Tag Archives: Blog

Day 170

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers … Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born. – Franois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon

It’s 9: 15 PM on day 170 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  a banana for breakfast, watch TV while feeding myself a chicken polony sandwich for a snack,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck  –  feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – send the priest who I mentioned yesterday another link to my campaign – he lost the one I sent him before – a few hours  later he replied back saying Hey this is wonderful what you are trying to do. If you don’t mind, can I share this with others? Let’s see how many respond. All my support and wishes for your good campaign. Best…. I am not sure how much it will help but he’s trying and in my book that counts for a LOT 🙂 –  feed myself butternut and grilled chicken for dinner, watch the Cricket World Cup match: England vs. Ireland – it was positively brilliant everybody had counted Ireland out before the second innings even started only they didn’t count on Kevin O’ Brian scoring a 100 of 50 balls which gave Ireland a 3 wicket victory over England with 5 balls to spare – well done to the Irish they played superbly just goes to show anything is possible if you believe 🙂 –  and  The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Yesterday I was watching the news and heard Noureddine Mezni – the spokesperson of the AU – say it is an African problem and we have to seek African solution. This is also an internal issue. Libyan people themselves are against external interventions. We are supporting them and strongly condemn the use of force against peaceful protestors and I thought to myself you’ve got to be kidding me ‘it is an African problem and we have to seek African solution’ crude oil prices are raising… everything that happen anywhere affects everybody else   that’s when it occurred to me that the problem with the world today is that people are so busy trying to protect their territory that they can’t see that there is truly only one territory – Earth.  Do you recuse yourself from certain situation and conversations because you feel it doesn’t affect you or ‘your people’?

Day 169

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. — Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)

 It’s 9: 04 PM on day 169 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  a banana for breakfast, watch TV while feeding myself a chicken polony sandwich for a snack,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck  –  feed myself rice and curry for lunch, exercise for 5 minutes,  tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck – send the priest that we had dinner with about a week ago a link to my campaign – hopefully he won’t tell my parents because my explicitly told me not to ask people in our community for donations but I don’t know what else to do it’s not like I can spend the whole day at the mall asking people for donations or organize a fundraiser all by myself – they would KILL ME –figuratively speaking – if they found out I sent the link to my campaign to a priest with the intention of getting a donation –      feed myself rice and butternut for dinner and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show.

 I have always had this theory that everything you go through has something to teach you and looking back now I can prove it: cerebral palsy has taught the power of perception – all my life I had wanted to be like everybody else but then I realized that maybe just maybe God made me different so that I could have the freedom to be extraordinary –  my tumultuous relationship with my father has taught me to love myself from within – ever since I could remember I had been waiting for my father to look me in the eye and say I’m sorry for treating you differently just because you are different I love you just the way you are and then one day not so long ago I decided to stop waiting for my father to come to his senses and start accepting myself and I won’t lie knowing that you don’t need acceptance from anybody else and living it are two very different things there are some days  when  I ache to be seen by my father not as a disabled person who needs help all the time but rather as a human being who needs to know that her daddy  loves her – and last but not least my philanthropic efforts have taught me perseverance –before I started my Clean Water For All Campaign I had tried to raise $1 000 for UNICEF I must have asked all the companies in South Africa all of whom sent me  long but polite rejection letters saying thanks but no thanks and as I look back on it today I realize that the reason I didn’t reach my goal last time was because I gave up too easily something as you can see I have not done this time around. Have you learned more from an experience than you have from actually getting what you wanted? 🙂

Day 168

Everybody falls but winners’ know how to pick themselves back up again – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 9: 03 PM on day 168 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself  bread and jam for breakfast, watch TV, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck  –  feed myself rice and curry for lunch – without any meat of course 🙂 – tweet about my campaign some more – still no luck –  feed myself   Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry    for dinner   and exercise for 10 minutes – while I was exercising I remembered that I had eaten chicken for dinner I was MORTIFIED LOL but I knew that was nothing I could do to change it so I let it go almost immediately  🙂      

Today I was feeling a little blue so I did what I always do and watched 99 Balloons (see below) – thank you Matt sharing your son’s story and showing me what it really means to live in the present – Eliot lives on in me and everybody else who has watched this video.   When you fall down do you stay down or find ways to pick yourself up? 🙂

