Next month Caleb would be heading to his first day of first grade. We can't send him with a superhero backpack and fresh mohawk haircut but we CAN make sure his love radiates through the halls of schools near and far.
We have decided to make August 9th an annual school supplies drive! From 2-4pm we will be collecting supplies/monetary donations at the India Shriners (3601 NW 36th St, OKC) for Putnam City and Oklahoma City Public Schools (online and contactless options available).
This year it is even more critical to support our schools as COVID-19 has created devastating shortages while eliminating the option to share supplies.
As we do with every event, we will be including handwritten notes of encouragement. Write a few at home and mail them, drop them off or come make your own creation 6 feet apart.
*OKC Public Schools has a new way of purchasing supplies at wholesale prIces in order to maximize our impact and help as many children as possible. Their special rate allows your donation of $20 to purchase $60 worth of supplies! To help purchase supply kits in bulk donate to OKC Public Schools via this link or donate in person on the 9th! We will close our special link on the 10th and announce the total!
https://bit.ly/2ExOkmb
To support Putnam City Schools please bring Lysol spray (the goal is 2,000 cans which represents one can per teacher), reusable face masks or hand sanitizer. To make a donation directly, visit https://pcf4kids.org/.
We will also be drawing for four $50 gift cards to be gifted to public teachers (one winner for a pre-K-1st grade teacher, one 2nd-5th, one 6th-9th and one 10th-12th) for their classroom (no matter where they live)! To be entered they must like The Caleb Effect Facebook page and comment with the school and grade where they teach (and share for extra credit ;)!
*If you were a winner last year, please sit this one out but share this with your teacher friends.
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Are you ready for some positivity in this world? We are helping the @santafefamilylifecenter this month by providing swimming safety items and pool toys! Please stop by tomorrow, June 9th at 6300 N Santa Fe Ave, OKC between 5 and 7pm and drop off floaties, water wings, various sizes of swim vests/life jackets, goggles, swim caps, pool noodles, or whatever swim safety accessories you want. Caleb loved “wimming” more than any other activity (it may have even rivaled vroom vrooms) and we are excited to get to share his love of the water with others. Feel free to join us and write some notes for the amazing kids and adults this will help - the Santa Fe Family Life Center "focuses on offering and promoting programs designed to empower disadvantaged youth and people with disabilities to achieve improved fitness and well-being." Check them out here at https://www.sfflc.com/about-us, and if you can't be there but want to help, they are about to start a fundraising campaign that will see each donation matched dollar-for-dollar up to $75,000.
Be Nice on the 9th!
Sorry in advance this has more than a few simple words. You're spending time distancing yourself from all your regular activities now anyway so maybe you won't mind.
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Much like most people in the world right now we made plans that won't be fulfilled. We had so many hopes, dreams and visions of the future as a family when Caleb came along as well. In fact, this photo was taken at Caleb's first and only experience at Sesame Street Live. We had taken time off work, paid for a hotel room in Tulsa and waited to watch Caleb's face light up as he got to see Elmo (one of his favorites)! As you can see, he DID love it but that only lasted literally about 2 minutes.
He came. He saw. He wanted to leave. So despite all our plans, we did what was best and left.
Such is the case right now. Instead of an in-person get together, it is best that we abandon our original plans and focus on what is most important. Social distancing. Flattening the curve. Keeping everyone healthy. Showing love for those who are in desperate need.
This Nice on the 9th we want you to choose at least 9 people/local businesses that are struggling and BE NICE! We also want to put out hope, love, strength, resilience and positivity in Caleb's name. Post on our page and tag us in your efforts. Wait until April 9th or start working on it now!
How can you help?
IDEAS:
-If you are still getting a check (or if you have a few dollars to spare), send a "love offering" (thank you to my dear Uncle John [who left this world shortly before Caleb's arrival] for that phrase) to someone who isn't getting their regular paycheck because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
-Put together a care package for a nursing home and leave it with a staff member (be sure to sanitize anything that could still have your germs on it).
