AFC Benefit

Our rough trip home was the end of an exhausting trip altogether. 
We stayed with the AFC director, making it two toddlers and two babies in a two bedroom apartment that is also fundraiser command-central.


And because chaos and insanity and last-minute fiascoes and slicing brochures with Miss on my back at 11pm and then OMG 100 brochures are printed half-upside-down and where is that thing we can't find and who is in charge of picking that other thing up and the staple gun is running because we're still stretching art at 1am and Little One is running around like She's in a minefield screaming "mom! Ah! A cookie is on the floor-mom! AHHH! A orange peel is on the floor! I can't touch anything!" and what did the baby just put in her mouth, is our style guys, (deep breath) there were about two dozen moments in which I seriously reconsidered my sanity.
And mothering. And decision-making skills.
And swore to myself that this was nuts- nuts! and it's not like I could even be that helpful, what with always needing to save the babies from mortal dangers at the last minute, and I am never. Never doing this again.
In past years, even without kids, I have said to myself; 'I don't think I'm doing this again next year'. 
THIS year, after driving Little One an hour to have a sleepover (thank you thank you dear angelic friends who watched Her!) and then wearing 20lb of Little Miss in a carrier, while on my feet in heels for seven hours, I really swore to myself that this had to be my last AFC event.

But the thing is.

Next year, when World AIDS Day rolls around?

....I will probably sell my right kidney to do it all over again.  Every year since my first, I have been there in the middle of it as much as I can.  What kind of crazy is this?!
I thought about it.



Sitting at a big Ethiopian breakfast the day after the event, looking around the table at some of the most completely amazing people I have ever met or likely ever will, I thought about why, despite the stress and the exhaustion, I felt so utterly grateful to be there.

For one thing, of course, it's the AFC kids.  You can't meet those kids and not want to die fighting for them.  That's just a fact.

For another thing, it's those amazing AFC team members.  A whole room full of really good people who do really good things for the right reasons and mean it, and are also incredibly fun is hard to pass up.

But the crux of it, I think, is that life is so shaded in grey.  So much is contentious, or controversial, or open to interpretation.  So often bad comes with the good, things are complicated; subject to opinion or interpretation.  It is a rare, nearly impossible thing in this world of harsh realities to have the opportunity to be involved in something that is so clearly and definitely Good. 

The Auction Rocked.

Sometimes charities are run by well-meaning people who have a mission that's kind of meh.  Sometimes the mission is really important but there is corruption and ulterior motives or piper-paying or whatever. Sometimes one man's "right" is another man's crime.
Rarely can you find something so inarguably important being done so honestly and with so much love. 
Rarely can a person be involved in something that is just. Plain. Good.
It's more than fair to say I get more out of my 'volunteering' than I give.  So even if part of what i get is a few gray hairs, I am so happy that I got to be even a small part of putting on this event-which came together beautifully and was a great success, as always- and so grateful to be a part of the AFC family in general.
Of course, since I feel about it the way I do, I can't end this post without reminding you all that it's a family you can join too, if you want to. And, trust me, you do.

http://artistsforcharity.org/new/projects/