https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6HS1KQm4_uLeEg0cTVxM1dxRXM/edit?usp=sharing
Get up. Go out. And discover
Zafia’s Family House
Zafia’s family house is a non profit organization that will be providing short to long-term housing for families whose children are hospitalized while being treated for cancer, or any other long-term illness in the Roseville area. Zafia’s Family House began as a wish Zafia had while battling cancer.” (From Zafiasfamilyhouse.org) She saw the call for a house where families could stay while their critically ill child was hospitalized nearby. Our goal is to fulfill this wish for Zafia. Zafia is my sister. Zafia was diagnosed with cancer at age 12, she battled for two years when the doctors told her she only had two months to live. She passed away at age 14 in 2006. She was adopted from an orphanage in Uzbekistan at the age of three. She had lived in the orphanage since she was an infant. Zafia wanted my parents to continue living their life and have another child. My parents felt like they should adopt again and they adopted me four years after Zafia passed.
My biological mother passed away when I was 9 years old, my biological father left my mom when I was a baby. After my mom passed, I bounced around different family members, and 5 different elementary schools. I didn’t want to keep living that kind of life so I talked to my social worker about moving to a stable group home and she said to think about adoption instead. Within four months they found a couple in El Dorado Hills that wanted to adopt a girl. We met and I swear it was love at first sight. Almost like the movies, but better. My adopted parents’ loss a daughter and I lost a mother. We were the perfect fit for each other. We filled each other empty holes. I didn’t replace Zafia because nobody could ever replace her. My adopted mother didn’t replace my biological mother but it was close enough for me to feel whole again. It’s almost impossible to replace or forget someone. Two weeks after meeting my adopted parents I moved in and the adoption was finalized in May, 2011.
We have been trying to do as much fundraising as we can to build Zafia’s Family House as soon as we can. There are so many families that are struggling and are in need of it right now. Zafia’s Family house will be a “home away from home”. I’m so glad that I am apart of Zafia’s Family House. The house is not yet built, we are still fundraising money for it. We already have an architect that designed the house, now we just need the money to actually build it and land in Roseville to help families out.
Do you know anybody that is battling through cancer or any other long-term disease? Do you know of a family that s going through having a loved one in the hospital? Parents or other family members that are sleeping in the uncomfortable hospital chairs? Unfortunately, I think we all do. If you want to learn more about Zafia’s Family house please check out our website at http://zafiasfamilyhouse.org. Thank you for reading.
Memory Monday
I don’t really know exactly why I’m posting this, it’s so random. But hey enjoy! I believe I was around the age of six possibly seven at the time. I was enjoying myself at a park in my neighborhood on some play structure. I wanted to try to get on top of it so I decided that I was going to run and then jump. I was running and running, determined to get to the top but I had jumped too late and hit my head on the playhouse. There was an older boy there who was also playing on the structure who just so happen to be watching me the entire time. After falling in the bark, he continuously laughed at me. He called me something that I’ve never been called before and was offensive to me. Stupid. Right after that I ran to my house, up the stairs, and into my room. I was storming around trying to find something: my sister’s Cinderella book. Once I finally got my hands on it, I wrote my name on every single page. To make it even better, I put several lines through my name. With my six year old logic, I thought that if I showed the boy after, he wouldn’t think I was so stupid. I can’t remember what happened after that but I do remember that I never got to show that boy how smart I was. Despite my past and possibly still present stupidity, I learned that I should not have prove myself or try to impress people, I’ll only look pathetic attempting to do so. If I am going to be anything, I might as well just be myself, even if it is my stupid self.
Let go and be yourself
As human beings, every day we tell ourselves and others what is acceptable and what is not. We need to have individuality but you can’t be too different because that’s weird. Nobody likes or wants to be friends with a freak. You have to wear these clothes so everyone will like you and think you are cute but wait… are you really wearing that? Everyone is wearing that, you’re too “basic”. You are chubby? Ew. You are too skinny? Ew. You have short hair? Ew. Your hair is too long. You can never win, everything you do is wrong and unaacceptable. You can’t please everybody ever.
You just want people to like you, right? Even if it’s not really YOU? Your happiness doesn’t quite matter just as long as you’re accepted. But who are you accepted by? The people who are completely irrelevant in your life. Why should their opinion matter? Why should they dictate the decisions in your life?
You see… what I do not get is why people are so worried about others being judgmental of them and always saying “screw people who judge”, and what not when really… why should you care? Why should you care if people judge you, or what you do, what you wear or who you love? It’s you who’s living your life, not them, not anyone else but you. So no… people who judge aren’t stupid, you, yourself are stupid for letting their opinions and prejudice bother you. The point of this is to hopefully make you want to be yourself and stop caring so much of what people think about you right now. Four years from now what you did in high school won’t matter at all, unless you got pregnant and had a baby but hopefully you didn’t. Who cares what other people say or think about you because at the end of the day the only person that matters is you. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Quote by Bernard M. Baruch
the better days
Remember the better days when you were eight years old you would get home from school and eat poptarts while watching “Thats So Raven” or “Suite Life Of Zack and Cody”. The only worry in school was if you were going to be picked in a good tederball or dodgeball team with the cool kids. Now its if you are going be able to finish all your homework and study for all the important test coming up. Worrying if you are going to get into a good college.I think eight is the perfect age. I wish I was still eight. Eight was before death or divorce or heartbreak. Eight was just eight. Hot dogs and peanut butter, mosquito bites and splinters, bikes and boogie boards. Tangled hair, sunburned shoulders, Judy Blume, in bed by nine. Ten minute time outs were the worst thing you had ever experienced, now its heartbreak and feeling like a failure. 
thebetterdays 