Suzanne DeWitt Hall's Blog, page 13

Feeling the need to philanthropize? Look no further.

This week my HuffPost pieces ranged from celebrity dogs to Kentucky clerks and the biblical creation story.

Celebrity Canine Gives Back

A Note to Kim Davis about Adam and Steve


Call me multi-hued, call me multi-faceted, call me crazy. But just call me (if you are an agent, or a philanthropist who's been looking for a Jane of all trades to sponsor).

Unicorns and dead teenagers

I was profoundly moved by a young man I met on Facebook a few weeks ago. He'd posted in a group of LGBT people of varying faiths, pouring out his sorrow about what he witnessed at the Jerusalem Pride parade.

Here's my post about him and about the same violence that simmers here in the United States:
From Victorious Unicorn to a Dead Teenager in a Single Week.

Meet Gizmo, Healer of Hearts

Writing Rumplepimple has connected us to amazing people that we'd otherwise never had the honor and pleasure to meet. The amazing Gizmo is just one example. (OK, so he's not a person. But you get the idea.)

Rumor has it that Rumplepimple and Gizmo may have a chance to meet snout to butt soon. Can't wait.

The interview below recently appeared on HuffPost's Good News page. It's hard to believe how much this human/dog duo is accomplishing.

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Meet Gizmo, a 3.5-pound wonderdoglet on a mission to change the world one doggy hug at a time. I connected with Jen Adams (Gizmo's human) while getting the word out about my picture book Rumplepimple . We appeared on the same episode of The Pet Radio Show, and as I learned more, I began to wonder how such a wee creature could make such a huge difference.

The "Gizmo's Frens" Facebook page has almost 80,000 followers. Why do you think he has become so popular?

Truthfully, I am shocked at the size and diversity of Gizmo's following. They come from all walks of life, from all over the world, and they are all there to share a sense of kindness and good will. Maybe people first respond to the same thing I did: his lil' face and his excellent ears. I think when they learn what he's about and see his message, they want to be a part of making a positive difference.

You two do amazing work in all sorts of venues. Tell us how you got started.

 Before Gizmo found me, I lost the love of my life suddenly. Gizmo, with his gentle, loving nature, facilitated a real transformation for me. I went from a grieving, lost soul who was full of self-pity to having this amazing little creature whom I knew could change lives other than my own. Gizmo forced me to step outside of myself and help others, and, in so doing, he channeled healing in me.

During the very early stages of our journey, Gizmo exhibited a keen sense of people's emotions. He would seek out people who were having a tough time, and climb into their laps or lie beside them, as if to say, "Listen. I see you are hurting, and I will help you, ok? Cuz we're frens."

That being said, I just... began! Wherever there were folks who needed help in our community or people who were doing kind things, I showed up with the Giz. When people would say, "Who's that dog?" I would just say, "Oh wow, you don't know Gizmo? He's here to help!" In acting like he was a public figure, and believing that he was, so he became!

Gizmo became a certified therapy dog with Paws for Friendship, Inc. when he was two years old. We started doing visits at an assisted living facility, and it just grew from there. Today we visit hospitals, schools, veterans, nursing homes, juvenile facilities, group homes, mentoring programs, and more. We even traveled to Wisconsin when a mentoring program for teen girls asked if Gizmo could come help them deliver Christmas cookies to veterans. I figured, "Why not?" So away we went!

Gizmo also visits Hartford Public Library and its branch libraries as a Paws to Read certified reading assistance dog. Being a special education teacher, I wanted to help kids gain confidence in reading.

In observing Gizmo's interactions with people in need at the facilities where we visit, I realized that, in addition to animal assisted therapy, crisis counseling is another passion I never knew I had! So last September I started my Master's in Human Service/Counseling - Crisis Response and Trauma. Gizmo became the first known Community Emergency Response Team therapy dog in Connecticut. He went through the training with me, and is now available to visit storm shelters, sit with families during search and rescue situations, etc. when CERT is activated. Most recently, Gizmo passed his field evaluation for an amazing group called K9 First Responders (K9FR), a Critical Incident Mental Health Support organization. K9FR Teams bridge the gap between a traumatic event and the connection to mental health services. The goal is to jump-start the process of restoring a person's emotional and cognitive equilibrium through the animal/human bond.

