My heart is breaking.

So, if you know me, then you know that I do not like to be sad. I don't watch "sad" movies (or even movies with animals because that almost always makes me feel sad, bad, or sorry for something/someone), I change the channel during a sad news story, I don't watch Extreme Home Make Over because it makes me cry, I don't ponder things that will tug at my heart strings. I try to avoid these emotions. And, since having this sweet little baby of mine, I cry quite easily... at the sight of another baby even :) so I've really had to step up my game to avoid the overflow of emotions.


Well, this morning the walls came tumbling down. I turned on the Today Show and the first story I saw was about the famine crisis in Somalia. Ann Curry was going around talking with parents and grandparents about their children who have starved to death. There were images of small emaciated children with their ribs showing through their skin, covered in flies and laying on a mat on the ground. They shared a story of a family who lost their eldest child to the famine (no doubt because he was surrendering his food to his younger siblings), and their youngest child, a 2 year old, was in the hospital because he only weighed 6lbs. (Here is a link to the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44143019#44143019)

And then it happened, I burst into tears. I tried to imagine my sweet angel May crying up at me because she is starving and not being able to meet her needs.  I couldn't fight the images in my head of my sweet baby dying because there is no food and there is nothing I can do to help her. 

I feel so helpless and so out of control in a situation like this, so I am turning to my social media addiction to try and "do something," anything really.  Please know that it is not my intention to try and guilt anyone into doing anything. I TRULY believe that ignoring this crisis is simply not an option. We all have something to spare. One dollar might not be much to you - but to the starving people in Somalia it means as many as 40 meals. Maybe you have "nothing to spare" in terms of the American life but please consider what your small change can do for these people who are living off of a half cup of food at best.


Below are some links that you can follow to make a donation or to read some of the stories coming back from the humanitarian workers. PLEASE PLEASE don't ignore this because it's hard to face the facts - please grab your wallet and help today.


World Vision: http://www2.worldvision.org/news/drought-hunger-malnutrition-kenya
World Relief: https://worldrelief.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=3066
Text any of these organizations to donate $10 (source: CNN.com)
text "SURVIVE" to 20222 - Save the children
text "NOHUNGER" to 20222 - Action Against Hunger
text "FOOD" to 864233 - Unicef
Test AFRICA" to 80888 - International Medical Corps
Text "AID" to 27722 - United Nations World Food Programme
text "4AFRICA" to 20222 - World Vision

This article from CNN.com has a good wrap up of the various reliable ways to donate if you would like more information: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/20/iyw.howtohelp.somalia.famine/index.html

I'm shocked.

There is a crisis in Africa - children are starving and dying and I bought a frappuccino today.


Whilst twittering tonight I scrolled past several tweets in a row posted by an old friend, Kristi Stephens. Kristi has an amazing heart for God and always has a worthy cause that she's fighting for.  I admire Kristy so much.  I'm feeling a bit disgusted with myself right now - this is the first tweet of Kristi's that I actually read: More than 29,000 children, under the age of 5, have perished in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone. http://is.gd/hdw4Gs. And you know what I did? I thought to myself, "I don't want to read about something so depressing..." and I almost didn't click.  Almost.


Kristi's next tweet read: "Mothers are being forced to abandon their weak or sick children in order to save the remaining others." - http://is.gd/hdw4Gs. As a mother, I am so disgusted that I almost didn't click that link. I can't even begin to fathom what this would be like and I don't want to have to think about it so I just wanted to walk away.

I didn't walk away.  I clicked the link and I'm glad I did. I couldn't ignore what I read.


Please do read the article yourself. Please decide if you can help. These people need prayer and they need money. $1 provides 40 meals - yes, that's it. You can donate $10 by texting WORLDHELP to 85944 -- that's 400 meals in the 5 seconds it will take you to send one text message.

My May-Bug

Let's pick up where we left off...
March 25, 2011 ---- the. best. day. ever.

Miss May Florence Winn graced us with her presence at 8:21am  - she was 9lbs, 6oz and 21 inches long!

