Homeless Children Deserve Birthday Cake, Too

 On my vacation in Australia with Oprah and 302 of Oprah’s ultimate viewers, I met one a courageous and inspiring woman.  Oprah’s team hand selected each person who traveled to Australia based on letters individuals wrote about how The Oprah Winfrey Show influenced their life.  Every person on the trip had a story and one woman’s story brought tears to my eyes and goosebumps to my skin.

Alysha was watching Oprah one day and learned that children living in homeless shelters do not get Birthday cake. Alysha changed this for many homeless children in her community. Alysha’s husband is a police officer, and she partnered with the police department to create the non-profit company "Spouses Behind the Badge” 

Alysha obtained birth dates of children living in homeless shelters, volunteers, and donations and started changing children’s lives forever.  Alysha or one of her teammates and one officer from the department go to a homeless shelter on a child’s birthday. They bring balloons, cake, and a backpack filled with school supplies for the child.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

In a short period of time Spouses Behind the Badge grew.  Alysha started receiving calls from community agencies requesting beds for improvised children.  Before long, Spouses Behind the Badge began providing beds and bedding to needy children.

Spouses Behind the Badge & Police Officers Setting up bunk beds for deserving children!

Two beds for two little girls- I LOVE the pink bed sets!

The group's generosity continued to grow. One day, while delivering bus passes, Alysha learned of a deserving mother in need of a car.  Alysha knew that she must find this woman a car.  With a lot of hard work and perseverance Alysha secured a donated car, car insurance, and gas for this mother- what a tremendous blessing!

Here's your NEW car!!

Spouses behind the badge positively impacted homeless and improvised children, the community, and the relationship between low-income families and the police department. The crazy thing is that Alysha said that the time commitment involved in bringing a birthday cake or delivering a brand new bed- about 15 minutes.  But, the impact that 15 minutes has on lives of innocent and deserving children lasts a lifetime.

The group began because one woman was brave enough to stand up something she believed in.  Giving to others has blessed Alysha and her team's lives in so many ways. Alysha is an inspiration and her story proves that we don’t need tons of money, or perfect circumstances to do something great in this world. 

I was listening to a “stuff you should know” pod cast yesterday.  The topic was homelessness, and the hosts shared a story of a once homeless man who said, “most of the despair in homelessness is being treated like you don’t exist.”  Children in homeless shelters want birthday cake just like any other child, and thanks to Alysha and Spouses Behind the Badge- at least for one day they exist.

"Anybody can do just about anything with himself that he really wants to and makes up his mind to do. We are all capable of greater things than we realize."

 

 

Snuggles from a 2 year old

Below is a story sent in from one of my blog readers and former wellness coaching client, Nikki. The story reflects a beautiful and positive lesson learned from her two year old son, Noah.


The past few weeks have been a little rough, emotionally, between work and home life. But I’m getting past it like I normally do. So the other night, Wednesday to be exact, I had tons of energy, and it was finally cooler, and Noah was sleeping. I had THE PERFECT opportunity to try and get some house work done without interruptions. Right smack in the middle of sanitizing my kitchen, Noah wakes up screaming. Of course first thing I think of: “great, I have all this stuff to do around the house how long is he going to be up?” (Horrible mommy thinking by the way!)

So I get him up, give him some yogurt and sit on the bed with him. He continues to scream and cry. I don’t know what else to do as he won’t talk.

So I say to him: “Noah, you need to talk to mumma, what do you need? If I you don’t use your words, I can’t help you” (Okay, like he understood half of that).

Here is where you’ll be proud of me :) I took a deep breath, held him tight and said: “Noah do want mumma to lay with you and snuggle”? Noah said: “yes mumma, snuggle”.

I felt so bad, and was so upset at myself, because I was so worried and concentrated on house work, that it took me too long to understand, and realize that my little man just wanted the comfort of his mother.

As I was laying with him, and his little arms wrapped so tightly around my neck, I hear this light snoring, and it dawns on me…..

“Nothing like snuggles with your lil man. Makes me stop and cherish the present. For the future comes so soon, and these moments will be few and far between. These precious moments make me remember how truly blessed I am, and help to forget all the negative I can sometimes focus on. It will all work out the way the Lord has planned. He won't give me anything I can't handle”

I posted the statement as a reminder on my facebook, in my journal (as a quote and header, like I have my vision statement), and right next to my computer. When little things start to impact my mood, or keep me in that negative state, I can look at this and remember that exact feeling I had that evening, when my son, who is 2, taught me one of the most precious, and valuable lessons of my life.

Do you have an optimisitic reflection to share?  Send your story to: Optimistic Reflections (if you have pictures, send them too!)