is it too late to start celebrating chrismukkah? What about chrismahanukwanzakah?

I have a friend who works at the Refugee Resettlement Program in Alabama. If you’re curious, most of their refugees come from Iraq, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Vietnam, Cuba and Russia. Anyway, she’s organized a group on Facebook, and sent out the following message:

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a very merry Christmas season! I am pleased to tell you that we have been VERY blessed with gifts for our families! Thank you to everyone for getting the word out!

Also, a woman in one of our families who just arrived about one month ago, just gave birth to a baby girl. Sadly, they just confirmed that she has down syndrome. This family needs a lot of prayer and is going to need a lot of help as their other son has type 2 diabetes as well. As of right now, the baby has to stay in the hospital for a while. The mother is still there, but is leaving tomorrow. The case manager said they really need an electric breast pump so she can get the milk to the baby while she is still in the hospital. If anyone has one or knows someone who does, please let me know! Also, if you have any diapers or would like to donate some infant diapers, they need those as well. She is really small, 6 LBS. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you all! Merry Christmas!!

SO! I thought I’d try to help and post it here. If any of you have an electric breast pump that you’d like to send, please email me (casadekaloi@gmail.com) and I’ll get the mailing address to you. Likewise, if you have diapers you’d like to send, definitely let me know.

The subtext of yesterday’s post is/was that Jasper is once again battling some kind of cold/cutting a tooth/teeth. I think it’s actually the latter, though the symptoms are a little more hardcore this time around, because the last time he was like this, one bottom tooth showed up, and a few days later it was joined by its mate. All of the previously mentioned bodily fluids and functions have already presented themselves today, and unlike yesterday, none of them have ended up on me (yet).

I call this progress.

Back when we first started dating, way before we talked about kids, Sean told me that a lot of shamen go through a lot of sickness when they’re young, and then they grow to be healers. When Jasper was in the NICU, he reiterated this point, I think to help me feel better about our little, itty-bitty, preemie baby. Now? We just think our baby is looney tunes. He might still be a shaman, though, because you never know.