No wonder I was SO HUGE at the end of my pregnancy.  She was technically only one week late (according to the doctors due date)... but, according to MY due date she was two weeks late.  Who do you think was right? I mean, 9lbs 6oz? C'mon.

Labor and delivery was a breeze (thanks to my little friend, "epidural") - From the time my water broke to the time she was out it had been about 9 hours... not too shabby!

May was SUCH a good baby from the get go - she never had her days and nights mixed up (she would get up to eat at night and go right back down... what a peach!) and she started sleeping through the night (8-9 hr stretches) at 5 weeks! Yep, we are lucky parents. I like to take a tiny bit of credit for her sleeping habits... for two reasons... One is genetics... I LOVE to sleep so I think she takes after me :-) and Two is sleep training... sounds nutty but I really did start working on this at 2 weeks old (not letting her scream and cry in her crib or anything crazy like that, well not at 2 weeks at least) and we still work on it now (she's 4.5 months as I'm writing this).

The first 2.5 weeks flew by! My mom was here and living on our couch (thanks to our lovely one bedroom apartment) for the first week - she cooked and cleaned and let me cry as much as I needed to... it was SO good to have her here! Then Chris' mom was here for about a week and a half and she didn't stay with us but she got here around 7am everyday to make me breakfast and help me take care of little May since Chris was back at work already... what a blessing our mom's are!

Here are some of my fave pics from her first month!

40 weeks in pictures...

Last time you heard from me was August of 2010 - I was 8 weeks pregnant and getting ready to take a 60 mile stroll around Chicagoland.  Let me start around that time!
July 8, 2010 - We're pregnant! (little May was just a poppy seed sized twinkle in my eye, er.... belly)

12 Weeks

15 Weeks









Around 15 weeks Lynnette and I shipped off to Turks and Caicos (in the middle of the atlantic ocean... SO. Beautiful.) for Ken and Nicole Viggiano's wedding (formerly Nicole Baksha).  It was an amazing week in the most beautiful place I had ever seen!

When we got home from Turks and Caicos I found out that my dear sweet Nana (and May's namesake - Florence) had passed away earlier that day. She lived a beautiful and full life and is hanging with Jesus now but we still miss her so much!

18 Weeks

20 Weeks

22 Weeks

27 Weeks

at 30 weeks we shipped off to Colorado for Shaunes and Brian's wedding! The Haapala's were joined in holy matrimony on New Years Eve in a castle in Colorado Springs - it was so romantic!

Around 31 weeks I had the blessing of gathering together with a bunch of my pregnant friends (believe it or not, this was not all of them!) -- Here we are with the babies still tucked neatly inside our bellies standing in order of due date - Heather is first, I am last (even though I'm almost the biggest!)

32 Weeks

At 35 weeks my very amazing friends threw me a totally awesome 80's themed baby shower! It was so so fun!

Caitlin was due one month after me! :-)

36 Weeks

41 Weeks - prepare to pity me... just a few days before little May finally decided to join us on the outside! :-)

Reworking the blog-a-roo

ooook. So, I started this blog last year as a way to share about my 3day breast cancer walk.  Whelp, the 3day ended, I was 8 weeks pregnant and I left the blog to die a slow sad death in blog land. Well friends, prepare to get excited because today, I decided to bring it back.  That's right, I'm bringing it back. Only this time you'll get filled in on my random thoughts and silly details of my days (for instance, how long May napped today or what we are up to this weekend - riveting stuff).

That being said - I'll do a little update soon with some pics and stories about our sweet darling Maybug to get you up to speed on my simple little life. (first I have to RE download my favorite pics from facebook because our hard drive crashed and I lost 10000 pics that were not backed up anywhere else.  I'm so dumb.

So there's something to look forward to.

Peace out hombre's.

Who can I walk for on your behalf?

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your support!  Thanks to all of you, i met my goal one month BEFORE the walk!  I really can't put into words how special it is for me to know that you have decided to take this journey with me.

