May 2023

 "How Much Is An Old Pair of Shoes Worth?"

There is a saying here in the South....."It's been a minute".  The time frame can be anywhere from a literal minute, hours, months or years. So, we say "It's been a minute" because we are late in writing this blog and capturing all that has happened since the 3rd week of April.  We are overwhelmed with both the blessings that have become evident in our work and the challenges that we (and our women) are facing in their lives.
Reporting on the progress of MyBaby4Me...Soles and Souls  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints has invested in countless humanitarian service projects around the world, and there is a well-defined process of reporting and accountability for those investments.  In a recent meeting, the MyBaby4Me project report was shared with Elder Dale Renlund, one of the Twelve Apostles of our church leadership.  Elder Renlund summarized the meeting for all present by asking them what they would pay for an old pair of shoes? Then he recounted several occasions where athletes who had accomplished great things sold their worn shoes....and the price that those shoes sold for.  In multiple cases, millions of dollars.  And then he said to the group of leaders "And what is Char's baby worth?" In the Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 we read:   "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." We have come to love and see the worth of each woman who joins MyBaby4Me.  One of our first women, Char, delivered a term, healthy baby boy on May 5th. We feel blessed to be supporting her and celebrate with her.  She was able to take her baby home with a full layette donated by members of the church in our Layettes with Love project. She is settled into an apartment with her partner with basic furniture and kitchen items. She is in a stable relationship with someone who (though not the biological father of this baby) has stepped up to support her and her baby. She has a FT job offer beginning at the end of July as a classroom assistant in the public school system; her baby will be able to be near her at an on-site child care center for school employees.
An Example of Striving For many of our women, it is easy to lose hope and feel like life is just too hard in the face of so many challenges.  We pray every day that we may be able to serve in a way that allows all we interact with to feel love and light and hope....to serve as our Savior Jesus Christ did when on the earth.   If ever there was someone who could be discouraged, it would be Rokeisha (with the colored shirt on in this picture).  She has been homeless for over a year.  She had pregnancy complications and couldn't work, thereby losing both her job and her housing and becoming homeless with her 11 year old son.  She put her household goods in storage so she would have the essentials for a future home, then had trouble keeping up the storage unit payments. Her storage unit was broken into and about half of her possessions were stolen, but the information she needed to file an insurance claim to replace them was also inaccessible in the storage unit because she couldn't pay the bill to access the information.   Then she delivered a baby girl who had complications and was hospitalized for over 3 months.  She returned to work at a child care center, but with only PT hours, she could not afford even the discounted rate that the child care center offered her to have her daughter there.  She and her baby and son were moving from shelters to cheap motels and sometimes sleeping in her car when we met them... it was winter and freezing here in Memphis. She pulled her son out of school to care for her baby so she would be able to work a 30 hour week.  And in all of that, she has been optimistic and had her sights set on the goal of getting housing again for her family.  This woman would work a day caring for other children, then do Door Dash deliveries with her own two children in the car to make additional money (see car). We helped support Rokeisha moving into an apartment this month...delivering to her some laundry baskets filled with new towels, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, a shower curtain, cleaning supplies, dishes, silverware, sheets, etc.  We met her at her storage unit to make the final payment before her belongings were scheduled to be sold at auction. We are working with her to find a job that will give her FT hours, which will qualify her for Child Care Assistance here in TN.  And we have identified a program that her son can attend over the summer to make up for missing the last half of the school year. We have shared hugs and tears of joy with Rokeisha and her gratitude and resilience.
Do You Know How Much Diapers Cost? We saw the need for diapers for our families early in this project with the joy they expressed when we distributed diapers and wipes from the Memphis-area MLK Day of Service Diaper Drive event.  Diapers run about $840/year for a baby, and many of our MyBaby4Me families have more than one child in diapers.  With little or no income, there is no way to buy diapers.   We have worked with the Bishop's Storehouse operations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to find a way to meet the never-ending need for diapers. The third week of May, an entire pallet of assorted-sized diapers arrived at the NAACP offices!  We hope to continue to be able to find a way to meet this need.
Miracles Everywhere.....  We are keeping a running list of things we recognize as miracles that have happened in our work.  One small recent event was an Uber driver that came to pick up one of our families following our class and return them home.  The driver saw the MyBaby4Me Class signs in front of the building and wanted to know more.  Then that driver said, "I have a daughter with brand new twin babies.  This would be great for her!  I will tell her and get her here"!  We know that wasn't just a coincidence.   We have so many more examples....we get emotional sometimes because we know that the needs of this work are being met in so many ways.   The latest miracle happened this week.  Lynn and I were both sick (more about that at the end of this blog).  Being medical professionals and trying to be good role models, it wasn't wise for us to expose these women and children to our germs.  We have been trying to increase the capacity for volunteer help during our MyBaby4Me classes and also increase the involvement of outside presenters; we had our class covered for this week.  We had a wonderful family (a couple and their 3 children) who were scheduled to come and help.  We had a guest presenter all scheduled.  Tamara with the Extension Service was a hit with our women!  She presented on fresh fruits and vegetables available at Farmer's Markets and taught our families how to "double up" on their SNAP benefits at Farmers Markets.  Meal arrangements for the group were in place. Lynn was able to do his class reminders and the Uber/Lyft ride arrangement magic from our apartment.  And the class was a success!
