Monday, July 14, 2008

An open letter to the powerful Turks in charge of the Istanbul electricity grid -

I am about to singlehandedly fly for 12 hours to the US with 2 children, including a stopover and a 4 a.m. departure from home. Tonight I have plugged in 3 iPods, one laptop capable of playing DVDs, 2 Nintendo DS hand-held games, and one digital camera.

Please, oh please, tonight, no power cuts. I will be indebted to you forever.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

I'm really sorry, it's been over a month since I've blogged! That's just horrible.

Kids and I are heading off to the US early Tuesday a.m. so I'll try and write from the road.

In the meantime, I wanted to share another blog from a great friend who's doing something really good. Her name is Troye and she's decided that one person CAN make a difference.

Troye is a quilter and has spent the last few weeks (maybe months?) sewing. Up late, up early, she's been a busy bee.

Troye knows of a little Turkish girl named Melisa who has a horrible tumor growing behind her eye. Not only is it affecting her sight, it's created an unsightly lump on her face as well. Something none of us would wish on anyone. Coming from a family that doesn't have the money to just pay for private medical care, she is relying on the Turkish national health care. Not exactly top notch, as I'm sure you can imagine. The gap between rich and poor here seems to grow daily, as in many other countries.

Anyway, Troye is auctioning off her quilts to the highest bidders. Any money she raises will go toward Melisa's medical bills. Not a dime for expenses, supplies, anything. She's made the quilts, and along with the assistance of some friends, set up a web site and is running an auction this weekend. She saw a problem and decided to do something about it. Period.

In addition to taking on this project and just taking the bull by the horns, Troye is the mother to 6 great kids between the ages of 5 and 29. She is a constant source of inspiration and my go-to girl on many a parenting issue.

So if you are so inspired, you can read about her project here: http://www.quiltsformelisa.blogspot.com/

and you can visit the quilt auction here:http://picasaweb.google.com/troyegirl/AuctionQuilts

And if nothing else, maybe you too will be inspired as I have been by Troye's efforts.

More from the road in the US.