Jonah's auction update

I've changed my button back to the regular "Jonah" button (for those of you who have been following)--his birthday auction ended last night at midnight. I didn't win any items (sigh), but at last count, they made over $6500 to go to EB research, which they probably wouldn't have done had bidding stayed within my price range!

Thanks to those of you who checked it out and/or bid on items!

Jonah's EB Auction

I've mentioned Jonah once before here, and you've probably grown accustomed to seeing a button about him on the sidebar.

I found out about Jonah through a mutual friend of his mom's. He was born with a rare genetic disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa or EB. EB causes his skin to blister very easily, and it also affects his mucous membranes (so, for example, swallowing can be hard and/or painful when his esophagus flares up). Most of his body has to be wrapped up in bandages all the time, and his parents have to change his bandages once a day (more often when normal baby things like spitting up or a crazy diaper interfere!). EB is not pleasant for any of the people who have it, and many babies die within their first year of life from it.

Jonah will turn one on February 27. Hooray!!

To celebrate, while also helping raise money to research and spread awareness about the disease, some friends of Jonah's family are holding an online auction (hence the new button that's been up recently). From February 23-27, the auction site will have around a hundred items to bid on, and all the money goes to DEBRA, which is an organization devoted to researching and raising awareness about EB. The auction-sponsors aren't even collecting the money themselves--you pay it directly to DEBRA if you win an item.

All the information can be found here.

Please consider bidding on an item, and please pass the information along to others you know who might be interested!

Praying and Jury Duty

Two notes:

1. I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, with mixed feelings. On the up side, I believe in serving as a juror (I always figure that if I were on trial, I'd want someone like me in the jury!), it's a change of pace from the usual schedule, I will likely have lots of time to work on getting through my huge Australia book, and I will be even more likely to get to see my husband tomorrow evening. On the downside, child care could get hairy if I have to serve for more than a couple of days (we have a retired friend from church helping us out tomorrow), I suddenly (as of this afternoon) have 3 instruction sessions scheduled for next Tuesday that need planning, and I will have to get up around 7 AM after going home at 1 AM. I think this works out to hoping for either non-selection or a 1-2 day trial.


2. I spend most of my blogging time discussing library-related matters, and so it may seem a little out of place to have a "praying for" button on the blog. While I use this blog to discuss professional life, it is my own personal blog and represents my opinions and nobody else's. My opinion is that I am a Christian and a mom before I am a librarian, and that Jonah and his family can use all the prayers they can get (He has a rare genetic disease that makes his skin blister very easily. It also affects his mucous membranes, so things like eating can get quite painful for him). Discussions about the personal/professional divide came up in my public library class during library school, too. Maybe I'll post more about it in the future...