Year of Living Generously Update

It has been more than a month since I last checked in here on my Year of Living Generously endeavor and I thought it was time to talk about where I'm at with it.

I haven't been able to settle on a method or theme or selection process as I had hoped to do. So I've just been following a pretty basic idea of "Give when so moved." I'm online a lot. There are a lot of causes out there and there's no lack of requests that I come across. When I read one that is reasonable and moves me to act, I do it swiftly.

One of the more memorable ones was a simple request for baby supplies for a woman who had given birth to multiples here in the U.S. but is a refugee from war-torn Sudan. She simply needed diapers (five newborns go through a total of 40 a day!) and The One Dollar Give made it possible to buy a box of diapers for them via an Amazon registry and have it delivered directly to the family. Technology can be a beautiful thing.

Well, come to think of it, maybe I do have a theme for this month after all. Because what I want to tell you about now is because of a sweet, beautiful baby girl named Maddie.

Maddie is the daughter of proud parents Heather and Michael, who can be found over at The Spohrs Are Multiplying, where Maddie is the star. Heck the girl even has her own Facebook fan page! I think Heather has more or less a part-time job taking pictures of her little miracle and we're lucky enough to get to see them often. Those eyes of Maddie's are the most expressive things ever.

I've become friends with Heather online and I like her in spite of the fact that she is both a Dodger fan and a USC fan. And that is saying something. But anyway, Maddie was born three months prematurely and has had a lot of medical stuff to deal with in her short life. But she's here and beautiful, and that's thanks in part to the work that is done by the March of Dimes.

To celebrate Maddie and thank the March of Dimes for their part in her life, the Spohrs are committed to helping raise funds for them. They are gearing up for the annual March of Dimes walk in their area and they're asking us for help in reaching their fundraising goal, which includes spreading the word if you're not able to give right now when money is tight. I think most of us who have an online life know the power of social media, and using your voice that way can be just as important as opening your wallet.

The good people at Kodak have upped the ante a bit and have provided two great prizes that will be given away by a virtual raffle next month. If you need any more reason than that, take a peek over at the purple box to the right and see if you can resist that smile. Join me in help keeping that smile bright, for Maddie and other babies like her.