PERSONAL NOTE + GREAT GIVING STORY CONTEST + WORDS FROM MBALI

I have so much to tell you on the personal front, but don't miss the information below about the 29 GIFTS GREAT GIVING STORY CONTEST -- fun loot and your story could be in my next book! There are also some WONDERFUL WORDS OF WISDOM FROM MBALI CREAZZO inside this issue of Good Giving Weekly so make sure you scroll to the end!

First an update on my recent gifts: My boyfriend of almost one year, Kevin, has been sick for three days now. My gifts have been to take care of him--running to the drug store for medicine, grocery store for food, taking care of the dogs. I have also been using an idea passed on to me by an Atlanta 29Giver in the spirit of our July giving theme of honoring our military. I have been printing the free 29 Gifts Note Cards and writing: "Thank you for serving!" inside. I give them to anyone wearing military clothing, police and fire officers.

Lately, I haven't felt so hot myself. I have been low on energy and dealing with a lot of pain. My last blood tests showed low iron and vitamin D so that's not helping things. Plus, MS fatigue and my pain are always worse in the heat and it is summer in Denver for sure. Thank God for the thunderstorms we get most nights that cool things off. I miss being close to the ocean this time of year. Even when my body is totally uncomfortable and burning in pain, a dip in the cool ocean always brings things back into balance for me. Somehow a soak in a cold bathtub of epsom and sea salts isn't the quite the same.

I am also still recovering emotionally from a recent miscarriage. It happened a month ago and I haven't felt ready to write or talk about it until now. The pregnancy was a surprise. But after the miscarriage, Kevin and I decided, along with my doctors, that the time is right to try for a baby because we really want one and pregnancy usually brings on a remission for women with MS. There are dangers of post-baby flares, but it doesn't happen to everyone. My eggs are 38 years old now, so we don't have too many years left if I am going to carry my own child. With this miscarriage (my second), the doctors diagnosed me with a blood condition that makes it difficult to carry a baby past week six. They gave me a shot that helps suppress the antigen in my blood to make it safer for a baby. Now Kevin and I are hoping to be able to carry a baby to term.

I am nervous because this decision to get pregnant means that I have been taken off my MS therapy. Plus, I must go off the drugs I take daily for neuropathic pain and depression. None of my meds can be taken during pregnancy. I just pray my nervous system stays stable while I am off the medication that keeps the MS at bay. Coming off the antidepressant that also helps my pain is difficult because I go through withdrawal--lots of mood swings, nausea, pain and panic attacks. I have been on these drugs since 2007, one year before I started giving daily, so I have no idea what my system will be like without them.

Anyone who has followed my blog or read my first book, knows I have long wanted to be a mother. But I had made peace with the fact that it wasn't my path years ago. Then last month, out of no where, Kevin and I realized we were five weeks pregnant. For 24 hours I was on cloud nine, thinking this was a miracle baby; and then the familiar signs of miscarriage began. I stayed hopeful on bed rest for two more days until it was confirmed that my hormone levels were falling. Then I finally went to the emergency room at the end for help with the pain.

I know nature knows best when it comes to these types of things. But still, the miscarriage and the decision to try for pregnancy has been very emotional for me. The miscarriage happened two days before I boarded a plane for my week long 29 Gifts Atlanta Live Tour. Thank God I had my Mom, Sharon, and Mary around me the whole time in Atlanta because they kept me laughing and focused on positive things. The last two weeks back in Denver have been hard. The truth is, I am feeling isolated, alone, scared and sad a lot right now. We will be staying in Colorado for sure now for the next year or two, especially if we have a baby. I know I will need a ton of help from nearby family and I need to start making new friends here in Denver now that I know I am staying.

On a more positive, less personal note, The GREAT GIVING STORY CONTEST started July 1, 2011 and the entry deadline is now extended through July 29, 2011. All blogs posted on 29Gifts.org between these dates will be automatically entered into the contest. See the Giving Ideas section of our forum if you are fishing for creative new gives. All entries will be also be considered for inclusion in my second book, as well; so blog til your heart is content during the month of July.

• First Place: $40 and a 29 Gifts Starter Kit ($29 value). Kit includes: A new autographed copy of the NYT Bestseller, 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life, a 29 Gifts Journal, a set of 29 Gift Tags, and a 29 Gifts Bookmark. You will also receive a Friendship Pillow

• Second Place: $20 and an autographed paperback 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life by Cami Walker, 29 Gifts Founder, a 29 Gifts Journal, and a Friendship Pillow

• Third Place: $10 and an autographed paperback copy of 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life and a Friendship Pillow

The 29Gifts.org GREAT GIVING Story Contest entry ends midnight Pacific Time July 29, 2011. Voting kicked off July 1 and continues until August 1, 2011. To vote for a favorite story click the heart-shaped LIKE button.

STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK'S GOOD GIVING WEEKLY!
I will be giving away a beautiful handmade Medicine Necklace made by the Mother Of Our 29 Gifts Movement, Medicine Woman, Mbali Creazzo.

Mbali recently posted these WORDS OF WIDSOM on the 29Gifts.org Forum 

In the next few weeks what are the projects, that need to burst open, brought forward? where do we need to let go of all that no longer serves us and where do we need to clean up unfinished business to make space for the new beginnings? Peace and reconciliation can take the form of giving. Letting go can take the form of giving."

I'll close with a link to this post where, Mbalis offers ideas to make this CLEAN UP TIME productive. Let's enter 2012, which in the Dagara Tradition is a FIRE year, with a deep sense of peace. Use Mbali's ideas and share your own to release all anger, rage, resentment, and get ready to bring forward your creative fire and passion, and truly connect to your fire inside.

Good Giving,

Cami Walker, 29Gifts.org Founder and Chief Evangelist