Growing up I always wanted a sister. Don’t get me wrong. I love my brother (and all the times he would pin me down and tickle me until I almost cried- sarcasm). But I wanted a sister to share clothes with, stay up late talking about boys with, and shoe shop with.

I never got me a sister. Never even really had a girlfriend that was sister like (actually Steph, you were pretty darn close). And now I have the sisterchicks and if it was up to me we would all find some island (of course somewhere warm) and move there with all our families.

Five years ago I was blessed with a sister-in-law. I was so thankful with who my brother chose to marry after a close call….. well if you can’t say something nice…….

For the past five years my brother and sister in law have lived in Chicago. Close enough to see them often. Not close enough to see them often enough. They have been wonderful aunts and uncles to my kids, our favorite euchre partners and our favorite people to gang up on my parents with.

Next week my brother and sister in law will close on a house 20 minutes from where we live. And I could not be more excited. First of all with them comes my niece and soon to be niece/nephew. My kids absolutely can’t get enough of their cousin and I love watching them develop a special bond.

And because I do truly love my little brother I am happy that he will be close. Thankfully he has stopped tickling me and instead tortures my girls. He must enjoy high pitched screaming.

But truth be told, I am most excited about gaining a sister (the in-law part it just a technicality). Beth already has a sister so I would never presume to take her place, but I hope to run a close second. We already got the shopping buddy thing down. I can’t quite get her to make fun or my brother regularly (I am working on it). And as soon as she pops this baby out I am hoping for some serious girl’s night outs around town with a bottle (or two) of wine.

I don’t know how long they will settle here, but I am very, very thankful for this time to have them close and involved in our lives.

Sometimes as a blogger you get pitched for a sponsored post and you think, “I don’t know how I am every going to make that work.” As in all the pitches I have gotten lately for pet owners (I own fish. FISH). But other times the stars align and you get to write about something you are already really passionate about and get paid for it.

Such was the case in the last two weeks. Last Monday I got to tell you about our leap of faith into foster care courtesy of Honda (and thank you for all of your awesome support-truly). Just as I accepted that post opportunity I got another opportunity that allows me highlight a program that fits so well with our passion to help the children who need it the most.

Most of us our blessed with a lot of resources to help provide for our children’s basic needs. And as parents we take our responsibility to keep them safe very seriously. But, as I have learned time and time again in our foster care training, there are so many children in our communities whose needs aren’t being provided for. It is truly shocking the kinds of homes many children live in.  Words fail me.

So what would it look like if those of us in our community who were blessed shared our blessings with those in our community who aren’t nearly as blessed?

Energizer is making it so easy for us to do just that with their Light Up A Life Simple Service Project campaign. The concept is simple. They are challenging people to take a few moments our of days and a few dollars out of our wallets to put together a small care kit for kids. Their vision is to mobilize 20 million people by 2020 to become Champions for Kids!

I can’t be 20 million people, but I can be ONE of millions 

I am SO excited to get my kids involved making care kits for our foster care agency so that they can begin to become invested in the process. We have talked to them a lot about it but I am not sure they are completely grasping what is going to happen. I am hoping this will be a good first step.

When kids come into foster care they often have just the clothes on their back. Nothing to remind them of home. Nothing to make them feel safe. Nothing to make them feel loved.

Care Bags consist of a new backpack with clothing, personal care items, and a toy for them when they meet their foster family and move to their foster home

We have found that the children have found the Care Bag is comforting to them and gives them something that belongs to them as they experience the trauma of being removed from their home and family. – DA Blodgett

I am just struck by the phrase “something that belongs to them.” They are separated from their family that they belong to, so to have ANYTHING that they can cling to as their own is a really big deal. It may not be much. But it is their own.

I would love to encourage all of you to look around you community and see where you can be a Champion for Kids.

In the coming weeks, I will be posting about the kit our family put together and I would love to know how you are doing the same. If it is something your family feels inspired to do, I would love to know what you are doing and who you are doing it for. The possibilities are really endless. Join me in becoming One of Millions.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, but, as always, all opinions and ideas are my own. #EnergizerCFK, #CBias

A while back I wrote a very vague post about change coming in 2012. So vague in fact it actually caused one of my dear friends who had disappeared off the face of the earth call me to see what on earth I was talking about. Apparently that is the only way to get her to call me is bizarre vagueness. So there will be much more of that in 2012 as well.

Anyway back to the change. To tell you about the change coming in 2012, I have to take you back to 2001. It was the year I got married and the first time Ryan and I first discussed adoption. I don’t know why we started talking about it exactly. But I remember that we both were enthusiastic about the fact that one day we would adopt. And a little seed was planted.

Obviously as the years went on, we began to have our own kids. But every few years we would discuss it again and see if it was the right fit for our family. I would, from time to time, poke around on various websites, ask friends who had adopted and look into agencies. But it never seemed to be the right time.

Last year we began to begin the paperwork for foreign adoption. But the whole time we were doing it, nothing about it felt right. Finally one day we admitted to each other this just didn’t seem like what we were supposed to be doing. So we stopped. And started down a different path.

This past weekend we just completed our 6th training session to become foster parents. It is probably the scariest thing I have ever done. And although I wrestle with the fear, I also know in my heart that it is what we are supposed to be doing. But I’ve been afraid to “say it out loud” on the blog because that makes it all too real.

Life is so very good. Life is so very comfortable. Life is so very safe. Life is INCREDIBLY blessed. And out of that blessing we hope to bless some children for whom life is anything but good, comfortable or safe. To take some liberties with a quote from one of my favorite books, it isn’t safe, but it is good. To be continued….

Someone else wants you to take a leap of faith in 2012. From bumper to bumper, the all-new CR-V is loaded with pretty much everything you need to tackle your Leap List. It’s your ultra-versatile adventure partner, and it’s built to take you just about anywhere you want to go. Learn more at leaplist.honda.com.”

Compensation was provided by Honda via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Honda.