Gizmo visited the state house in June! Tell us a bit about how that happened.

I donated a therapy visit with Gizmo to a charity auction. The woman who won the visit is a staffer for a legislator. She asked if Gizmo could come visit the House of Reps and Senate. We were humbled to oblige, and we were welcomed so warmly by all the Reps and Senators! As the universe would have it, our visit occurred on the day before Senate was slated to vote on a bill that had just passed through the House of Reps that would make therapy dogs more accessible to children in crisis in Connecticut. The following day the Senate voted unanimously to make the bill a law!

Why are you so committed to making a difference?

I decided life is a choice. We can live in misery and bitterness over crappy stuff, or we can focus on creating happy stuff. Throughout this journey, I have discovered an amazing relationship with God (or a Higher Power, the Universe, whatever anyone chooses to call it) - not so much in a religious sense, but in a spiritual sense. I believe it's what He wants for all of us... to help and support each other however we can, and to love. Truly, what other reason is there for being here?

You frequently offer words of inspirational wisdom on Gizmo's Frens Facebook page. 

The inspiration is simply what he has taught me through his encounters with people in need, including myself. All of his posts about forgiveness, hope, faith, love, kindness, living each day to the fullest, etc. came from his heart and transformed my life, and hopefully maybe the lives of others.

Do you think Gizmo knows he is a hero and a celebrity? He looks pretty humble.

Gizmo once sought out a random woman. He sat at her feet and looked up at her. She introduced herself as an animal communicator! She said Gizmo told her he knows he is important, but he does not know why. I think I will keep it that way.

Curve Magazine's Mr. Mom blogs about Rumplepimple.

We were so honored to have Rumplepimple featured in Mr. Mom's blog for Curve Magazine!

If you aren't familiar with it, Mr. Mom, AKA Lyndsey Darcangelo, offers insights into parenting with heart, depth, and intelligence. Lyndsey is a freelance writer who is in the midst of finishing up a YA novel. You can read more about her work at her website:

http://www.lyndseydarcangelo.com/

Thanks Lyndsey, for sharing your family life and for including Rumplepimple in this post about diverse books!

Don't like my view of abortion? Blame my kids.

Yesterday's post about Planned Parenthood's brokering of fetal body parts provoked several young women who are close to my daughter. One of them suggested that if I had not aborted, my living children might never have existed. The other said that even if they had existed, the entire world would have shifted based on that decision, and that neither I nor the two youngest of my children would be who we all are now.

I conceded their points. Unfortunately, they didn't understand mine, which means that I didn't do a good job of explaining it. Let me try again, here.

I'm not sorrowing after some mythical four-child family that could have been, with perhaps an older version of each sex rounding things out and cancelling my feelings of guilt. I've not imagineered that vision for many reasons.

What I am saying is that when my youngest child began to turn into a person, morphing from generic infant to baby, to inquisitive, focused toddler, I compared these two children that I adored. As the years passed their differences were amplified, two tines from a single handle arcing away and twisting into curves and arabesques and clever twinings I could never have imagined. Their difference was fascinating. Compelling. Absorbing.

Same family. Same genes. Same nature. Same nurture. Extraordinary difference.

And as I pondered this glorious differentiation, I marveled. Their magnificent particularly had nothing to do with me other than my "Yes". Every bit of who they were was due to the sheer beautiful whimsy of creation itself. A chance coalescing of ingredients into being.

And so I began to mourn. Not for some "Leave it to Beaver" 1950s version of family. I knew what my marriage was like. I recognized the brokenness that I brought into it and my flaws as a mother. I never mourned not having four children.

I mourned for the world, that two creations as amazingly unique and brilliantly colored and exquisitely, particularly, detailed had been stamped out of existence due to my "No."

Hear me now: I don't judge the women who feel like they have no other choice than to abort. I understand that feeling, all too well. I felt the panic, the despair, and the pressure.

Twice.

I worked hard to believe that what was being removed from me was just a bit of tissue. A few renegade cells, not that much different from cancer in their ability to disrupt a life. So I don't judge those despairing, cornered girls.

