Why I'm up at 4:30 AM writing This...
My daughter Lilly and I take a quick selfie on her school fieldtrip to Plymouth Plantation.
Dear Friends,
I'm writing to you in the one quiet hour I have before my three girls (Lilly, 8, Annie, 6, Hailey, 3) wake up, and the long day of drop-offs, pick-ups, meetings, phone calls, email, sports practice, the list goes on and on.
It feels like yesterday ended just a few hours ago, and I think that's because it did. We talk about "Mom Busy" at Moms as Mentors® and it's a state of being that, like so many of you, I know all too well.
Many people wonder, why, when I have a fulfilling, demanding full-time job and three young children, that I choose to keep Moms as Mentors® on my plate--and to devote every spare second I have to it, prioritizing it above sleep, hobbies, or time with friends.
It wasn't just in family photos that I wanted to disappear into the background. I often retreated into the background, even hiding in the school library so no one would hear me read aloud as I did my homework.
People wonder why I do this when they see me frantically running around, sending off a quick text, racing to catch up on the phone with Leslie in between a work meeting and my daughter's parent-teacher conference. Squeezing in Moms as Mentors® calls on my drive to work and finishing them sitting in my car in the parking lot before I run to my next meeting.
It's not because I'm a workaholic by nature. Or because I don't like sleep, free time, or spending extra time with family and friends. (I love all of that!).
It's because I believe 100% whole-heartedly in Moms as Mentors® mission and its power. It's because I remember what it felt like as a girl to struggle with confidence, to feel like I wasn't as smart as the other kids, to not believe in myself.
And it's because I want to do everything in my power to help my own three daughters grow up with the strength to make good decisions in difficult situations. I want them to have the ability to choose their own career path, not because they perceive themselves as "not good enough" for one career or another, but because they're armed with the skills and confidence to choose any career they want.
And I've seen that our programs make a real impact on girls' confidence, leadership skills and sense of self. In our social-emotional learning programs, 4 out of 5 girls who attend report feeling more confident to face difficult situations in adolescence and 3 out of 4 feel they have more tools to be a leader among their friends. Moms leave with tools for helping their daughters through adolescence AND feel more confident in their own leadership abilities.
Of course it's not easy to burn the candle at both ends, month after month, year after year. And I do have moments of doubt.
But then I have moments like this one that I shared in an email last week:
These are the moments that make everything worth it, for me personally. And I know, for sure, that our programs have the power to give you and the girls in your life moments like this one, like they have for our past participants.
BUT THE REALITY IS...to develop and run programs that give you and your daughter, or other women and girls, these moments, we need your help.
Our crowd-funding campaign ends TOMORROW NIGHT. I'm here in the wee hours of the morning, asking for your help, so that girls today don't have to struggle with confidence the way I did as a youngster. Donations to the campaign will go towards:
EXPANDING OUR OFFERINGS by creating new curriculum for STEM, business & social-emotional learning programs
RUNNING MORE PROGRAMS MORE OFTEN by recruiting and training more program facilitators
DEVELOPING MORE TOOLS FOR MOMS and running a series of "moms' only" workshops
By doing this, girls confidence, leadership skills and sense of self can only improve. Our statistics speak for themselves.
Okay, I better wrap this up. I just heard my 3 year old stirring. So I'll end with this:
My daughter Annie taking a break at one of the Moms as Mentors ® programs we were able to attend together
If you believe in the work we are doing, you have the ability to impact how much of it we are able to give back to girls and women.
Please make a donation today by clicking HERE. Your gift will be matched 1:1.
(And encourage your friends and fellow moms to donate as well!)
Please help us make a difference.
And, remember, when you empower a mom, you empower her daughter too.
Okay, now I hear two more kids up...and so another chaotic day of being a mom begins... :)