Hot Pink YOUniversity

Seeing My Mother for the First Time Monday in Guatemala is for meeting the sponsored children and their families.  There is excitement and nervousness.  Less than 10 % of the Unbound sponsors actually make it to see their sponsored children or families.  This is my mother's third trip and our arms are loaded with gifts to meet 3 of the 4 children she and my step-father sponsor and their families. The gym is filled with tables on one end and Guatemalan families fill them, babies and grandparents, parents and siblings, all journeyed with their children who are sponsored to greet the people who send the money each month that allows for the family to meet basic needs, apply for assistance to get off dirt floors and into homes made of cement bricks, not tin. That awkward moment of first greetings The interpreters are there as I brush off my 7 years of high school and college Spanish.  My mother goes to each of the families with confidence and smiles as she hugs them and han

The News We Don't Always Hear When you travel, you are immersed in the culture of the people.  Included in that culture is the news that does not always make the American papers.  On day two, we visit the central area of Guatemala city and at market is this small memorial.  Crosses, ashes in the center, flowers and a board painted with three girls swinging on swings all surrounding a central memorial plaque. Extending to the memorial are two ladders with the names of the 41 orphaned girls killed in a fire at an orphanage.  A mother of one of the girls stands vigil over the memorial, cooking and selling some food as people pass by and stumble upon the place honoring the young girls' lives.   When we use the term orphans in America, there are no parents.  Unicef estimates that of the 132 million orphans in the world, only 10% don't have parents.(1)  Conditions of poverty force parents across the world to leave their children to the social welfare systems of the co

Singing the Passport Blues and Other Fun Travel Adventures! I love to travel.  And for the first time, I am taking this girl ...my daughter...on her first international adventure.  As we touch down in Guatemala and see the culture that is waiting there, it is hard to imagine the anxiety I felt for the past two weeks waiting to receive Maya's passport!  Life is funny that way...we immerse ourselves in that moment in time and play through our heads the worse possible outcomes available to us.  When the passport did not come by July 1, even though we applied back in May, panic edged in, we leave on the 15th!  When a letter in the mail came asking for more documentation that I was indeed her mother, panic waltzed into the room and took up residence. A trip to Chicago with the documentation to prove parenthood was necessary.  C ome on, don't other people have hyphenated names...one of which matched her name perfectly!  We left with passport in hand...but more than that we left

Free 12 Tips and Tools to Increasing Love for Self A few weeks ago we launched the Summer of Love-ing ME!  12 weeks to increase your capacity to love self.  We know that in order to live an Ignited Life, you need to love self first and best.  Take care of self, sometimes even Radically Care of self...meaning extreme care during times of great stress or expended energy.  And, put your pleasure at the top of your To-Do List.... It's not always easy.  The others in our life can take over, form a mutiny, need from us, want from us. We only have so much to give. Sign-up for these free tools here! Hot Pink knows that you see this message a lot.  From us and others out there in the coaching and health and wellness business.  But, the importance of this message is such that it needs repeating.  The more you receive this message in your newsfeed, your inbox, your daily life...the more we are hoping it hits home. What are these twelve tools? It starts with week 1, compassion