giving back

“No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life.” – Jimmy Kimmel By now, you have probably seen Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional monologue detailing the birth of his son Billy and the heart condition that he was born with. Within minutes of watching (okay, seconds), Peter and I were in tears. As Jimmy shared the harrowing and terrifying first few hours of Billy’s birth, we were fluttered by the memories of our own terrifying experience during Oliver’s birth. In September of 2015, our son Oliver was born with a very large and undetected (in utero) Lymphatic Malformation-a vascular anomaly that affects roughly 1 in 50,000 children.  (Read ...Read More
11.24.16
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WE ARE GRATEFUL If I could go back and tell my 12-year old self that life that one day, the real version of “let’s play house” would be a reality, and I would be sitting in a beautiful kitchen preparing to have 30 people at my house for Thanksgiving with a new puppy in my lap, a baby asleep in a crib, a 9-year old kicking a ball outside (okay, playing on the iPad, but dreams are fun), and an amazing partner/husband at work, and I’d be happy, like really, really happy, I wouldn’t believe you. At 12, things suuuuuck. You can’t see past tomorrow. You have no idea how things are ...Read More
Back to School Style with JCPenney I don’t know about you, but my almost 9-year old is growing at a warp speed. Like, feet a half a size away from being the same as mine. I can’t keep up. It feels like every other month, he needs a new  — (insert clothing item here). Luckily, his birthday falls right around going back to school. Why is this lucky? Oh, because I can say “happy birthday, here’s your gift” when I buy him a new pair of sneakers… You know, the kind that comes with a huge NBA superstar guaranteeing to make your kid jump higher (as in the kind that cost ...Read More
#WeAreLucky: Supporting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles I can remember at about 3am, a nurse, (I can’t remember his name. Was it Herbert? Let’s call him Herbert) came  in and checked Oliver’s vitals. Half asleep and in a daze, I watched as then he picked up my baby boy, and gently sat him on his lap to feed him the bottle of breastmilk that he offered to give (so that I could sleep). But I couldn’t sleep. Should I get up? I can’t get up. It was night 2 of our 3 day stay at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and sleeping wasn’t in my cards. It wouldn’t be for a few days. But I could ...Read More
Exactly two years ago this week, I came home from a 3 day trip to Haiti on a mission with Ladies’ Home Journal, Crocs Cares, and Feed the Children to deliver shoes to school children. It was the best time of my life and the worst time of my life. To travel so far and literally outside my comfort zone to a world I would have never imagined traveling to, and to be in a position to take some part (albeit, small) in helping children in need: The Best. The worst: To be so far away from home and to know that when I do get home, teaching my child what gratitude really is, in a world ...Read More
This morning, I intended to share this delicious Giada DeLaurentiis Eggplant Capanata recipe and sort of brag about the fact that I am “woman hear me roar” because I’m making an Thanksgiving appetizer that will also double as a fantastic leftover dish to add to pasta (okay, so I still kind of roared). But right as I started to craft the post and upload my ever so stylized and glamorous iPhone -push the mess aside so it looks just like Pinterest minus the blur photos, I remembered the date:   Exactly one year ago today, I went to Haiti. One year ago today, (which happened to be the week after Thanksgiving), I ...Read More