Causes to Support

(I don't know why the font is so small, I think that blogger is having a fit - after fighting with it for 15 minutes, I give up!)

6. Find a cause that I love and donate money or volunteer my time

I've spent some time researching various causes near and dear to my heart. Pretty much anything and everything breaks my heart now that I'm a mom. I see so much injustice now and while before I was like, "Well that really sucks, but there's nothing I can really do about it," now I cry over pretty much anything. I won't say that I was a callous person before or anything, but something broke inside of me when that little person looked up at me for the first time and made me want to become a better person.
I guess we're all just one phone call from our knees, as the song goes.
I'm reminded of something that I heard Andy Stanley say at Leadercast last year. "What breaks your heart?" 
Well for me, damned near everything now.
My current sadness is the Louisiana flooding. Today, I made a donation to Second Harvest. Food is a basic life necessity.

I've been researching other charities using Charity Navigator.So far here are my top choices:Action Against HungerAmerican Refugee CommitteeInternational Rescue CommitteeThese are all four-star choices from Charity Navigator. I'll probably just give donations to all three of them. Hunger and Refugees are apparently my current obsession. I just can't imagine being in that position myself, and it makes me cry every time I think of how fortunate I am. I'm serious, ask my friends who have had the misfortune of driving somewhere with me when I talk about refugees.And as I've posted before, VGIF is another great charity that deserves a look. They aren't rated on Charity Navigator, but I've seen first hand the good that they do. They have a real impact on the lives of women in developing countries. 

"VGIF provides grants globally to fund locally generated projects that advance the rights of women and girls."

They are less "White Savior" and more empowerment on a local level.As far as donating my actual time, I'd like to get involved with Caroline CASA or the Caroline Mentoring Project. Of course, I'm not sure that I really have enough time right now to get involved with them on a meaningful level, but if I can help out here and there, I would love to.As a former CCCA Board member, I know that art programs have the ability to change and enrich lives as well. However, I'm a bit burned out from serving on the board for five years and am looking to spend my time where I feel like it will make the biggest impact and fuel my soul.