Day 167

Be willing to apologize. Proper apologies have three parts: 1) what I did was wrong. 2) I’m sorry that I hurt you. 3) How do I make it better? It’s the third part that people tend to forget…. Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself. – Randy Pausch (1960-2008)

It’s 8: 00 PM on day 167 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself strawberry yoghurt for breakfast, go to church – the reverend asked the question what is sin and went to say – I’m paraphrasing – sin is not only doing evil but failing to do good and at that I almost laughed because I had thought it before he had said it LOL 🙂 – go visit my uncles and aunties’ – it was quite boring because all their kids had already left home we wanted to say in the car but my father raked us over the coals for being so rude so went inside just to appease him – next time I think we’ll just stay at home that way we won’t be accused of being rude LOL 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch,          tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – somebody – I won’t mention her name because she chose to remain anonymous – made a donation of $20 – I had asked her for to make one a couple of months and she said she would do it ASAP – thanks for being true to your word 🙂 –      feed myself  Chapati – an unleavened flatbread –  chicken curry and salad   for dinner and watch TV.

Today I was watching My Name Is Earl – an American television comedy about Earl J. Hickey (played by Jason Lee) – a petty criminal whose winning $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. Lying in a hospital bed, under the influence of morphine, he develops a belief in the concept of karmic retribution when he hears about karma during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. To turn his life around, he makes a list of every bad thing he’s ever done in an attempt to correct them, as he believes that this is the only way he can gain positive karma. After doing his first good deed, he finds the $100,000 lottery ticket he had previously lost. He sees this as a sign of karma rewarding him and, with his newfound wealth, he begins doing good deeds according to his list – and thought I wonder what would happen if everybody created their own lists and went about making all the things that they did wrong right and with that I decided to make my own list (see below). Do you apologize with words or actions? 🙂

My list

  • Make up for swearing at my brother by letting him watch TV whenever he wants – I told him about my list and asked him what I could do to make up for my filthy language and he said let me watch TV whenever I want – I have a feeling that the other items on my list won’t be so easy to cross off LOL 🙂

 

  • Give my mother some time to herself for all my bratty behavior in the past

 

  • Try my best not to absorb all of my mother energy so my sister can be the centre of attention for once in her life – my mother loves all her children equally but with me being in a wheelchair she accidentally ignores the others and although my sister would never say it I know she resents me and I can’t say I blame her…. everything in this family revolves around my disability… where we go out to eat, where we  go on vacation, where we sit in the movie theatre, etc.

        

Day 166

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. – Jimmy Johnson

It’s 8: 33 PM on day 166 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself bun, steak and mash potatoes for breakfast, watch Ramona and Beezus with my siblings on DVD – it was utterly charming 🙂 I would recommend it to anyone with a family – it’s got something in it for everybody – feed myself a banana lunch,     tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself strawberry yoghurt  for dinner and watch TV.

A few months ago I had the immense pleasure of meeting Gabe who together with her 12-year-old daughter MaryMargaret founded Kids Are Heroes – a non-profit that empowers, encourages and inspires children to become leaders through volunteerism and community involvement. We do this by showcasing and supporting children who are changing the world through their selfless acts of giving – and today I finally to visit their website and this is just some of what I’ve found:

The first 10 stories featured on kidsareheroes.org

In January, Aidan Ortiz was watching 20/20 with his mother called “Be the Change: Save a Life.”

He was so taken aback by the fact that there is an immense amount of unclean water the world over, especially in places like Africa and Asia that the next evening he asked his mother at dinner if he could donate his birthday this year to charity.

In a nutshell, he started asking all the kids in his class to donate $8.00 as well as his family and friends to reach his original goal of $800.00 set by his mom.

Aidan insisted on going beyond his target and raising $5000 by the end of the campaign. He is more than halfway there, and is still working hard at it.

  

Isabelle heard a story about twin girls born prematurely in Haiti in Sept of 2007.The girls mother died in child birth. They were left to die. After hearing this whole story, she was brought to tears and said, “Mom, we have to do something to help.”

She loves doing art, so she decided to use her creative talents to design and create handmade cards to sell for donations to build homes for orphans around the world. Each home costs about $5000 to build, she was able to reach her first $5000 in June of 2008 and that home in Titayen, Haiti was completed and housed 6 girls by May 2009. Isabelle traveled to Haiti in June of 2009 to meet and play with the 6 girls who occupied the home she funded. It was an amazing trip that fueled her passion to make sure more kids were able to have homes to live in and someone to care for them.

