Home in Time for My Birthday

Last night I had the BEST meeting.

I met my friend Lynn for coffee after work to talk about social media. I first met Lynn when we were 8/9 at Camp Pembroke. We re-met just a few months back when I found that she was married to a friend of mine from college. We have been having a blast catching up and hanging out ever since. They have become great couple friends and we love our dinners with them (more on that later).

Yesterday, Lynn and I met at Starbucks to work on a project that is very close to her heart. She recently wrote and published a children's book called Home in Time for My Birthday. It is a truly inspiring account of her personal story and her general outlook on life. Her mission to help others in similar situations to hers get through a difficult time is incredibly moving.

My name is Lynn Ducoff Belkin. This story is my story. When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. I was scared and did not really know what to expect at the hospital, both during and after surgery. However, there were many people (doctors, nurses, child life specialist, parents, caregivers, siblings and friends) around to answer my questions. When I arrived back at school I was able to answer my friend's questions. For example, I was able to explain radiation therapy and what an IV does. I also showed them some of the projects I made in the hospital playroom. This book is written for you and your family. I want to use my experiences to help other children and families cope with a diagnosis.

Lynn has a great website and has been pounding the pavement to spread the word about her book. She already has some great events in the area coming up in the fall! Where I come in is to help her make her social network work for her. She is already doing many great things on Fabebook/Twitter/Blogs, but there are a few tricks of the trade that I am trying to help her with.

Last night we worked on linking all three of her accounts together so no matter where someone sees Home in Time for My Birthday, they are seeing the same message. We also talked about finding blogs that have similar topics to hers for her to follow, comment on, and hopefully use them to introduce more people to this special book. With a little self promotion, I have no doubt that Home in Time for My Birthday will be making a splash. The message is simple, clear, and heartwarming. It is also incredibly helpful for any child or parent who is dealing with a difficult diagnosis. I highly recommend this book (yes, I'm bias, but it is truly a wonderful resource for all ages).

It is an honor to help Lynn share her story. She is a very brave person to be putting herself out there in order to help others. We both are excited about this project and can't wait to implement all of our new ideas. We couldn't cover everything in one night. so we have a few meetings set up. It so exciting and inspiring to be invovled with Lynn's book at this point. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Of course, after getting some great work done, we met up with the boys for our usual sushi and wine. It was a great and inspiring night.

In other news...108 peopled viewed my blog yesterday alone! I can't believe I was able to reach that milestone so soon. Thank you! And please keep on reading :)