“I’ve never looked big a day in my life. No matter. My daughter and I pay attention. We know what the world wants from us. We know we must decide whether to stay small, quiet, and uncomplicated or allow ourselves to grow as big, loud, and complex as we were made to be. Every girl must decide whether to be true to herself or true to the world. Every girl must decide whether to settle for adoration or fight for love. There on the bed, in her pigtails and pain, my daughter was me – the little girl I once was, the woman I am now, still struggling to answer the questions: How can I be expansive and free and still be loved? Am I going to be a lady or am I going to be fully human? Do I trust the unfolding and continue to grow, or do I shut all of this down so I fit?” – Glennon Doyle, Love Warrior Racheal understands this all too well. After battling against anorexia for years, Racheal found herself in the hospital after her disease nearly killed her last fall. Having been in and out of the hospital 28 times […]
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Yesterday, you gave thousands of mamas diapers for their babies when they had none. At 8:50AM our time we got an urgent call from Dani and Josie, the warrior women with whom we have partnered for two years to bring millions of dollars of life-saving support and services to refugees, internally displaced families and unaccompanied children across Europe and Syria. Dani’s 911 call was in response to today’s visit to the refugee camps in Greece — the place where brave families, desperate to escape torture and death, end up after a terrifying journey across the sea in overcrowded plastic dinghies led by ruthless smugglers. The camps are overcrowded, filthy and full of terrified, starving people. And these are the lucky ones. These are the lucky ones. When Dani and Josie’s team arrived to the camp today, they found that since funding had been eliminated for diapers — there were no diapers in camp for the thousands of little ones. The filth and pain were rampant – they found fathers literally taking their last shirts off their backs to tear their only shirt up and create makeshift diapers for their babies. So they called us 8:50 […]
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Last Valentine’s Day, we shared with you a love story – a real love story about a father who has served our country in the Air Force and is now battling an impossible prognosis — and a mother shouldering the sole burden of supporting her family and trying to create normalcy for her kids since his diagnosis. Ten months to the day after his father died of cancer, Nathan received unimaginable news: He, too, had cancer. The type of cancer he has is exceedingly rare, and he is the only person known with his particular primary site. As such, there is no standard protocol for treatment, and the mortality rate is 100%. “More than anything, I want Nathan’s cancer gone, but that’s not our reality,” April, Nathan’s wife, told us. Nathan and April are the parents of two beautiful, young children, Caleb and Alyssa. Nathan proudly served our nation as an Airman for thirteen years, but he was medically retired earlier this year, adding to the financial strain that already existed because, since Nathan’s diagnosis, April has been unable to work many hours in her job as a pharmacy technician. April initially reached out to Together Rising hoping to get a […]
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Mother’s Day Compassion Collective Love Flash Mob was held in May 2016. We launched a Mother’s Day campaign, continuing our work with refugees and extending our mission to include caring for homeless youth in the United States. Because love is not Either/Or. Love is And/Both. Our communities rallied again and raised over $560,000 to fund these causes. The money for domestic homeless organizations has been used to help house the most vulnerable of homeless youth, including teen moms and LGBTQ+ youth, to provide food and supplies for homeless youth across the country, and to provide necessary supplies for children aging out of the foster care system. With respect to our international efforts, our funding provided food, tents, blankets, shelters, heat, hygiene kits, medical assistance, necessities for children, and general supplies for tens of thousands of refugees. We are funding several grassroots organizations on the front lines of the refugee crisis to execute on these programs. We also are providing the funds to operate a rescue boat run by Refugee Rescue to literally rescue children and families from the water who are trying to flee Syria.
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