Happy Birthday Love Bug #3

It is so hard to believe our third Love Bug, Evangeline Sejal, turns 1 today. Our children and so many others are our greatest inspiration for the work that we do. Thank you for your wonderful, wonderful support since the beginning only 4.5 years ago.

As an entirely volunteer-run organization, we are so deeply grateful for the support of our donors, volunteers, and beloved board members. The gift of three children in a short 3.5 year span has meant that we didn't always get to focus on the mission of Love Bug Bundles. However, we have done the most we have been able and look forward to doing so much more.

Thank you again for EVERYTHING, and please stay in touch to hear about upcoming activities.

xoxo,
Sarah & Shervin

Reaching the Unreached...with YOU

Since 2008, core to our founding mission to serve mothers and babies in need has been the desire to spread love in the smallest ways. We embarked on this mission with these inspiring words:

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.

~Mother Teresa

Original Love Bug Bundle, 2008

During the past four years, we have been blessed to receive your support in so many amazing ways, from dollars and diapers to encouragement and evangelism. Many of you have also offered your time, and we have been working hard to find the best way to take you up on your generous offer.

Because you are such a special part of Love Bug Bundles, we are announcing a new little program called "Reaching the Unreached." From time to time, we are blessed to receive unexpected donations. We want to ensure that these gifts go to someone who truly needs them. Each of you knows a parent in need, whether it is a sister or a cousin, a neighbor or a service person. We want to help YOU help that someone.

Here is your first opportunity to become involved with "Reaching the Unreached"...

First Chance Foundation: Comfort Packages

Today we would like to honor and thank the First Chance Foundation, which recently donated 9 Comfort Packages to help support the mission of Love Bug Bundles. First Chance Foundation is based in Bulverde, Texas and was created in 2006 to generate the financial resources to help fund children’s charities that are helping provide that first chance every single day. We are grateful to receive their support.

Because of the generosity of First Chance Foundation, we currently have 9 Comfort Packages (4 girl, 5 boy) and want to help YOU share YOUR love and support with someone YOU know. Each package contains a towel, washcloth, shampoo, conditioner, and soap, as well as other small toiletries or baby items. Let us know with a comment here, e-mail, or a post on Facebook. We will arrange to deliver the bundle to you in the greater Houston or San Antonio areas.

Comfort Packages from First Chance Foundation

This program is about doing small things with love. Sometimes life is so busy that we think we cannot help someone in need. As a small volunteer-run organization, we have seen that even the smallest gift to a family in need makes a difference.

Thank you again for every way you have supported Love Bug Bundles in the past. We look forward to growing the "Reaching the Unreached" program with you.

***

A small selection of Mother Teresa's wisdom and grace:

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. 

If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go. 

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. 

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. 

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. 

***

Are you mom enough?

You couldn't have missed last month's provocative TIME magazine cover, which posed the question "Are you mom enough?" Most mothers question their "enoughness" on a daily basis. Of course, the vast majority of mothers are more than mom enough.

Attachment parenting is nothing new and neither is the controversy surrounding it. Let's advance the conversation and stop sensationalizing the image of the modern American mother. What is the point of isolating and demoralizing mothers? Why is it so disturbing to see a mother mothering? How does it help to stigmatize natural behaviors like breastfeeding and baby wearing? When will we liberate women to achieve in every realm of life?

And, where are the images capturing the love, sacrifice, and intimacy of motherhood? Here are some we love...

Stunning image and insightful words from singer Pink...“I felt that the article in TIME on attachment parenting was unfortunately a tad extreme. I support attachment parenting 100%… And have a very happy and healthy little girl to show for it. It’s time we support what’s healthy (breast feeding) instead of judge it.”

Licia Ronzulli took her seven-week-old baby to work at the European parliament September 2010. Cradling her daughter in a sling, she voted on proposals to improve women's employment rights. Ronzulli said, "It was not a political gesture. It was first of all a maternal gesture – that I wanted to stay with my daughter as much as possible, and to remind people that there are women who do not have this opportunity [to bring their children to work], that we should do something to talk about this.

Time passes so quickly, and the sweetest moments with your children can be but a blur. This is one of my favorites with the original Love Bug.

Let's move past the mommy wars and celebrate what is really important...the loving bond between parent and child.