Help Us Help Local Military Wives!

If you follow our blog at all, you have probably realized several things about A Nurturing Moment:  we are passionate about helping moms breastfeed; we are deeply concerned about meeting the needs of low-income mothers; and we love and appreciate our military!  It is truly devastating to realize just how many military wives are also very low-income mothers. Their husbands are risking their lives for us, and the least we can do is find a way to give these precious women whatever help and support they need!

The Problem
A couple of weeks ago a young mother called for breastfeeding help. She was experiencing a lot of pain when baby latched on and was about at the end of her rope. Her husband has served in both the Army and the Marines, but she barely had enough money to drive to our office. We were able to provide her a Medela Symphony pump at a reduced rate, and her mother helped pay for the consult. But this is the reason we have a sliding scale for our consults. We desperately want to help every mother who needs it!

The Solution
Just yesterday Intuit announced a contest that we are really excited about! It's the Small Business Big Wishes contest. Beginning on December 3, Intuit will give $5000 grants to one business each day for a total of 15 days. We submitted the following wish:

We want to help the wives of those who serve our country by providing breast pumps and breastfeeding support to military wives.These brave women often survive at or below poverty level. Being alone while her husband is deployed is hard enough, but having a new baby doubles the burden. $5000 would provide postpartum support and breast pump rental to local military spouses at Redstone Arsenal.

How You Can Help
Intuit is looking at the number of votes that each project gets as part of their decision-making process. So we need to get the word out and get as many votes as we can. You can vote one time every day, so please take a few minutes to do the following:

• Go to the contest page and vote.
• Share by clicking the share button - you can share on Facebook, Twitter or via email
• Take just a minute to vote every day from now until we win!!

Thank you so much for coming alongside this project and helping us help our military wives!

We Love Our Military Heroes

Today I want to take a few minutes to say thank you to all of our military families and our veterans. Your service to our country is something I deeply appreciate. When a young man or woman makes the commitment to serve in the armed forces, he or she fully realizes the risk involved. The military is dangerous! Yet without the service of these young men and women, we would not have the amazing country we have. The freedoms we enjoy have been bought with a high price.

Lance Corporal Kendall Bane with his girlfriend
Jessica Stender before the Marine Ball.

Saturday was the birthday of the Marine Corps and the Marine Ball. One very special young man was in attendance. Lance Corporal Kendall Bane graduated from Westminster Christian Academy in 2011 and joined the Marines. He deployed to Afghanistan on May 4, 2012. On September 20 his family was notified  that he was shot several times. The first shot was taken straight to the head. Fortunately he was wearing his helmet. He took three more shots: one to each leg and one in the abdomen.  Since September 28 Lance Corporal Bane has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. However, last week he came home! His family and girlfriend Jessica have been by his side throughout his recovery. He is still in a wheelchair and has a long way to go, but he has an indomitable spirit.

In our ANM family, we have many military men and women who have faithfully served this country. Military wives deserve special recognition because of the sacrifice they are making. It isn't easy raising children when Daddy is gone. We appreciate each one of our military families so much. Please take a moment to share about your military hero in the comment section. We would love to hear your story. And to honor you today, we have a special sale!

A Special Thanks to our Military Men and Women

We are so blessed to live in a country where we take freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from servitude for granted. Is the USA perfect? NO. But the freedom we have here to pursue the American dream, to worship as we please and to raise our children according to our values is truly a blessing. We have an immigration problem in part because people from other countries don't have the same opportunities we do here!

So today it is appropriate for us to pause and say THANK YOU to the men and women who have made the sacrifices necessary to serve in our military. There are lots of ways to do this:

• If you own a business, give them a special discount. We are offering a 20% discount today, but we always have a 10% military discount.
• Say Thank You to any service man or woman you see in uniform.
• Send a letter to a soldier who is serving overseas. If you don't know anybody who is serving, you can still get involved here.
• Get involved as a volunteer with the National Military Family Association. This is a great way to support the families who also make real sacrifices.
• Are you interested in childbirth and supporting mothers? Operation Special Delivery provides doulas for military moms whose husbands are deployed.
• Send a care package to a deployed service person through Operation Gratitude.

If you are in the military or married to a service person, please let me take this opportunity to say a heartfelt THANK YOU so much! God Bless You!