Perspective on the Homeschool Blog Awards... and Prayer for Heather

Yes, the homeschool blog awards are neat. Yes it is nice to get a pat on the back. But when you sit and think about them in light of the rest of your life, they are just a silly waste of time. Who is going to remember that you won a blog award in ten years? You probably won't even be blogging anymore.

"What???" You ask. "The blogger who picked up the awards and ran with them after Spunky left the blogosphere is now saying they are a waste of time?"

Well, let me explain. I don't want you to think that I am trying to whine or complain. I have enjoyed this project (mainly because I have enjoyed getting to know my fellow HSBAwards team-members and a few other bloggers who have been there helping me through the whole thing). I hope to find a great many new blogs to add to my blogrolls through the process... and I am really thrilled with the ability to gather up prizes to offer to the winners. It makes me feel good knowing that there will be homeschoolers that are blessed by this - even if none of those prizes come to me. But... I'll admit to you that it has been a lot of work.

"What all does it take to pull of blog awards?" You ask.

• Awareness (staring at your computer screen for hours and hours, emailing as many people and groups as you can think of to gain support).


• Help (soliciting web designers and asking for their participation, soliciting businesses for prizes - basically for free, for a good cause).


• Time (endless tedious moments pouring over email, spreadsheets, chatting with your co-hosts, working out issues, problems, and using all the basic HTML knowledge you have).


• Patience (dealing with other people's emails when your toast is burning, your kids are fighting, all you have gotten done is Math, and you only got four hours of sleep because you stayed up creating clickable links with another blogger).

It hasn't been as easy as I figured it would be when I decided to tackle the task. Not only has it not been that easy for me, but there are at least three other people I know of (all bloggers and homeschoolers) who have equally given of their time and talents... and their family and homeschooling is likely to have also suffered their distraction.


HEATHER
When I think about the time that one particular blogger put in to this task, I am humbled. Heather (of Especially Heather and Sand, Sea and School) has really risen to the task. It wasn't even her harebrained project, but she was so enthusiastic to get involved. She made ME more excited than I was to begin with about the possibilities for the awards. She is the one who graciously offered to give of her time, money (purchasing the domain for our site and offering free web design services), and expertise to this venture. Heather worked with me to get an idea of what type of site I was wanting. She chose the graphic from the ones I submitted to her. She and Laura worked together to code the site. She made the graphic icons that you all have on your blogs. She let me bug her endlessly helped me with questions and procedure in setting up the email account, the functions of the blog, and even offered a free web design as a prize for one of the winners.

Heather and I had planned on getting prize information up this past Saturday. I worked on a spreadsheet to get all the information we would need from each company offering a prize and emailed it to her Friday night. Saturday, she sent me a chat message telling me that she was dizzy and not feeling well. I told her to forget the prizes and I promised to pray. Sunday, I heard that she had an ear infection from Laura and that she was on medication and sleeping. Today, all that changed. Heather found out that she has a tumor on her brain and that it is supposedly cancer.

Finding out you have cancer is scary. Cancer and brain tumors kind of make blog awards (of any kind) seem a trifle unimportant. Laura, being Heather's best friend (and the one who set up the voting polls) is busy attending to her best buddy and beside herself with worry. I just want you to know that we are very shaken by this and I wanted to request that you all be in prayer for her.

Please email or comment to let her know you are praying. Be patient with the blog award process in the light of this traumatic event that has taken place in Heather's life. I believe that voting can go on; but that once the polls close on Friday, it may be a while until we can get prizes listed and winners announced. Be assured that everything will be done that is within our ability to ensure that all FAIR votes are counted and all errors are corrected. If your blog is listed improperly at this time, we apologize. It is certainly not due to our indifference. There are just bigger fish to fry right now. "Especially Heather".

All the fish will get fried. We just need to have a little perspective.

Please join me as a first priority in prayer for Heather. May the Lord heal her and bless her - and comfort her family and friends. I hope she feels the hugs and love we are sending from so many miles away through cyberspace.

God bless each of you. Thanks for understanding.


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