The Harbor House

I started this I Run For blog because I felt like I had so many reasons to get my body moving. As a mom, I need to run to feel healthy and to get a little me time once in a while. As a mom and full-time employee for a global company, I need to run to just rid myself of daily stress. Last year, I ran my first half marathon and I did it for myself. I felt amazing when I finished, had a new sense of confidence and knew I would run that race again. I'm doing the Minneapolis Team Ortho Half Marathon again this June. However, this time I'm not doing it for myself.

I run for The Harbor House.

There are some amazing people I know who moved their family to Haiti roughly 5 years ago and are part of a team of people who run The Harbor House. This house is a safe home for teen moms and their young children. A place of refuge.

I had the idea to run for these young mothers months ago, but never acted on the nudge I felt. I was scared. Nervous. I felt like I am just one person and how can I possibly make a difference for these young girls and their babies. They have been through so much in their short lifetime and now as new moms will experience so much more. They will have joyful experiences and challenging ones, too. I was a new mom just a short while ago and felt those challenges myself. I ran the race last year to regain my strength and to prove to myself I could be a great mom. The nudge I felt would not go away and it was one Sunday morning while sitting in church that I decided I needed to run that race. It was on my heart and would not go away. I am running this race again, but this time to raise money for The Harbor House in hopes that these moms will too find strength, confidence and the insane amount of love for their child that I have found for mine.

My goal is to raise $712 by race day. This amount covers one week at The Harbor House. Please click on the Chip In event on the top of my blog if you're interested in helping me raise money for this home.

From the Livesay's blog:
"The house is in the process of being upgraded and changed each week and is therefore still very much under construction. We've been having fun painting and planning. Soon another carpenter is coming to build beds with drawers for each young woman and her child. The work is on-going and we're laboring to make the house feel like a home. We'll share photos of the house itself as things continue to change.

Each day there are planned activities (school, chores, classwork, group Bible study) and each month there are days the girls are able to leave to go visit family. Saturday and Sunday are visitation days when the girls' families can come to the Harbor House. Weekends are much less structured. The girls will soon begin taking a jewelry making class and in April we'll begin a trauma support group with them.

The most important thing happening at Harbor House is the daily modeling of respect, conflict resolution, child-rearing, and problem solving. The day in and day out real-life examples being shared by those of us that are living here in community with them far exceeds the importance of reading, writing, or arithmetic.

It is our hope and our belief that investing in these young mothers is investing in the future. Ten young moms raise ten secure, well-loved, well-attached children who go on to raise their own well-loved, well-attached and secure children ... "

I have run for myself. Now I run for all of the other new moms in Haiti.