After she finished funding that first home in June of 2008 – we, her parents, thought she would feel that she had accomplished her goal and would be done. But she wasn’t, as long as there are children without homes, parents, and food, she believes her work isn’t finished. She has been blessed to have local and national attention for her story generating so many donations and help in various forms for orphaned and abandoned children around the world. She has also had the privilege of speaking up for those who cannot speak up for themselves to children and adults from small groups to large groups. We are so very proud of her compassion and desire to help others!

When Brianna’s cousin was deployed to Afghanistan she decided she would write him letters every week. She wanted him to “smile” while he was fighting a war. Within a few weeks one of his friends asked her if she would write him too. She decided there was a need for soldiers to receive smiles while in Afghanistan. So, she created Bri’s Project Send a Smile.

She quickly adopted two more soldiers in the same company and began writing weekly letters and sending occasional care packages.

At Christmas she sent out 44 Christmas cards to the list of soldiers she knew had said they would welcome pen pals. Two soldiers wrote back and she was up to six “send a smile soldiers”. She writes these soldiers weekly letters and does care packages for them. Her girl scout troop will have donation boxes set up so people can help send Girl Scout cookies to Afghanistan.

This group of soldiers’ deployment ends in August 2011 and she plans to continue Bri’s Project Send a Smile by adopting a new set of soldiers that will be leaving after them. It is her goal to send “smiles” to soldiers who are away from home fighting a war as long as there are soldiers who need it.

Pearce is raising awareness about Childhood Cancer. At the age of ten she was diagnosed with Brain Cancer that spread to her spine. Since completing treatment, Pearce and her family formed the Pearce Q. Foundation. Inc 501(c)3 non profit. Pearce has three goals: 1) to raise awareness, 2) to financially help families whose children are still in the fight and 3)to offer grants to reasearchers.

Pearce just presented doctore with a $12,000 check towards research. Through fundraising she has raised over $30,000 in 2010 with a goal to double that in 2011.

Every penny raised goes directly back to the Childhood cancer community. Pearce has visited the President at the White House, has been featured on Stand Up 2 Cancer in 2008 and 2010.

In April 2005, when Emily Tieu was just 7 years old she came across a boy named Tyler who suffered from an extremely rare and fatal enzyme disorder called Sialidosis. She learned that Tyler’s mom and dad were hosting their 4th annual charity garage sale to raise money to fund the research department at McMaster University to combat this disease. When Emily realized that this family was the only one funding the research due to the fact that Tyler is the only child in Canada suffering with this disease she quickly sprang into action by starting her own garage sale. She went around the house gathering toys she didn’t need anymore and explained to everyone who came that she was donating all the proceeds to McMaster University.

She raised $91 and phoned Tyler’s family herself to tell them the news. A few hours later she was at their door and meeting Tyler’s family for the first time. A very grateful Tyler came out to thank Emily sincerely and she told him that this would become an annual event and that she would see him again next year.

We are proud to nominate our four “heroes” – Zach Cohen, Katie Gladsone, Derek Medolla, and Julie Piskin – four exceptional young people who formed a unique fundraising club to help the children of Sunrise Day Camp.

An avid athlete, Zach plays striker for the Jericho High School Varsity Soccer team and U16 Division 1 Long Island Junior Soccer.

Katie plays first singles for the Jericho Junior Varsity Tennis team, is on the Varsity track team as well as the bowling team.

Derek enjoys playing soccer as a midfielder with the Jericho High School Varsity Soccer team and U16 Division 1 Long Island Junior Soccer.

Julie’s varied extra curricular High School activities include Varsity Tennis, Model Congress Club, The Latin Honor Society, French Honor Society and Yearbook.

I would love to share a little about my 7 year old daughter Maggie. She is a little girl with big dreams. Maggie invented a necklace line out of recycled tights and pantie hose. She takes donations from friends and family for their tights, pantie hose and old jewelry and turns them into great little necklaces that she sells in several stores in 5 states. A large tight company, We Love Colors Inc, also donates their seconds for Maggie to make her FUN necklaces.

