Your Holiday Mom: Supporting LGBTQ Children

This month has been a hard one for me.  I’ve pushed my body way beyond its limits without giving it any chance to recuperate.  Unfortunately that has meant that blogging has been the last priority on my list of things to do.  With that in mind I’d like to share something I shared last holiday season.

“Your Holiday Mom” is a website dedicated to providing LGBTQ children with loving and caring messages from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  Everyday women come together to write letters to children who may not have family support and affirmation.  They virtually invite these children into their homes, their families, and their hearts.  It’s beautiful and encouraging.  I encourage you to check it out and share with anyone who may need a little extra love.

Single for the Holidays?

Someone posted this on my Facebook wall and I thought it was too great not to share.  Happy Holidays!

This holiday season, don’t let nosy questions about your singleness catch you off-guard. While it’s none of your great-aunt’s business as to why you’re still single, she’s still likely to inquire.

Here are 10 great comebacks to the “Why are you still single?” question:

1. Because you haven’t proposed yet.

2. Just lucky, I guess.

3. Name one married superhero. Exactly.

4. My mail-order spouse should be arriving any day now.

5. Because I want my cat to grow up in a stable environment.

6. Jesus was single. Would you be bugging him?

7. Because I keep turning down proposals.

8. Because no company is better than bad company.

9. What’s the rush? With a longer life expectancy than previous generations, I can get married later in life and still end up celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary.

10. True love is worth waiting for. I’m not going to settle just because I’ve been single for a while.

Finding Light in the Darkness

The holiday season can be a time of rejoicing, reunification, and forgiveness for many.  For others though it is a time of sadness, emptiness, and loneliness.  While some are reminded of what they have to be thankful for, others are reminded of what they’ve lost.  As Christmas approaches we have heard many sad stories of loss.  In Oregon a shooter open fired on a mall full of holiday shoppers.  In Connecticut many young children and teachers lost their lives when another shooter went on a spree.  The small town where I went to college is hurting over a fire in their beloved pet store.  A friend is hurting over the unexpected loss of her husband.  These tales of sadness can seem overwhelming.

I do not want to dismiss these stories in any way but sometimes a story of hope is needed for balance.  We cannot forget that in all of these stories there were people who stood up and helped their neighbor, teachers who protected their students, and people who came together to communally support each other and grieve together.

I was recently came across a project called “Your Holiday Mom” and I feel like now is the perfect time to share it.

“This season, supportive moms (and a few dads too!) have gathered to send a holiday message to all LGBTQ children, teens and young adults who are without family support and who would like a “stand-in Holiday Mom”–or 40! Knowing that not every parent is ready to accept her own LGBTQ child exactly as-is (as hard as this is for us to imagine), we have written to extend our love beyond that of our own family.”

Every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day there is a messages of love and support.  I encourage you to check this website out.  It is beautiful and heart warming.  A little light in the darkness