Washington, DC, USA: Going Beyond the Fear

Washington, DC, USA: Going Beyond the Fear

wmbpostAs I pulled up to the car pool line I passed the neighbor’s car as she finished dropping off and headed back home. We gave a quick wave and went on our way.

I dropped Jackson off and watched as he slowly made his way into school without a care in the world. And just when I thought he had long forgotten about me he turned around, cracked a smile and waved.  I shed a few tears as I drove off, and reminded myself that letting him go and grow is a good thing!  It’s  out of my comfort zone at times which can be scary, but it’s good for him, for me, for us.

A few minutes later a text popped up on my cell phone. It was from my neighbor.

“Sometimes I get teary eyed dropping off the kids at school and thinking of Newtown”

“Me too” I replied.  Me too. (more…)

Kristen

Kristen is a stay-at-home to two little boys, Jackson (4 yrs) and Owen (nearly 2 yrs). She was born in New York, but eventually made her way down to Texas. She and her husband, Seth, met in Dallas and were married in December 2005. Nine months into their marriage Seth received a call that he had landed his dream job, one catch, it involved world wide assignment. The adventure took them from Texas to Washington, D.C., on to Bogotá, Colombia and then back to Washington, D.C before bringing them to Bern, Switzerland! Kristen and her family have currently lived in Bern for more than 1 year, where her husband works for the US Department of State. Four moves and 2 children in nearly 6 years of marriage have made for quite the adventure in motherhood! Kristen finds motherhood to be one of the most humbling and character building things she has ever experienced. The responsibility of raising boys with integrity and respect at times feels daunting, but she couldn’t imagine doing anything else! Kristen is a Speech Language Pathologist but has taken time away from working to focus on her family. Although she enjoys the travel and adventure involved in her husband’s career, she often finds herself feeling far from home and working to make the most of time abroad! On her blog, Seasons Worth Savoring, Kristen writes about daily life with two little boys, including her experiences as she navigates a foreign culture and walks by faith. In her free time, or rather in her busy time with two boys attached to her legs, Kristen enjoys cooking, photography, antique and thrift store shopping, working on crafts, and blogging.

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INDONESIA: The Blessing of Individuality

DSC_9290I have been blessed with two sons. My oldest is almost three years old and my baby just turned one. My pregnancies went as expected, bloating, swelling, nausea and horrible morning sickness, you know, the usual. However, the first breaths of life of each of my boys have been completely different.

Evan, my oldest came out of the womb kicking and screaming. Two nurses had to hold him down in order to be able to aspirate his nose. He was loud and restless from the first second, and he still is.

Joshua, my baby, came out with the calmest demeanor and the wisest look I’ve seen on a baby’s face. From his first minutes of life he seemed to be taking everything in and seemed at peace with his new environment.

When Josh was born, I thought to myself, “I’ve made it.” I already have a toddler and I know exactly what to do. I thought that all the things that worked with Evan would immediately work with Josh and that the things Evan enjoyed, Josh would, too.

Boy, was I wrong. (more…)

Ana Gaby

Ana Gaby is a Mexican by birth and soul, American by heart and passport and Indonesian by Residence Permit. After living, studying and working overseas, she met the love of her life and endeavored in the adventure of a lifetime: country-hopping every three years for her husband’s job. When she's not chasing her two little boys around she volunteers at several associations doing charity work in Indonesia and documents their adventures and misadventures in South East Asia at Stumble Abroad.

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SOCIAL GOOD: $5 Saves 2 Lives in LAOS

SOCIAL GOOD: $5 Saves 2 Lives in LAOS

This post is the third installment by  Kristyn Zalota, Founder of CleanBirth.org, about her work in Laos. To read the first post in the series,click here:  “One Mom’s Mission to Save Lives in Laos”. To read the second post, click here: “Small Project Big Impact: Making Birth Safe in Laos”

IMG_0104As you may know from my previous posts, I am a mom on a mission to make birth safer in Laos. This month my organization, CleanBirth.org, has the goal of raising enough funds to save 1,000 mothers and 1,000 babies.

I am a doula, Lamaze educator, and advocate for safe birth for impoverished women.  I was drawn to work in Laos, because women there die at a higher rate than Afghani women and Lao babies die at a higher rate than babies in Sudan.

In November 2012, I traveled to southern Laos and, with my Lao partner organization, trained nurses in the use and distribution of Clean Birth Kits.  When the nurses told me that women give birth alone, I agreed to fund community education about safe birthing practices

Having completed the nurses’ training, we went deep into the mountains to visit the clinics there.  I immediately sensed the grinding poverty of the area.  People live on $1 per day.  The life expectancy of women is short, either due to childbirth (8-12 births) or disease.  Most will lose several babies.

What do you see when you walk into the villages?  Naked kids with runny noses.  Mothers with babies in slings.  Bamboo and wood one-room dwellings on stilts.  No electricity, not a single store.  While a new road connecting Thailand and Vietnam is bringing change, it is mostly in the form of human trafficking, HIV, and environmental degradation. (more…)

Kristyn Zalota

Kristyn brings her years of experience as an entrepreneur and serial volunteer to CleanBirth.org. She holds a MA, has run small businesses in Russia and the US, and has volunteered in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Uganda on projects related to women’s empowerment. After having children, Kristyn became an advocate for mothers in the US, as a doula and Lamaze educator, and abroad, as the Founder of CleanBirth.org. She is honored to provide nurses in Laos with the supplies, funding and training they need to lower maternal and infant mortality rates in their villages.