The walk starts THIS Friday morning!  It just seems crazy...  So, in my prep this week, i am trying to get my list together of those who I am walking for (both in honor of and in memory of).  That being said, please let me know who i can walk for on your behalf.  I will be making ribbons to go on my pack with the names of each person I am walking for, and I would be honored to walk for your friends and loved one's who have been affected by breast cancer.

Please email me (becca.winn@yahoo.com) by Wednesday at noon with anyone you want included so that I can make the ribbon for them.

On another note, there is some spectator information available on the 3day website...

The most important info though is about the closing ceremonies - i would be so honored if you could join us there!  The closing ceremonies are on Sunday, August 8th at 4:30pm at Soldier Field.  It's open to everyone and it's quite an amazing ceremony.

There are also tons of ways to cheer us on throughout the walk in Winnetka, Glenview (friday),  Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect (Saturday) and almost every town around there - then in Chicago on Sunday - cheering makes all the difference in this walk and was many times the only thing that kept me walking last year!

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You can still support my 3day team!

And, I almost forgot! My teammate, Lynnette, still needs to reach her goal.  So, if you haven't donated yet and wanted to support this cause, please donate to her instead.  OR, if you are feeling really generous and want to donate again, please donate to Lynnette.

Her donation page can be found here.  Or you can go to my page, click on "Lovely Lady Lumps" (clever, huh?) and then click on Lynnette's name to donate to her.

If you don't know Lynnette personally here is one of MANY reasons to donate to her.  When my cousin Alisa was diagnosed with cancer back in the fall of 2008 the first thing Lynnette said was, "Oh, then we have to do one of those walks!"  Yes, this whole crazy journey was HER idea!  Yes, she decided to raise $2300 and walk 60 miles (not easy my friends, not easy at all) for someone that she barely knows.  I truly don't know anyone more selfless and more amazing than my Lynnettey Bo Betty. :-)

Here's Lynnette with Aaron and Maddie at the end of the 2009 walk.  How was she NOT crabby by this point?  For real.

Aaaaand, here we are getting our tent set up and wrapping our suitcases in plastic because it WOULD NOT stop raining on the first day.

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Met my Gooooaaaaallll!!!

Have I said "thank you" lately?  Incase you haven't heard, I am so amazingly and incredibly THANKFUL to my supporters!!!  In one week I raised over $1000 and met my 3Day fundraising minimum.  I simply cannot believe this to be true!  With 28 days to spare?!  Crazy.

I had started to get worried about my fundraising a few weeks back when I realized that I was a wee bit behind where I was last year at this time and most people who donated last year had already donated for this year.  (that was a really long and confusing sentence, sorry about that).  Well, deep down in my heart  I knew that there was no need to worry and I only wish I would have listened to that little voice inside instead of stressing out!  Now I am waaaay ahead of where I was last year!! 

So, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! You all are completely amazing and I am so honored that you would come along side me on this journey.  I feel like every day I hear of someone else with breast cancer, someone's niece, or mother, or aunt or grandmother or daughter was just diagnosed and it just makes me angry.  That being said, I'm thrilled to be doing my part in the fight against breast cancer and I'm honored and amazed by the incredible people that are in my life that would partner with me in this battle.

Please please please remember that your donation IS making a difference.  I can't really say it better than the Susan G. Komen foundation - so here's a little snippit from their website.

Because 10 million women around the world could die from breast cancer in the next 25 years, we continue to fight every minute of every day to save every life. 

Thanks to people like you who share our vision of a world without breast cancer, we’ve made huge discoveries in finding new and better ways to detect the disease at its earliest stages. We now know so much more about the different types of breast cancer and specific ways to attack each kind. And we work day-in and day-out in communities throughout the world to ensure everyone can access quality care and these new advances. But the fact is, breast cancer is still life-threatening, and until we can keep people from dying from it, we need your help - your generosity is crucial as we continue this fight. 

They are getting closer to finding a cure and you are a part of it.  THANK YOU. 

