Please...Help Me Help The Children Of Haiti

A friend of ours, Larry Young, goes to Haiti once a year with his daughter and son-in-law, to work with an orphanage and the children there. They do health care, they have built the orphanage and were in the process of building a school and church when the earthquake hit. The school and church are gone. Our children are okay...but very short of supplies and are sharing what they have with those who have less or none.

I have chosen to sell the books that I have written over the years at less than half price and give ALL of that money to "Hope for Haiti's Children" as that is the group that Larry works with and I will know for sure that the money will go directly to those children and their needs, rather than to some administrative costs. (You can see information about their work at enews@hopeforhaitischildren.org.)

I have five books that I have put together in a package. The original value of this package is $51.00. I am going to sell the entire package for $25.00 each (which includes postage and handling.) ALL of the money (with the exception of the postage and handling - which is about $5.00) will go directly to these children through Larry and the foundation.

Please help! If you have watched any of the news channels or have read any of the reports, then you know why this is touching my heart so deeply. I have attached (to my web site www.donnawatsonauthor.com) an article I wrote (Debbie's Story), based on the reports from Haiti and what is going on. You may share this email and her story with any one you know and, please do. If you know of any group or organization that might help, please share it with them too. My goal is to raise at least $5000 before the first of March.

The five books are as follows:

"101 Simple Ways to be Good To Yourself" - hardback - originally sold for $12.95 and is a book about how to discover peace and joy in your life. (Sorry the paperback version of this book is already sold out.)

"101 Ways To Enjoy Life's Simple Pleasures" - hardback and paperback originally sold for $12.95 and $7.95, respectively, and is described as a gift for you and others who need to re-discover life's simple pleasure.

AND three cookbooks:

"15 Minute Recipes"

"15 Minute Diet Recipes"

"31 Quick and Easy, Snazzy Meals," all of which originally sold for $6.00.

The "15 Minute Recipes" was written because Robert came to me when I was working on my dissertation and said that he thought we should turn the kitchen into a library. He said that the oven would make a great bookcase and it seemed such a shame to have such a large room in the house that never got used. Tacky, as I thought he was, I did a time management study on myself and found out that "if" I was going to cook, I had about 15 minutes to do so. Thus, the 15 minute cookbook I wrote for myself and ended up selling thousands to others in the same boat. Some of the recipes require longer than that too cook, but nothing requires more than 15 minutes of the cook's time.

When that book began selling so well, people began to come to me and saying that they needed a "diet" version. So, I wrote another book..."15 Minute Diet Recipes."

The next year, I began hearing from customers wanting to know about the newest volume! I didn't know that I was in the business to write cookbooks...but trying to be helpful...I put together "31 Quick and Easy, Snazzy Meals." This book takes you through 31 days of meals...the menu, the shopping list and all the recipes. It even has a One Hour Thanksgiving Dinner and it works!! Believe me, I have done it.

So that is it. That is what you get for the $25.00, but mostly what you get is the knowledge that we have all done something..even if it is something small..for those precious children in Haiti.

If you would rather order any one or more of the books or sets in volume, let me know and we will work out the postage. The hardback volumes I am selling for $6.00 each, the paperback for $4.00 and the cookbooks for $2.00 each. I have had a number of people buy 10 and 20 books of one or the other for birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, wedding, special occasions and/or Christmas gifts. Maybe this would work for you too. That way you can get a bargain on a special gift and help the children as well.

PLEASE, help me to help the children. Send your checks to: Donna Watson, P. O. Box 3835, Edmond, OK 73083 ALONG with YOUR address and I will get them in the mail to you ASAP. The weather is lousy right now...at least it is here...so this would be a good day to sit down and get that check in the mail. Please don't wait. These children need our help NOW. (By the way, mark your check for a "Haiti donation" and they are suppose to be tax deductible for either 2009 or 2010.)

Thank you and may God bless you for your kind and loving hearts.

PS I am writing an entire new book in the month of Feb and will be updating my blog and/or website daily. This should be fun...watch and see if I make it!

http://www.donnawatsonauthor.com

I Can't Stop Praying!

The devastation in Haiti has about done me in! I have watched the news almost like I did for OKC and NY when we were attack. Of course, this was nature and a different element in that aspect, but the massive destruction and the helplessness of the situation is just so apparent.

Our Sunday School class helps to support an orphanage in Haiti and it is our understanding that all the children in our particular school are okay. PTL! But the new school, the church and no telling how many families in that area are gone. At last report most of the administrators had not been able to reach the children and so who knows about their food, water and health situations. A group of our friends were to leave today to go down to finish that school. Maybe some day they can start over. (This is a picture of one of our little girls. Her name is Ruth Derisme and she is about 9 years old.)

I know we are all so busy that some days it is hard to find time to breath, but, please, take a moment or two each day for a long while and asked for God's special blessings for what has to be accomplished to help those that can still be helped.

Thank you. We are such a blessed people and such a blessed country, in spite of all of our challenges, that we must never, never forget to thank God for those blessings and remember others who are not so fortunate.

PS For those who have not heard. We had two earthquakes in OK today. They were about 20 miles from us...one 4.0 and one 3.5. We did not feel them but apparently a lot of people did.

I'M BACK

What a year 2009 was! In fact, the last two or three have had a special collection of challenges, but I am excited about 2010 and know that it is going to be a great year! After all, here it is only the 6th day of January and I am back on line with my blog, my new web site in on line and I have already written and submitted eight new articles, queried one more and have been accepted as a book review writer for CBA! WOW! If this is a touch of 2010 I don't know if I can stand it.

In addition to all of that, I have a new book written by Nick Daws entitled "How To Write A Book in 28 Days" and since this year's calendar says that, once again, February is going to have 28 days, my writing friend, Beverly Dillow, and I are going to try it! Stay tuned for the progress reports. You won't want to miss this.

By the way, how about that wonderful looking family. Except for Tracey, and our puppy, Tiki, I am now "officially" the shortest one in the family. Keith was about my height in this picture a year ago, but this year he has outgrown not only me, but his mother as well.

Let me give you a quick rundown. In the "red" is Tracey and her son Kelsey. In the "blue" is Kristie and her hubby, Stephen and their two sons, Kris (with his friend, Jenn) and Keith. Robert and I are in "yellow," and, of course, our sweet baby, Tiki, is in black.

We felt reasonably sure that Christmas of 2008 would be Mom's last Christmas with us here on earth and she was not strong enough to come to our home, so we spent Thanksgiving taking family portraits and crazy family pictures and then made an album for her to look at when she missed someone that day. She loved it and because of it, she could have us as close as she wanted every day during those last six months of her life.

Christmas without Mom this year was bitter- sweet. I know how much better place she is in and how happy she must be, but we missed her and her sweet personality and her love for each of us. She was quite a lady.

Gotta run. It is midnight and tomorrow is another exciting day to share with all those that we love so much. Take care and, please, do stay in touch.

Our Family Is Growing Up!