.
Fussy is reminding us all to Stop Poisoning Ourselves, at her Fussypants blog. Don’t even think about walking into your house with your shoes on after reading her post.
Steph at Adventures in Babywearing has posted belly pic of the painting that Ashlee and I created this weekend. The Tree of Life, like you’ve never seen it before.
I’m still enjoying the sugar high off our Cookies By Design treats that they so generously donated to Steph’s baby shower this weekend. They were a hit, so look for more about them in an upcoming Baby Shower guide from Mama Speaks.
Also, have you checked out NewBaby.com yet? They are like a YouTube for moms, where you can post videos, create playlists and connect with other moms of kids of all ages. You can archive your videos (to keep your hard drive purring) and share them with family and friends. A safe place to go when those nasty YouTubers are getting you down.
That should all keep you busy for a while…check back tomorrow when I’ll have a huge giveaway to tell you about!
Have you ever had so much fun that you had to literally physically recover from the brain? Today I’m moving like an 80 year old woman. Prying my eyes open and propelling my aching body out of bed was such a feat that I’m kind of offended that I didn’t get a medal for achieving it. What a weekend.
Saturday started our Mama Speaks getaway, where BossLady Ashlee treated Steph and I (the only writers who could attend) to treatments at the spa including a one hour Swedish massage and citrus hand and foot treatments. Oh. Magosh. Incredible. My first ever massage, and let’s just say it was the first of many (do you hear me, dear husband?). We laughed, we bonded even more, we wore warm lavender mitts:
We noticed all the funny chotckes, like a cat with a suit on holding a cello, a frog candelabra, and a Victorian poodle with a wig on who honestly looked a little melancholy:
Afterwards there we painted a tree of life on Steph’s pregnant belly, ate yummy Popeye pizza and watch a sweet movie before heading off to dreamland. Sunday brought nothing but lies and laughter and the biggest surprise I’ve ever been a part of. Eliciting faces like these:
But you can read all about that over here. Amazing, exhausting, uplifting and some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Ever.
I hope all of you are blessed to be surrounded by people who you love and love you back. And at the very least, I hope you run off and get a chotchke or two. The conservation of Victorian poodles depends on it.
We were surrounded by parents and relatives who I was not only honored to stand shoulder to shoulder with, but was humbled to hear their personal stories as well. Stories of grief, loss, perseverance and hope. Stories of how vaccines had injured, or in some cases killed, their precious children. On Wednesday, 8,500 people (and the thousands they represent) had their voices heard.
As we approached the place where all the marchers were gathering, at the magnificent Washington Monument, I couldn’t help but feel a plethora of emotions welling up within me. We could see people far away walking in the same direction we were heading, wearing the same green shirts. Ahead we could see the groundswell of the crowd gathering, lining up and growing larger by the second. Couples (like us), grandparents, even entire families had traveled so far to be there on that day. Traveled to make a statement, to stand shoulder to shoulder, to turn the tide of what is happening with vaccines today in America and create change.
Before long we started walking the walk. Slowly but surely, we headed down Independence Ave., proudly holding up our signs and pictures as we walked by each intersection and the hundreds of cars who had to stop and wait for our entire parade to pass by. Most stared, some honked. No one heckled or booed. How could they? The signs spoke for themselves.
We were energized but solemn. Each and every one of us would have given anything to not be there. To not ever have heard of autism or vaccine injury. To not had our children disabled. To have never needed a rally to get the government to pay attention to the epidemic they are enabling.
But we were, and we have, and they are, and we did.
And as our pace slowed down a bit while we passed the Health and Human Services building (parents of the CDC), we raised our voices a little bit louder and wondered if they were watching the mass of people below them from their cushy office chairs above. Were they wondering what we were doing and saying? Did they notice the faces of the people they are continuing to ignore? People who are “weak” and have no purpose except to fulfill their “unfit” destiny in this “survival of the fittest” mentality? I doubt they could be bothered. But I hope they were. I hope they were very bothered, indeed.
Finally as the entire group made it’s way to the mall area of the Capital, we were handed water and gathered around a small stage that had been set up across from a large platform full of the press corp. Cameras galore, we started to get excited thinking that this rally was actually going to get the coverage it deserved. Most of us realized that with the Obama/Clinton situation going on that it would be hard to be seen, but we remained optimistic.
First Dr Jay Gordon spoke (famous pediatrician, and doctor to Jenny McCarthy’s son Evan), and talked about how proud he was of all of us, and pointed out the thousands that would never be able to be at a rally like this, due to the extensive amounts of money they have to pay for their child’s treatment and thus lack of any funds to travel. Next Dr Boyd Haley (I might be out of order with a few of these guys, so my apologies if that’s the case), renowned scientist and expert on mercury, came up to the podium and reminded us all that science is on our side but no one will read it. He reprimanded the press for their continued refusal to cover the story in an objective way (i.e., nothing but regurgitating flawed CDC information). I’m told that many videos from the rally ended when Dr Haley said “you members of the press are a big part of the problem”, even though the rally went on another hour. Apparently the mainstream press don’t like to be called on their shizzle.
After Dr Haley was Dr Jerry Kartzinel, the doctor that has treated Evan and countless others, and recovered them from autism. He said that he himself injected his son with MMR and watched him slowly slip away in the days and weeks following. He said that his wife told him, “You broke him, now you fix him!”, and he is.
