The Giving Time of Year

FROM CAROLINA: It's that time of year again - when we're getting ready to go to London to do our advanced training course - Son-Rise Program New Frontiers - for over 100 parents in the UK.  Each year we rely on the help of volunteers who give their time for the entire week to make the program run smoothly. These amazing people are all Son-Rise Program parents or Son-Rise Program volunteers - and they rearrange their lives for an entire week to come help other Son-Rise Program families.

They find child care, they buy flights and train tickets to get to us, they arrange to stay with friends nearby and they make plans to get up early every morning and brave the London commute to get there hours before the program participants. And they absolutely love every minute of it.

They arrive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, grinning ear-to-ear, greeting each other like family. They are so excited to give their time, that I'm already receiving emails counting down the days until our arrival. We don't even arrive in the country until June, but their giving has already begun.It's just a giving time of year.

They give their time and their love because they remember what it was like to be a parent looking for help. They remember those days when they felt so lost and alone - when they didn't have hope for their children. They remember the days when all they wanted was someone to reach out a hand and offer help. And they remember the day they first attended their Son-Rise Program Start-Up - and they remember the hope they felt as they completed that week. This is their way of reaching out a hand and offering hope to someone else.

I have tears of gratitude in my eyes just thinking about it.


To all of you who give your time, and who are already moving your lives around to come help us - thank you. Thank you a million times for what you do.  

You inspire me to make every single day into a giving time of year.

With love and gratitude,

Carolina