Quite the opposite. My heart cries for them, and worries. My heart aches for my daughter's dear friend, so quick to say that she would hurry to a doctor to have an unwanted being scraped from her body, because I've seen pictures of her sisters. I've seen how much they look alike, but I can't know from mere photos the myriad ways that they both resemble each other and are unique.

I can only reflect on the stunning particularity of my own two living children, and catch my breath in awe and wonder. And I will always mourn not permitting those other two the chance to develop into their own intensely unique and beautiful selfdom.

If they could just get the bodies out less war torn, they'd make a heckuva lot more moolah.

For the past few weeks I've been debating whether to post about Planned Parenthood's trafficking of baby body parts. Calling it "fetal material" might make you feel better, but watch the video below, which shows eyeballs being pushed around in a dish with a PP technician asking about their market potential, and see if you can maintain your intellectual distance.


(If you have the stomach to watch more videos from the undercover investigation, go here.)
I know about abortion first hand. It's something I'll regret until my death and maybe even afterword. Because of that knowledge, I spent a few years with an organization called the Women's Health Collaborative which focused on collecting and distributing information about the seldom discussed risks and side effects of abortion, and the darker side of the abortion industry.

It is, in fact, an industry, making oodles of money in multiple ways, one of which is selling body parts.

In theory and by the letter of the law, compensation is supposed to be purely expense-based for organs and tissue. But this video and others that were filmed as part of this investigation show that what's being discussed is a profit center. It's not unlike the compensation offered for egg donation, with companies aggressively pursuing female college students who are prime candidates both egg-wise and financial-need wise. Do a Google search for "donate eggs" and you'll see what I mean. Young women are offered up to $10,000 for a single harvest. The term "payment" will never be used, because that would be illegal. Officially, girls are "donating" and being "compensated" for that donation.

But potential babies aren't the only profitable market. Dead babies are also money makers. As the videos show, abortion clinics can expect $200 for a single viable organ. With proper training, and perhaps modified procedures, abortionists can get bodies out more fully intact, so that the brain, heart, thymus, kidneys, and yes even the eyeballs can all be sold to companies like this one:

http://stemexpress.com/

StemExpress' home page describes it as a multi-million dollar company which provides fetal and adult tissue and promises privacy for both its donors and its customers.

As the Planned Parenthood official discusses in one of the videos, payment would need to be based on a per specimen model. Illustrations would need to be provided so that they would know how much they were going to make on each mutilated child, and could focus on maximizing profits.

The actor in the video points out that in the case of eyeballs, customers are looking for those that are more fully developed. And of course larger organs should earn more than smaller, younger ones. So is it any wonder that there has been such a fight against restrictions of later term abortions by the National Abortion Federation and related organizations? Doesn't the diggety dang government realize the profit potential they're impacting?

These appalling videos aren't getting much air time in the mainstream news, but that doesn't mean that Planned Parenthood isn't already lining up their apologetics. They've already used the "It's only compensation for our costs" falsehood. So what will they come up with next?

The only thing I can think of is the argument used for justifying embryonic cell research: "As long as these lives are being lost, why not give them some value"?

But of course they can't use that argument, because it would mean admitting that these tiny, war-torn* bodies, are in fact lives.

*"War-torn" is the phrase used by the Planned Parenthood doctor who probed around at a dish full of body parts.

Rumplepimple is Unicorn of the Week!

This happened the other day!

Patricia Sarles on why she started the Books for Kids in Gay Families website

Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS has put together an extraordinary resource; a virtual library catalog of books for children related to various LGBTQ issues. When I discovered that my book, Rumplepimple, had been included in the list I was first thrilled, and then intrigued. I decided to ask her a few questions about how the whole thing came about. Here are her responses. I think you'll find her story fascinating.