15 and Pregnant We have another delivery coming up at the end of June and are so excited that this young woman is doing well and is carrying this baby with no problems.  She has been in school, and we missed her and her mom at class for several weeks in a row.  We were so worried about her....she hadn't been there when we presented about labor and delivery and felt she really needed that content.  Then one day, she, her mother and her grandmother walked in the door of the NAACP. We grabbed posters and our plastic pelvis and cloth placenta and were able to spend about an hour with them in a 1:1 teaching environment.  We will be having a baby shower/brunch for her mid-June and gifting her with an entire layette.  This young woman has carried embarrassment and shame about her pregnancy.  She successfully hid her pregnancy for the school year. She hadn't announced the pregnancy to any of her friends. The father of her baby is also 15 years old.  She has the total support of her mother, but not from others.  Every mom should celebrate the birth of a child!  So we will have a brunch, and balloons and cupcakes and help her feel that a new life (regardless of the circumstances) is a beautiful thing.
Learning Together We are thankful for a curriculum for MyBaby4Me that the church was gifted by a program at Ohio State University called Moms2Be.  The Moms2Be curriculum has been such a blessing, allowing us ready materials on many topics but also allowing us the flexibility to add additional topics or modify/add to what we have at hand.  As we work with our women and carefully listen, we can choose future class topics that apply to their lives and current state of knowledge.   We believe that family size is a very personal decision.  We are not anti-pregnancies or anti-large families (we Do Have One) , but there is good science about the spacing of pregnancies affecting infant mortality rates.  We wanted our women to have the best information possible about their reproductive choices and timing of a future baby.  We found and connected with a great partner here in Memphis called the "Step Ahead Foundation".  This organization funds long-acting reversible birth control methods directly to clinical providers, so that women can access them at no cost.  Their outreach staff presented to our women this month.....we had over 20 people in the room and a rich discussion and a "show and tell" where all the methods could actually be passed around the class. Several women have since made appointments through the exposure at that class. It was a win for us on a topic that we felt would be of great benefit for our moms and families.
The Arkansas Little Rock Mission and Leadership Transitions In serving with other senior missionaries, we feel like we have made life-long friends. Our mission is going through some significant transitions, with leaders and key senior missionaries leaving.  We have come to love the other Senior Missionary Couples; all are amazing people who have left home and family to dedicate 1-2 years of service.  Each of them have had gifts needed in this place at this time. Since we arrived in November, the Bolinders, Sister Baker and the Luikarts have completed their missions and gone home. Our Mission President and his wife (President and Sister Cahoon) will end their leadership service at the end of June and a new Mission President, and his family will arrive. We have loved knowing the Cahoons; our situation is a unique one where we don't report directly to them for our work with the NAACP.  They have taken such an interest in our work....wanting to meet with us and see pictures and get progress reports.  I don't know if anyone can appreciate all that falls upon the shoulders of a Mission President....responsibility for 150+ missionaries and their daily work spread across hundreds of miles and 3 states. We will miss the Cahoon's positive example and encouragement and wish them well. Cindy and Dean Luikart (UT)	Garry and Stacey Bolinder (UT)                         Sister Leslie Baker (CA)                         President and Sister Cahoon
The School Bus (AKA our Honda) We teach so that we may impact the future of our women and their families.  And we know that health status and health outcomes are better in those with more education.  One of our moms had her first baby when she was 14 and now has 6 children at age 29.  Her oldest daughters are 13 and 15.  Because this family is homeless and staying with a relative and has no transportation, the girls were not going to be able to complete the school year at the school they had been attending.  So with the help of several others, we stepped into school bus duty for the last 3 weeks of school to make sure that we "walked the walk" in communicating the value of education as a means to improve the future.  Sometimes the girls were talkative and cheerful, sometimes they fought all the way to school and home....it sure brought back memories of shuffling our own kids and the car conversations.  The girls ended the school year successfully with a dance and "graduation" ceremonies.
And in closing, COVID Just because the pandemic ended, doesn't mean that COVID is gone.  We avoided infection during the entire pandemic only for Lynn to test positive just before Memorial Day weekend.  We each have had 4 doses of COVID-19 Vaccine and managed to make it through by staying home in isolation with lots of cold/cough medicine, fluids and rest.  We were so thankful for our cozy apartment and being able to recover.....and for others who stepped into manage our MyBaby4Me groups in our absence.  Now we have had both vaccine and infection, we should be good for the rest of our mission! We are grateful for your love and support. Until next month, Lynn and Joell