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NEW YORK, USA: Guilty As Charged

We live in New York City, in one of the busiest areas, mid-town Manhattan and there are many benefits to living in the city.  The kids go, regularly, to museums.  I walk 10 minutes to get to and from work.  When the kids were babies, I was able to walk home and nurse them at lunch time, or we would meet in the park across the street if the weather was nice.  I have a doorman who can accept any deliveries when I am not home.  I can shop for my groceries on-line and schedule a delivery whenever I need to.  On days where I am working late, I have hundreds of restaurants literally at my finger tips and can order any cuisine to be delivered.

There are also many cons to living in the city.  We, the 4 of us, live in a 2 bedroom apartment, approximately 1100 square feet (102.2 square meters).  I know in other countries this may seem like a rather large apartment, in fact, my cousin in France lives in smaller apartment than us with 2 boys. But in the US, where everything is bigger, such as the furniture, serving portions and cars, it feels small. Especially when I look at the house that I could buy, for the same price, in the suburbs.  We don’t have much space for storage, which is probably not such a bad thing, since it gets me to purge lots of unused items.

The biggest downfall though, in regards to my children, is the lack of outdoor space.  Sure, there are quite a few parks and playgrounds within walking distance, as well as the beautiful Central Park, which is either a short cab/bus ride away (or a long walk on a nice day). However, there is no backyard where the kids can play and run while I prepare dinner, or while I clean.  So instead, I pop in a movie or turn on some favorite cartoons for the kids to watch while I do those things.

I have some ground rules set regarding TV watching:  basically, no TV before 6 pm, and it is off when we start dinner.  In the morning, they can watch something while I prepare breakfast, and on school days it’s off at 8am (on weekends, I allow it a little longer while we clean).  The only exception to these rules are when there is a sporting event that my husband wants to watch during the weekend day, or if they are really too sick to do much else. (more…)

Maman Aya (USA)

Maman Aya is a full-time working mother of 2 beautiful children, a son who is 6 and a daughter who is two. She is raising her children in the high-pressure city of New York within a bilingual and multi-religious home. Aya was born in Canada to a French mother who then swiftly whisked her away to NYC, where she grew up and spent most of her life. She was raised following Jewish traditions and married an Irish Catholic American who doesn’t speak any other language (which did not go over too well with her mother), but who is learning French through his children. Aya enjoys her job but feels “mommy guilt” while at work. She is lucky to have the flexibility to work from home on Thursdays and recently decided to change her schedule to have “mommy Fridays”, but still feels torn about her time away from her babies. Maman Aya is not a writer by any stretch of the imagination, but has been drawn in by the mothers who write for World Moms Blog. She looks forward to joining the team and trying her hand at writing!

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INDONESIA: Working Mom’s Guilt

INDONESIA: Working Mom’s Guilt

Office DeskCome here, baby…

He snuggled closer to me, allowing me to inhale a faint smell of his shampoo on his thick, getting-too-long hair.

For a boy who is no longer a baby who can be dead stubborn about his ways sometimes, I am lucky he still wants to snuggle close to his mother.

His working mother that is.

Yes, I returned to the corporate world last December after being a work-from-home mom for almost a year.

While I enjoyed returning to my old job, excited that my previous employer offered it to me, and happy to see my old friends again, there’s part of me that feels guilty – again.

Same old cycle of guilt…the working mom’s guilt. (more…)

Maureen

Founder of Single Moms Indonesia, community leader and builder. Deeply passionate about women empowerment.

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Massachusettes, U.S.A: Age of reason

Massachusettes, U.S.A: Age of reason

1-25-13 age of reason - world moms blogA daughter takes the imprint of what it means to be a woman from her mother.  William Ross Wallace’s poem “What Rules the World” has the famous line,

“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world,” which extols motherhood as a paramount force in molding the character of a child.

A child will travel through a series of developmental stages. Many world traditions acknowledge the seven-year cycle in human development. In the Jesuit tradition a child is said to have reached the age of reason by age seven.

The first cycle is from birth to seven years of age. The beginning stage sets the foundation for the remainder of your child’s life. The early years influence the health and well-being of a child and will have an impact on them throughout their lifetime. (more…)

Courtney Cappallo (USA)

Courtney Cappallo is a mom of two girls, ages 7 and 4-years-old. She is living her dream life by residing on Cape Cod and being able to stay at home with her two little beauties. Courtney is currently homeschooling both of her daughters for 2nd grade and preschool, respectively.

Courtney uses a mix of Classical Education and Montessori. She is a strong believer in teaching to the five senses. Courtney’s homeschooling efforts are unique, as she uses the latest technology of the Smartboard. She is also taking on the task of learning Spanish as a second language, as well as, teaching her two children and husband Spanish.

Prior to becoming a homeschooling teacher, Courtney was the Director of Marketing for Simon Property Group, which is the largest U.S. real estate company. Courtney was Simon’s Director of Marketing for the Burlington Mall, Arsenal Mall and Cape Cod Mall. Courtney is a graduate of Villanova University and is proud of her small town roots from growing up in Oxford, Pennsylvania, which only has two traffic lights! She can be found making homeschooling lessons and more at Table of Four !

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