Next we heard RFK Jr speak intelligently and passionately, and I have to say he was one of the most inspiring and compelling speakers I’ve ever heard. Here’s an excerpt of what he had to say:
Next came Jim Carrey who was my favorite of the day. He had so many incredible things to share, I wish I could just type out every word here. Suffice to say I totally love the guy. Here’s a clip:
And finally Jenny spoke. She has a very charismatic and down to Earth way about her, that we love from seeing her speak (and meeting her in person) at the Autism One conference. She had awesome stuff to say (and I will share more clips later) but the most moving part of her speech was actually when she was not talking at all. She had each of us hold up a picture of our affected children (some people held up pictures for families that could not be there) and asked us to hold them all facing the press while she played a song. It was by far the most difficult part of the rally to get through, and I had a hard time comprehending every one of those pictures. Thankfully my husband got it on video:
I’m not sure if you can feel the energy in that video, but I know it does not do that moment justice. You can’t see the thousands of people or most of the pictures because we were way on the side in the back, but you can get an idea of what happened. It was life changing. Truly.
After that the rally ended, and we all dispersed. Hugs, exchanging information, taking a few last pictures. Some people went to a meet and greet with Jenny and Jim, others met with people from their State and went to meetings with the legislators to talk about the most pressing issues in vaccines, research and laws.
I have more to tell you, specifically the AFTERMATH, which not only includes abysmal and biased press coverage, but torrential rain and tornados (apparently I took one with me in my pocket when I left the Midwest).
So for now, enjoy the videos and feel free to ask any questions. Also, if you come across any news coverage, I’m happy to post them here, so email them to me or leave the link in the comments. I won’t link anything that pretends to be about the rally but is actually about how TOTALLY AWESOME AND SAFE vaccines are. Good luck finding something like that.
Thanks so very very much to my readers, my friends, my twitter followers and my family (for taming the wild beasts back home so we could do this). You all supporting us and cheering us on is what kept us going that day and every day. I adore you and love you and would totally spoon you if you were here. Peace.
**Here’s a link to press pics of the event. Great shots of the speakers.
**While I’m on my way to D.C. for the rally, please enjoy and give comment love to this guest post from Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing.**
I remember many years ago when my middle son Carter was just a baby, a friend at church had told me she didn’t vaccinate her kids. She didn’t say why, and I’m not even sure why it was even brought up, but I remember feeling a little appalled. And I asked our pediatrician about it right away. I had never heard of not vaccinating. I didn’t know there was an option. And the doctor assured me in some way that what my friend was doing was wrong, and what I was doing was right. And I never thought about it again.
Until Carter had a horrible reaction after his 1 year shots. He was listless and vomiting and very sick. I asked the doctor if it could be from his vaccinations, since he had just had them that day, and I was assured that it most certainly was not. And I didn’t think about it again.
Months later our oldest son Noah began having unexplained seizures. It was a time where nothing made sense. Nothing. Not the seizures. Not what the doctors were suggesting or not suggesting. Not having our phone calls returned. Not having help. Not having answers. Not having a cure.
We had done a little research on our own, with little bits here and there feeding us just enough to survive. We had one son with seizures and no explanation and had no idea if it would happen to Carter. We found that if there was a seizure history in the family, that a child could be more susceptible to seizures with a vaccination. So right then we decided to pause vaccinations on both boys until we knew more.
Slowly, as we were still searching for answers to Noah’s increasing seizures- over 200 per day and now requiring him to wear a helmet- we found other families like us. With children having the same problems. The same strange seizures and symptoms. A common factor in all of our stories was vaccinations and time of vaccination. We gathered all of Noah’s vaccine records and found that some of his vaccines were manufactured back in 1999- before thimerosal was removed. We calculated how much mercury exposure he must have gotten and it was extremely high. 50 times as much as declared safe with the FDA.
Another parent with a child like Noah recommended David Kirby’s book Evidence Of Harm. I checked it out from the library and remember reading in shock, through tears, stories like ours. And I never ever thought about vaccinations in the same way again. I felt betrayed. I felt ashamed. Like I should have known better. But I had no idea. No one had ever talked to me about the possible dangers. I thought I was doing what was best for my child, but never once thought to research it on my own.
Thankfully my husband was on the exact same page as I was. This led us to much more research. If we weren’t going to vaccinate, what were our options? What happens if our child gets the measles? Could they go to school? We wanted to be armed with all the information we could find. It took a bit of re-training our minds to stop thinking we had to “obey” what the doctors said and we soon found how liberating it was to go out on our own and think for ourselves.
We switched to a pediatrician that would support our choice to not vaccinate. We continue to stay up to date on all the latest facts and studies about vaccinations and not just about the dangers of mercury, but the other harmful ingredients as well. We know myths from facts. It is not a decision we made lightly or out of fear. It is one of the most important decisions you may make for your children. We feel what we are doing is right for our family.
A helpful resource that we still turn to is Dr. Sherry Tenpenny’s DVD- Vaccines: The Risks, The Benefits, The Choices. This DVD has assured us what would realistically happen if we or our child were to get a certain disease and how to treat it. If you want to selectively vaccinate, this is also very helpful in deciding which vaccines are not necessary.
Of course after all the experience and knowledge we now have, I do not feel any vaccine is necessary. Even if a vaccine was all “greened up” and toxin free, I’d still not choose to vaccinate my child. But, for every child that will still be vaccinated, they deserve to have a toxin-free vaccination. Green those vaccines!
If you feel vaccinations are best for your child, then please consider delaying until your child is older, separating them, or selectively vaccinating. At least be armed with all the facts and base your decision on your own research. Asking your doctor simply is not enough. I learned that the hard way. Whatever you decide, do not choose this controversial topic to be the one you to which you say, “Ignorance is bliss.”
If you have questions about your state’s laws and attending school, you can find more information here.