How did you get started with this effort? 
I am a librarian and I became interested in children's books on the topic of assisted reproductive technology when a social worker colleague, who is a fertility counselor, asked me if I could find her any books on this topic. I thought this would be very easy because of my training in how to find information on basically any subject. My colleague, Patricia Mendell, already had a small library of children's books on this topic so I started with those by searching for those titles in the Library of Congress catalog and discovered that very few, maybe two or three of her titles, were available in their catalog. In addition to that, they had very strange subject headings, like "infertility -- juvenile literature" or "test tube babies -- juvenile literature" and those subject headings were inaccurate because that's not what the books were about. They were about children conceived via assisted reproductive technologies and about donor offspring. It became apparent to me then that these books would not be easy to find after all. It was also obvious that there were no appropriate subject headings for books on these topics.

This intrigued me tremendously because I was now on a mission to find books on a topic that had no adequate subject headings. This meant they would be nearly impossible to find. But I still wanted to find them. I also knew that there were mothers and fathers out there who needed children's books like these in order to share with their children how they came into the world. There was a need for these books but no means for a librarian to find these books should a patron walk into a library and ask a librarian to help them find these types of books. That's when I started my blog.

How long ago did this take place?
My search for these books began in 2003 when I first met Patricia Mendell but I did not start my blog until the spring of 2009. I started with Patricia's small collection and then added to it as I unearthed (and by unearthed I mean I crawled under rocks to find them) more books on the topic. What started as a collection of about 15 books in English in 2003 has now turned into a collection of about 240 books in twelve languages so far in 2015! So how did I find these books that were not part of the Library of Congress collection and/or had no appropriate subject headings? I began scouring self-publishing catalogs, and began scouring the Web doing Google searches.

I've also learned terms in multiple languages, like Spanish, French, Italian, etc. and do regular searches in those languages as well. And now that my blog has been out there for a while, people who write these books also write to me to tell me about their books and I have discovered several this way as well. Since I have searched for these books in English and in so many other languages, I am safe to say that I am the only person in the world who maintains a collection of these books and since I share these books with Patricia Mendell, together we have the largest private library on these titles in the world. It is my hope one day to donate these books to a university or medical library, catalog them, and add them to WorldCat so that these books are findable for librarians around the world. It is also my hope to get the Library of Congress to create adequate and appropriate Library of Congress subject headings for these books so that they are appropriately cataloged.

You obviously find the LOC subjects lacking. What have you done to try to bring about improvements?
In 2009, Patricia Mendell and I started writing an article on these children's books which in 2010 was published in the journal, Children & Libraries. In it, we talked about the inadequacy of Library of Congress subject headings and the difficulty we had in finding these books. This article was picked up by Sandy Berman, a Library of Congress gadfly who has spent an entire career petitioning the Library of Congress for subject headings on a variety of topics for which there were none. He sent my article to the Library of Congress and petitioned them for a subject heading for "Donor offspring." I too had written to them asking them for new and more accurate subject headings for children's books on assisted reproductive technology but they wrote me back that they found their subject headings adequate. But in 2012, the Library of Congress added the new subject heading, "Children of sperm donors." This was a major accomplishment, which I felt I could take credit for since this was one of the subject headings I suggested they create. It is still not appropriate though because it implies that the books are about the children of people who donated their sperm and not about the resulting offspring of sperm donors. We subsequently published an article about this as well. It is my hope to write and publish more articles on this topic so that the Library of Congress can see that more appropriate terms are needed for donor offspring and other topics related to assisted reproductive technology.

So your work initially focused on assisted reproductive technology, but it branched out to include LGBT issues?
In the fall of 2009, I started my Gay-Themed Picture Books for Kids blog, when again, my social worker colleague asked me for a list of children's books for her gay clients who used third party reproduction to build their families. Third party reproduction would include the use of sperm donation for lesbian couples and egg donation, surrogacy, and IVF for gay couples. An organization she is involved with, the non-profit Path2Parenthood, formally the American Fertility Association, and an inclusive organization which helps couples, both gay and straight, build their families through third party reproduction, was looking to build a booklist for their gay clients on this topic. I wanted to help, again because I am a librarian and I just love to research things, and so I began my gay-themed picture books blog. There I set out to collect a list of gay-themed picture books for children. I started with the lists already in existence, the COLAGE list, the American Library Association GLBT Round Table list, and there are others, and I began to build my own list. In the case of Library of Congress subject headings, gay-themed books are so much easier to find. For example, the subject headings make much more sense:

Children of gay parents
Lesbian mothers
Gay parents
Gay fathers

As with my Books for Donor Offspring blog, I search for gay-themed books in multiple languages and I believe I have created the most comprehensive list on the Web. I have found over 500 gay-themed picture books in thirteen languages.