-Call/email/chat online with someone who may be lonely, having an especially difficult time, or who already struggles on normal days with their mental health. Emotions are high. Do your part to bring laughter when possible!
-Shop local business! Many are offering curbside pickup, delivery, shipping, etc!
-Getting overloaded with kids' arts and crafts projects? Pass it on to someone who would LOVE to have a child's creativity sent/delivered to them!
-Ask your healthcare providers how you can help. Sew some extra masks. Order bakery goods from those struggling shops and restaurants that have supported all your fundraising nights and have them deliver to those who are putting in long hours and risking their own health for the public.
-Volunteer for a charity who is making a difference in these uncertain times (if you have volunteer opportunities, please post here as well).
-Give to a shelter (the two or 4-legged variety). Being homeless right now is even more challenging.
-Don't take this time here for granted. We say it often but tomorrow truly is not guaranteed for any of us. We would give anything in the whole, wide world to be "stuck" at home with Caleb. Play with your kids. Really play. Put your phone down and put on your imagination. It's missed you.
-Be a light in the dark. Look at Caleb's face and see the joy his brief time here still shines through you. Caleb was only in our world 2 years, 2 months, and somewhere into his 23rd day but he lit up our whole world, even in the darkest of times. He still is if you let him.
-Be Nice on the 9th.
Adam and I took time to be alone on Caleb's actual birthday but greatly appreciate all who remembered the light of our lives on his special day. It meant a lot to see the ways you are spreading The Caleb Effect.
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Hi Baby Boy. I love you. I miss you so much.
It is incredibly overwhelming to be here on your birthday without you. You brought all the happy I ever needed on your birthday and every day of your much too brief life. There is so much I wish I could say to you and even more I would give anything to hear you share with me too. Yes, I can still talk to you and you to me but the physical conversations have been silenced. I hate that. I hate not being with you so much. I wish I could hold you with every last wish and each candle you don’t get to have on a cake I never got to make. A knife twisted so deep it pierces my soul and leaves the jagged edges sharply fanned out in every direction just under my skin. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger but they lied. I don’t know how losing you hasn’t killed me but one day the tourniquets holding pressure will get to free the rest of me. One day I’ll get to come through to the other side too. One day I will have you in my arms again. One day. One day. One day.
God, I miss you.
You will always be forever two. Six is something I can’t even imagine but I wish to God I could still be living with you.
It is like going through some kind of twilight zone existing in ultra-slow motion and yet stumbling through tricks where your life here was in warp speed. I can’t believe this even happened and I also can’t believe I’m still surviving on this planet. Like we were both snatched from Earth. They took all of you but left the shell of me. My soul went with you and my heart and body are still trying to catch up.
I haven’t had as many words for a long time and with every unfinished project or one left completely undone, there is guilt. My body and brain don’t always cooperate but Baby Bear I’m doing my best.
You have now had twice as many birthdays away from us as we got to thoroughly enjoy with you. I want each of them back. I want you back. I want our old life back. I want answers that don’t exist. We have done everything in our power to distract ourselves and try our hardest to give you the avenues to shine but sometimes it feels like we’re just spinning our wheels. Maybe I should think of this more like your grandpa’s nowhere rides (Has he taken you on one yet?). Maybe we ARE going somewhere but I can’t comprehend the meaning yet as we pass by all the same places. I wish I could see the scene from where you sit in your vroom vroom now. I hope one day I get to be on the same ride and it won’t matter where we go or how many of the same wheels keep spinning. I hope one day even sooner we finally get your vroom vroom memorial here completed.
I miss you. With every cell, laughter and tear, I miss you. You made me me and I’m still searching for all the pieces you left that made you you. It is not a surprise to anyone to know that I am lost but the day I find you again in my final destination I will never let you leave home without me again. I don’t know which way to go so keep helping me, Caleb Lennon. I still need you even if you are doing just fine without me.
I love you. Always have. Always will.
Happy birthday, Baby Boy.
One day I will celebrate all of them with you again.
One day.
Love,
Mommy
XOXOXOXOXOXO