Twice Loved by Maggie B came about from a love of jewelry and a need to help the planet. Maggie is creating functional affordable jewelry that anyone can feel good about wearing. She and her friends are sporting the next level of eco-friendly fashion. Maggie has also donated her necklaces to help raise money for the Humane Society of Moore County, Orange County Childrens Hospital, Open Door Home as well as many others.

This energetic second grader is ready to take her dreams to the next level and make Twice Loved by Maggie B a house hold name.

Lulu Cerone’s simple fund raisers were always a part of her life. Coat drives, bake sales and lemonade stands were her specialty. After the earthquake in Haiti, she wanted to find a way to motivate as many kids as possible to help. So, she started a Girls vs. Boys Lemonade WAR in her fifth grade class at school. Two weeks later, the contest had spread across the country, and as far away as Canada where kids began holding lemonade stands for the boys team or the girls team. By the end of three weeks, she had raised $4000.00.

This year, she started LemonAID Warriors.com in hopes of gathering kids from all over for a Nation-Wide Lemonade Stand on Memorial Day, where armies of LemonAid warriors across the country will work together for their special projects. Along with her continuing efforts for Haiti, Lulu is teaming up with Blood:Water Mission to save lives by getting clean drinking water to African villages.

Andi Kezh was born with a cleft lip and palate. She has had nine surgeries and is about to undergo her tenth surgery. Back in April, she saw in a magazine a picture of a young child with an unrepaired cleft lip and palate. The ad said, “Give a child with a cleft lip a second chance at life.” It was an ad for Smile Train. She tore the page out and hung it on her bedroom wall, then asked how we could help.

After a number of ideas were tossed around, we agreed that she could have a Tribute Page on Smile Train and a Facebook page to spread awareness about her goal. Her initial goal was one surgery, and she raised that in about two hours. To date, almost eight months later, Andi has raised awareness and has raised enough funds for 32 poverty-stricken children around the world to have surgery through the Smile Train organization. She is tireless in her efforts to raise money because she wants ALL cleft-affected kids to have the opportunity to go to school, to play soccer, or whatever they want to do.

In many third world countries, children with cleft lip/cleft palate are thought to be cursed and are abandoned, hidden away, or their entire family is asked to move. Andi is absolutely changing the lives of these children and their families.

Morgan has been raising donations for the Second Chance Animal Shelter. For the past two years he has reached out to his local church community and school community for support. People have donated money, dog and cat food, animal toys and clothes.

He also donates his times and efforts at a local pet store in town. Morgan works several hours every Saturday at Knapps Pets and Hobbies, he helps the owner’s clean the animal cages and offers customer assistance.

At school he is involved in a local program called High Five for Benn El Live, it is a daily show that informs the community about what is happening at school.

To all the kids I’ve mentioned in this blog post and the millions that I haven’t please know that I am SO proud of you 🙂

Day 165

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. – Garth Brooks

It’s 11: 00 PM on day 165 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Scotland  for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153)  feed myself a chicken hotdog for breakfast,  tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – listened to music, go to physiotherapy – I am SO proud of myself I managed to bend on one knee – my physiotherapist had been trying to get me to do that for the past THREE sessions –    feed myself rice and curry for dinner, finish reading Holly by Jude Deveraux – I don’t think I’ll read it again reading the same book four times now that would be obsessive LOL 🙂 – and watch TV – I watched The Hills for the first time – it’s the first really show that I’ve seen with ambitious people who had dreams and goals of their own suffice to say it was very refreshing 🙂  

Today as I sat in front of my laptop eating my breakfast in complete silence I finally saw myself from the outside looking in and finally understood why people’s jaws drop whenever they learned of my endeavours and I thought I’m not all that bad… you (God) deserve a standing ovation for what you’ve done with my life and in that moment I realized that had I not been disabled my story would not have been  as impactful as it is today I mean think about it disabled girl tries to change the world sound like a plot straight of a Hollywood movie only it’s not it’s real a fact for which I am very grateful. Do you have enough faith to know that everything works for the best even when God says no to one of your prayers? 🙂

Day 164

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them. – Charles de Montesquieu

It’s 11: 01 PM on day 164 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself  a chicken polony sandwich  for brunch,   exercise for 5 minutes while watching the Cricket World Cup match: South Africa vs. West Indies – congratulations to The Proteas – our national cricket team – you guys did AWESOME  South Africa loves you – special mentions must go to AB de Villiers and debutant Imran Tahir both of  whom played EXCEPTIONALLY well – keep it up guys 🙂 – and feed myself   Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry    for dinner.

