A few months ago as I contemplated what this summer had in store for me, I felt quite upset with my life situation. I was going through a divorce. I was living at my parents. My last single friend moved to Hawaii and the rest of my friends were busy being mamas. As a teacher, I would have the whole summer with nothing to do but sit and feel sorry for myself.
Luckily my next door neighbor Ashley helped change that. She had seen my mom one day and thought she looked a little sad. To cheer her up, she made her a pair of earrings and came by to deliver them. I was the only one home. Ashley asked if I wanted to go on a walk with her. I did not want to go walk in the hot sun. Sitting on my couch watching Netflix seemed much more appealing, however I felt a little rude refusing, so on a walk we went. While walking she told me all about her new job in India. She was going to be working for a company called Rising Star Outreach. They help improve the lives of those suffering with leprosy. She was going to be in charge of coordinating all the volunteers who come to help. Later that night I decided to google this company and find out more about them. I learned about their volunteer opportunities and watched every video on their website. I began to wonder if this was something I could do.
I remembered a something that Gordon B. Hinckley's father once said to him on his mission.
"Forget yourself and go to work"
I decided that night that I needed to go to India. I didn't want to waste my summer having a pity party for myself. Even though my life situation may not have been how I imagined it would be, there are others whose situations are much worse. I could help improve their situations.
After signing up for the session I realized I didn't have much time to fundraise. My parents were so very helpful. The spent both Mother's Day and Father's Day helping me raise money. My mom and I decided to bake pies and sell them to all the fathers in my neighborhood for Mother's Day. We got orders for 60 pies. We stayed up all night baking...it was so much more work that we anticipated. We laughed and laughed until we wanted to cry. We probably won't be baking pies anytime soon. The next day I had my wonderful friends come and help bake all the filling and deliver the pies. I was so grateful for all the help. Here are a few pictures of the madness.
I decided to have a donation car wash the day before Father's Day and make Father's Day Treat Boxes for my next round of fundraising. We had a little more time to plan these two events so I enlisted a lot more help and things went much smoother. My friends and mom helped bake lots of goodies. My dad thought of everything for the car wash and was so good at promoting my cause. I am so happy I have such selfless parents who chose to serve me on days that are supposed to be all about them :)
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