Tells about your work as a librarian. How long have you been at it? Where do you work? Do you specialize in books for children? 
I've been a librarian since 1990 and graduated from library school in 1991 so have been at this for 25 years. I do not specialize in children's literature at all! Even though I am currently a school librarian for grades 6-12 serving three small schools in Staten Island, New York, school librarianship is not what my training was in. I am a former medical and college librarian and that's the type of librarianship I was trained in and it is the type of librarianship I hope to get back into when I retire as I would like to popularize these books to make them more accessible to librarians around the world and I cannot do that in my current position. Ironically, I have no particular interest in children's literature, have no coursework or training in children's literature, but got into this subject because I was intrigued by finding things that were impossible to find. And in this case, it just happened to be children's books on assisted reproductive technology that I stumbled upon. Outside of this topic, I have no other interest in children's books.

Your websites list your email address as "Tovahsmom". Do you mind telling us who Tovah is? 
In 2003, my partner of 23 years and I went through the process of artificial insemination in order to build our family. This is how we came to visit a fertility counselor and how we met Patricia Mendell. Unfortunately, our attempt did not take and we did not become pregnant so we never had children. Tovah however is the name of one of our dogs who passed away in 2013.

Thanks for sharing this very personal part of your story, Patricia. And thank you for the work you are doing on behalf of all the families who want books for their children which reflect their personal reality. Your donation of time, thought, and efort for the sake of others is inspiring.

Huffington Post introduces my book!

This happened today:

And I've got to admit that I'm pretty stoked!

Happy birthday, little Doodle

A year ago today I wrote this post in honor of my eldest child's birthday. Today the lovely Kiera turns 27, and so I am continuing the tradition.

When I was 27, Kiera was one year old. We celebrated her birthday at my ex-husband's family cottage, as we would in the years that followed. That first birthday she sat in a huge aluminum bowl of water, clothed in nothing but dapples of shade as we tried to fight the heat and soothe the itch of chicken pox. Photos from the day show three red pox angling up and out symmetrically above each eyebrow. We made jokes about her having Spock brows.

(What I wouldn't give to have a copy of those photos. Or any photos from her childhood, really.)

Today, as she has every year, Dolce thanked me for bringing the gift of Kiera into the world. And she asked me questions, as she always does.

"Do you remember the way the top of her head smelled when she was a baby? Or the scent of her breath? The softness of her skin?"

"Yes." I remember all those things.

"W hat's your favorite of her physical features?"

"Her mouth, I guess. It's wide and beautiful. And her eyes. They are large and searching, attentive and kind."

"Do you remember things she said when she was little?"

"She said the funniest things when she was about 4. One day she came home and taught us a poem. It went like this:
    'My name is Edgie
    I'm sitting in a wedgie
    Potato in my jacket!' 

Another day she brushed my hair and said with obvious admiration 'Oh, mommy. Your hair is so long, and stringy...'"

"Was she always so confident?"

"Mostly. Maybe not as much during adolescence."

"What did she do that made you the maddest?"

That was a hard one. I thought, and thought, and realized that I can really come up with only one time that she made me mad.

Mostly I remember how gorgeous she was as a toddler with curling hair, huge eyes, and red lips. And how her legs ached when she went through growth spurts, the bones expanding so quickly that her flesh was traumatized. And how she became self-conscious and gawky during middle school before blossoming into lovely individuality as a young woman. And how I taught her to drive before she moved west, practicing parallel parking more times than I could count, and treasuring absolutely every single minute of it.

I remembered, and cried again, just as I have for the last five of Kiera's birthdays. I cried for lost time and for not being able to see her face on these days that celebrate her life.

Diane held me and let me cry, just as she does every year.

It is 4:00PM. Almost the very hour that my smart, kind, funny, passionate daughter was born. We will toast her soon, and give thanks that she exists.

Happy birthday, my sweet and lovely little Kiera Doodle.