Today I asked my friend @pamslove (Pam) if she could help me raise the remaining $3691.31 that I still need to build a well in Africa or India  and she told me she would happy to retweet my blog posts and that’s when I came up with the three way in which YOU could help too you could: log on to http://www.firstgiving.com/nishavarghese and make a donation, organize a fundraiser at your workplace/church/school (Note: if you do organize a fundraiser make sure you check the website on the day of the fundraiser because the ‘Total raised so far’ changes almost every day) or help spread the word by sharing this post with everyone you know via social networking sites and email. Will you stand in front of me, behind me or beside me? 🙂

Day 163

Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. – Aldous Huxley

It’s 10: 54 PM on day 163 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a  chicken hotdog for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made today – the first one was a $25 donation from @morsemusings (Dawn) and the second one was a $10.77 donation from @uncledorothy (Vanessa)    – thank you  guys you’re support means a LOT to me 🙂 –feed myself rice and curry for lunch,  join a few Cerebral Palsy groups on Facebook,  exercise for 5 minutes, feed myself  Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for dinner,  continue reading Holly by Jude Deveraux   and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show – the show was about Ingrid Betancourt’s new book Even Silence Has An End in which she told of what it was like being held hostage for over 6  years in the Colombian jungle and as I listened to her speak I realized that the only thing people can never take away from you is your freedom of choice 🙂

You may remember that a few days ago I wrote a post in which I said you use your life to help others and you will forever be happy as a human being well today I did exactly that I was online spreading the word about this blog and my campaign when I stumbled onto this post on a website called Daily Strength I just can’t help but think… why me? Why did this happen? People say I was made this way for a reason but after all these years I still haven’t figured it out. Someone told me that God has great things planned for me… but all this pain and hardship is not exactly a great thing…I’m waiting, hoping for the great things to come. Why was I made this way and not my siblings? How can I do anything “great” the way I am… isn’t that what normal people are for? to do great things? What was I meant to do that is so great? Does anyone feel the same way? What helps you get through it when you feel like this? after I read that something came over me I signed up for an account and wrote her a reply saying I know exactly how you feel I even wrote about it > http://wp.me/pZonG-J  not as a means of self-promotion but rather to show her that she could be great in spite of Cerebral Palsy. Do you use your experiences to help others or waste oxygen feeling sorry for yourself? 🙂

Day 162

You should never be ashamed of any aspect of your life – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 10: 43 PM on day 162 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself  bread and jam for brunch, listen to music,  feed myself rice and curry   for dinner, watch the Cricket World Cup match: England vs. Netherland – I couldn’t believe that the Dutch had done so well they lost but still they fought till the very end 🙂 – start reading Holly by Jude Deveraux – for the THIRD time LOL –  I am NOT obsessed  I am just a sucker for romance 🙂 – and exercise for 5 minutes.  

Today at about 3:30 PM I heard the roar of an engine and when I looked out through the dining room window I saw that my parents had come home from work and my first instinct was to close the website I was on because I knew that if my father saw me reading Romans 12: 9-21  I would be in for a world of ridicule but then I realized that in doing that I would be denying my faith so I just kept doing what I was doing before my father had arrived and true to form he came in, saw what I was reading and said with a tone of mockery in his voice so you’re reading the Bible… have you also been saved –  referring to my uncles who had recently converted to Evangelism – and I replied with a strength I didn’t know I had saying I will not apologize for reading the Bible just because you don’t. Would you forsake everything that you held near and dear just to be accepted? 🙂

Day 161

A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying – Nelson Mandela

It’s 10: 16 PM on day 161 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – bread and jam for brunch, create a Facebook account for this blog – add http://www.facebook.com/adventuresofme as a friend and tell me what’s important to you and who knows I might just write a post about it – my blog is your blog 🙂 –    and feed myself rice and curry   for dinner, exercise for 5 minutes and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today lying on my bed in deep dismay over the fact that nobody had donated I thought to myself it is the global recession people are broke, jobless and have their own children to feed and suddenly I remembered my own story and thought you were broke, jobless and disabled and you still managed to scrounge $82 together to give water to those in need and that’s when I realized that the mere fact that I tried to make a difference was reason enough to smile. Are you a saint who keeps on trying or a sinner who gave up way back when? 🙂