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Saturday, June 30, 2012

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

The steps I took to locate and contact two professionals were a bit unconventional, but more personal. Friends of mine live in Bologna, Italy and Heppenheim, Germany. Both of them have preschool sons. So, I contacted them and asked them to contact their children's schools to see if any of them would be interested in participating in this exercise with me. To date, the teacher who is interested in corresponding with me does speak English and I am just waiting to hear from her. The school in Italy does not seem to have any teachers who are proficient in English enough to feel comfortable corresponding with me. So, I am back to square one with that one.
I am interested in finding out more about UNICEF and the Harlem Children's Zone. The website for the Harlem Children's Zone was unavailable when I attempted to access it.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

My Support Systems

My Support Systems
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Posted by Deborah Thompson at Saturday, June 9, 2012 12:46:32 PM EDT

I need support to get out of bed in the morning and for that I turn to my savior, Jesus Christ! I start out every morning opening my eyes and thanking Him for the ability to put my feet on the floor!
    My support systems at home begin with my sweet husband. He is always very supportive of me and my efforts. And then, there is "the village". We are a group of families who have joined together because we have much in common and we support each other in everything we do from building a house to babysitting. We provide moral,emotional and sometimes even financial support to one another. We have all been together for about 15 years now. We are all transplanted to NC and we have formed our own family group, "the village". Choosing your family is great! We have helped each other move, put in patios, hardwood floors, gardens, celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, births and deaths just to name a few!
At work, I am supported by my co-teacher, my manager, and my director, not to mention the rest of the outstanding staff I work with. We all have each others' backs! We work together, we walk together (Komen race) and we have fun together. I could not have chosen a finer group of women to work with.
The benefits of a support system like these are many. We never wonder how we'll be able to accomplish something. One family had a deployment to deal with last year.  We took turns babysitting, (a girl,7 and boy, 11), cutting the grass, buying groceries, celebrating birthdays, taking them out for pizza and just being there if the family had any needs. We sent care packages to dad in Kuwait, emailed and skyped. They were very thankful for it all and dad did not have to worry about leaving his family because they were never alone. They had "the village" to take care of them!