 

 

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My supporters are AMAZING.

WOW WOW WOW!!! I am SO overwhelmed by the response I have received since my last blog/email update. WOW! I managed to raise $515 in 24 hours!!! That is just nutty.

So, where does that leave my fundraising effort now? Only $539 to go until I meet my fundraising minimum of $2300 and $1239 until I meet my personal fundraising goal of $3000. This went from feeling a little bit scary and out of reach to TOTALLY doable!

Now to get back on track (AGAIN) with my training! I got some new shoes (again!) last week and I MUST train in order to break those bad boys in before the walk. I'll check back in soon with a fabulous training update!

My 3day Page: http://www.the3day.org/goto/beccawinn10
My Official Blog: http://www.beccawalks.blogspot.com

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU everyone for you support!!

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T minus FOUR weeks til the 3day!!

Oh. My. Goodness.  The day has almost arrived!  You read that right, only four short weeks until Lynnette and I head out on another 3day adventure!  Wow!  So here are a few quick updates for you!

Fundraising
I am $1054 dollars from my minimum fundraising amount of $2300.  Here's how the "minimum" thing works... Each walker has to raise $2300 in order to walk.  If you don't have it before you walk, you give them your credit card number and you have 4 weeks after the walk in order to raise the rest, or they charge it to ya.  Or you can just donate what you have raised and not walk.

This breaks down to $253/week... or about $40/day that I still need to raise.  I have heard from a lot of people that you are planning on donating but just haven't yet... now is the time friends! :-)  I know I sound like a broken record but every penny really does make a difference... if you can donate $5 that's great... $20 is great... every dollar makes a difference in the fight against breast cancer! Click here to go to my donation page.  If you aren't comfortable making an online donation you can scroll to the bottom of my personal page to print the donation form - just fill it out and mail it in with your donation.

Why am I doing this?
Here is a reminder from my very first blog post of why I'm doing this.  Please remember that I am not asking for money for myself... I'm asking you to support the dream of a world without breast cancer.

Here are the facts:
Here's what I REALLY want you to know about why I am doing this... I TRULY believe, with every fiber of my being, that we can find a cure for breast cancer and that it can happen in my lifetime.

There are a lot of statistics coming up in this blog entry but I really want you, my supporters, to understand:
1.) what we are up against,
2.) what advancements have been made in the past two decades and
3.) why it’s so important that we don’t give up the fight!

Did you know that in a lifetime, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer?

Did you know that in the US, in 2009, there were an estimated 194,280 new cases of breast cancer in women and men and 40,610 deaths?

The good news is that new diagnostic tools allow physicians to detect cancer at earlier stages and new treatment strategies -- chemotherapy, hormonal and new biological therapies, like Herceptin are helping to save lives and reduce suffering.

There has been and continues to be a decline in death from breast cancer. To be clear, there are still approximately 40,000 women dying of breast cancer each year in the United States, but the breast cancer mortality rate has been slowly declining.

Why the 3day? Here's something you may not know about Susan G Komen for the cure....

Komen has sustained a strong commitment to supporting research that will identify and deliver cures for breast cancer. This commitment has resulted in important progress that has contributed to every major advancement in breast cancer over the past 25 years. With increasing investments over time, Komen is now the largest non-government funder of breast cancer research.

Training
Trainig this year has been about  a million times better than last year.  I've gotten a few substantial long walks... nothing as long as my training schedule suggests (like back to back 17 and 14 milers... who has time for that?!) but still, I feel good about what I have accomplished this year.  I'm pretty excited that my training schedule is majorly slowing down now with shorter walks, etc... I feel pretty good about where I am at and hope to keep on with some steady walks through the hot hot month of July so that my endurance stays strong for the walk.  I think I'm ready though... maybe. :-)

That's it from me for today!  Thank you so much for sticking with me through this nutty journey and for supporting me.  It's hard to express via blogs and emails but your support means a tremendous amount to me and I could never say thank you enough!

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