If you are a reader of my blog, you know that we struggled to get pregnant for a long time. Every year on Mother’s Day, I would be devastated that I didn’t have a baby or child to be a mother to. Now, by the grace of God, I have two beautiful kids. But, some women aren’t that lucky. In developing countries, three million babies die each year — and most of these deaths are preventable.

The last couple of months, the Global Team of 200 has been working closely with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help advocate for Newborn Health. They recently held the first ever Newborn Health Conference in Africa and are working on putting together their action plan for the future. You can read more about the Newborn Health initiative here.

Being a member of the Global Team of 200 has helped me become a better person, mom and blogger. I am more aware of things going on in the world that I can help advocate or change. I’ve done things and have interacted with individuals that I would never have had the opportunity to do on my own. We’ve gotten accolades and shout outs from the Gates’ themselves, from Gary Darmstadt, the Director of Family Health at the Gate’s Foundation, and many others. It is humbling that these individuals take the time to honor us Moms for being the grassroots of their campaigns. When, all we are doing is advocating for the women, girls and children who need our voices.

One of the cool things the team was asked to do this month was write a haiku for Newborn Health. We were asked to tweet these out to help spread the word. I wanted to share mine.

Please, don’t turn your back

All children deserve to be healthy

Three million is too many.

Want to get in on the fun? Read up on what a haiku is here. And then, tweet it out to your followers using the hashtags #newborn2013 and #haiku.

Yesterday, I also shared a really cool Mother’s Day gift idea to honor your mom or another special and influential woman in your life. You can check out my post here. For $5, you can choose a super-cool quilt patch to post online, as well as a special message for your recipient. I wanted to share the ones I sent… and encourage you to do the same. Each $5 donation is being matched by the generosity of 10 donors, up to $250,000!

My Mom’s Patch

The Hub’s Mom’s Patch

The Hub’s Step-Mom’s Patch

I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day. And, I would like to leave you with this– just because you are not a mother, whether by nature or choice… I guarantee you have made the difference in the life of someone else and for that, you should celebrate.