4lovesake
 
  My Profile  
 
  About Me  
 
  My Photos  
 
  My Videos  
 
  My Journals  
Offline
Background
Name: Annette
Birthday: March 22
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Other
Location:
QUEEN CREEK, Arizona
United States
School:
Phoenix College, Phoenix Arizona Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona
Work:
Salt River Project Federal CU Bank of America N.****
Hometown(s):
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Gilbert, Arizona Brandon, Mississippi Queen Creek, Arizona
My Websites:
www.cnn.com
www.msnbc.com
Quote:
It's not what we leave behind that's important, it's how we've lived.
    My Comments (4)

My Journals (1)

THE PLEASURE OF VOLUNTEERING

 

 
THE PLEASURE OF VOLUNTEERING
 
 
The Children’s Crisis Center of Arizona
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Life’s most rewarding experiences are often found in places we don’t anticipate.  No matter how rewarding and demanding our careers, there are often voids in ones life which cannot be fulfilled in a professional environment.
 
 
It was not by coincidence that I became involved in The Children’s Crisis Center of Arizona. Perhaps it was my love for children, and my experience as the eldest sister in a family of thirteen when I learned how important it was to attend to the tender needs of my siblings.   I think this is what led me to want to become an active volunteer in areas of child welfare. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I have always been sensitive to young children and their emotional well being. It was in this way that I felt compelled to help with the emergence of the need for volunteers to help with the rising influx of children in crisis in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.  Many new agencies were opening to help meet the growing demand for children needing immediate and ‘emergency’ attention.  Often these children were the victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. 
 
 
 
 
Most heartbreaking were the innocent infants born with birth defects because of drug abuse by their mothers.  These children are commonly known as ‘crack babies’ by the general public. But also, many infants were exposed [in vitro] to alcohol abuse and other illegal drug usage by their mothers. These infants required intensive 24 hour medical care, needing hands-on individual attention such as cradling, rocking, and simply being held.
 
 
 
 
 
I served as a volunteer at the Crisis Nursery for three years doing whatever I could to help with these special needs infants and young children.  It is difficult to explain how desperately these infants and young children relied on those of us who served as volunteers.  We did everything possible to attend to their immediate needs.  Most of all we attempted to nourish their fragile emotional wounds.   Also, for me, it was an emotionally powerful experience realizing that in some small measure I was helping these helpless innocent ‘victims’.  And, it is in this manner that I knew I needed to go a step further by adopting two special needs children of my own, and make a home for them. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now that I am an adoptive parent of two formerly ‘special needs’ infants, the reward has been beyond explanation for me and my husband.   No other area in my life has given me more satisfaction or pleasure than watching the transformation that took place in lives of my adoptive children, and the joy they have brought us once they became a part of our lives.
 
 
 
 
Annette Harris
May 7, 2009

 

Added: May 7, 2009
Views: 389 | Comments: 3 | Bookmarks: 0
Journal Archives
May 2009 (1)