A Momma on a Mission: Laugh As Much As You Breathe

I had a unique encounter with a very sweet little old lady yesterday. She was in her 90's and just as spunky and upbeat as any 60 year old. I had to do a double take when I saw her birthdate, as she seriously didn't look a day past 70. I asked her what her secret was. She smiled, and with a little chuckle said "Laugh as much as you breathe".

What a simple concept. Laugh as much as you breathe. I am pretty sure that is the most straightforward, yet one of the most meaningful bits of advice I have ever received.

Why should something as simple as laughter be harder and harder to enjoy these days? Living life on a "routine", multitasking, and having 9 million things going through your head at any given minute seems to really be distracting I suppose. I have realized that I don't take enough time each day to just really be thankful for what I have been blessed with. Life has, at times, just caught up and instead of enjoying small moments, I find myself thinking ahead to what needs to be accomplished next. Breathing. Laughing. Being.

Two weeks into this new year, and into my resolutions of being a better wife and mother, I like to say that things are going well. I haven't started classes yet, and am trying to really enjoy these last 3 days before the madness resumes. I hope it's not too late to add a third resolution to my list. You got it. Laugh as much as you breathe.

I would say our home was filled with plenty of laughter, cheers, and praise on Tuesday night when Emersyn appropriately used her potty for the first time. Who would have known such a simple moment could be so...cool? While we were here in the luxuries of our own home celebrating that big milestone with Emersyn, tragedy was about to strike thousands and thousands of miles away as Haiti was rocked by that horrible earthquake. I will always remember Emersyn's potty milestone as it is marked by one of the most horrible natural disasters in history.

The images on TV, in magazines, and online have really been haunting me this week. The enormity of this disaster is beyond what my mind can really grasp. I went to nursing school with a girl who was from Haiti. She was from a wealthy family amongst a country of people who are beyond dirt poor. 75% of people in that country live on $2/day or less. What's $2 to us? I paid that much this morning for Emersyn's admission to the indoor playground. I spent 4 times that for a quick lunch to bring home for the two of us. Not to mention gas to and from Rochester, costs of operating the car, and making final photo selections from Emersyn's photo shoot last week. $2 is essentially....nothing to us. To others, it is more than a day's work.

I learned from my classmate how devastated the country already was prior to this awful earthquake. How uneducated and disease-ridden it is. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria. I learned that having the title of a U.S.-trained Registered Nurse is very, very highly regarded in Haiti. Nurses there do things that doctors here do. Their health system is just so beyond what we as Americans can even begin to understand. Sterility, antibiotics, technology...the very simple things to our medical system...just do not exist in Haiti.

Now, why this earthquake had to hit right in the heart of overpopulated poverty is not something I can understand. But regardless of any socioeconomic status, these are real people in the heart of this devastation. My classmate had plans on going back to Haiti to educate the children and bring her highly-regarded medical skills to her people. Another nursing student, who was in the class ahead of me and also from Haiti, went back and started a program called "TeacHaiti" as her belief is that education is above and beyond anything else a person can receive in this life. She wanted to bring that gift back to her native country, and two years into her dream, TeacHaiti was doing very well.

While I do not know the fate of my fellow nursing classmates, I do know that on a personal level, this devastation has gotten my gears turning. And, my tears flowing. These images are just too much to grasp sometimes.

And finally this father, carrying his deceased baby, which offers such an overstimulation of emotions:

Seeing these images and hearing such tragic stories has made me feel both grateful and selfish. Grateful for what it means to be an American and live where we do, to have the luxuries that are really pretty "standard" here. Can you imagine what our everyday luxuries that we take for granted would mean to someone in Haiti? Before the earthquake, but especially now? There are so many lives just....lost. So many mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, children...left behind. So many mothers who cannot find their babies, and so many parents who have found their babies dead. It's beyond what I can imagine, really. So many life stories just abruptly ended. I saw on the news last night how families were lucky if they could find their loved ones body to lay to rest, yet alone have a burial crypt to use. Some crypts had 4 bodies shoved into one. Some families put their loved ones body in other family burial crypts as there was no room elsewhere. No music, no flowers, no ceremony. Just a quick "goodbye", and someone's life story has now ended.

Now my medical mind leads me to think of many other things. First the unsanitary conditions with rotting corpses everywhere and a water shortage. The infections and disease that are surely killing many off due to lack of medical attention. Last night there was an 8-day old baby girl on the news who had a scalp laceration and needed antibiotics. They were on a desperate search to find just that, but unsure how long it may take to find. The good news was that she did not have a skull fracture and if she could get the antibiotics, would likely do very well.

I talked to Travis last night and told him that I want to go to Haiti to help. He thought I was crazy. Amber, do you really understand that? No, I probably don't. But I do understand that my luxurious life here will be waiting for me. My husband, family, and baby will be safe here to return to. There are so many in Haiti who no longer have the option to come home to their children. Now, on the other hand, you all know how busy my life here in Minnesota is and wonder how I would find time to plug in a relief trip to Haiti? They are in the early steps of organizing a group through Mayo to go down and help and I want to look into it. I realize a lot of cards would have to be played, but I also feel that the kind of help I could offer may really be beneficial to someone. I know I'm no healing saint or miracle worker, but this country is really in need right now. So, I am thinking on it and sleeping on it. Now for that to come to fruition with work and school is another story, but I really would love to go down and help for a bit.

In the meantime, I found that if you text "HAITI" to 90999, you can donate $10 to the American Red Cross for relief efforts in Haiti. The $10 is charged on your next phone bill. Just some food for thought.

Now backing up to what I learned from the sweet 90-something lady, laugh as much as you breath. Enjoy each day, because you never know when horrible tragedy may strike.

I will take my lessons from this sweet frosting-faced doll!