Even cheaper than Rent the Runway...
Borrow the runway.
I had two fancy fundraisers in one week.
I spent too much on the first dress. It was gold. And priced like it was made of gold.
So I needed a freebie on the second.
I borrowed two dresses from two friends.
One is lacy with a nude slip.
Gorgeous dress.
But the night before the event I was alone in my hotel room flipping through the TV channels.
I landed on "Friends".
Monica aka Courtney Cox was in a karaoke bar.
Singing Delta Dawn.
I hate that song.
But the crowd loved it.
Monica heard a guy yell...look at those tips.
Except he said tits.
Apparently her dress was see through.
Since the event was at my son's college...I wore the less see through, more appropriate dress.
When did I start wearing appropriate clothing?
The first event (pricy dress) was the Mending Kids gala.
I was being honored.
I cried when they told me I was being honored.
So what hope did I have of getting though my speech.
My friend Harvey Levin introduced me.
TMZ Harvey was my first friend in LA.
He said all sorts of kind things about me.
Like I'm a horrible cook.
Then it was my turn to speak.
Or try to.
I said I go on Mending Kids missions to make sure the kids have lollipops and the doctors have toilet paper.
But Mending Kids was giving me the LOVE award.
So maybe there’s a deeper mission.
I fell in love when I was a Host Mom.
I was having a chat with God while driving to the airport to pick up Sandra.
A little girl who spoke no English, who had never been out of her village in El Salvador
She was to have two surgeries while living with us for four months.
I asked God if I was up for this.
Immediately there were fireworks over the ocean.
Then I got a flat tire.
So kind of a mixed message from God.
But being a Host Mom is a kind of a mixed blessing.
There's love, joy, tears and vomit.
We were on the 405 heading home from the airport.
And I see Sandra trying to open the car door.
In my bad Spanish I'm yelling "NO! Cual el problema?"
I pulled over.
And she threw up.
Sandra threw up in all the best paces...on Rodeo Drive, once at CNN.
She'd never been in a car before.
And the poor kid got wicked car sick.
I had vomit bags everywhere.
When she was going home I was packing her bags.
She came to this country with a backpack with underwear in it.
She went home with 100 pounds of toys and clothes.
My friends may have spoiled her.
But as I opened her backpack I saw a baggie with some pills in it. Since I had been her full-time nurse I knew this wasn't her medication.
I said "What's this?"
She made the finger down the throat international sign for vomit. She had never been in a car, but back home she had occasionally been on a bus. And they were well aware of her motion sickness.
We laughed until we cried.
Then we said goodbye.
A year later I went on a mission trip to El Salvador.
I got to see my Sandra.
She was healed and happy.
I took her with me to the hospital.
Where kids were having the same surgery she had.
She loved and comforted them.
To see Sandra in her own country, helping her own people...
I felt such love.
I was thinking about another Mending Kids mission last night.
I saw a screening of the new film First They Killed My Father. It's the true story of the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
It was directed by Angelina Jolie.
Angelina was there.
Of course you're struck by her beauty. But I was also stuck by her love for the people of Cambodia.
I fell in love with a little girl there.
I was on a mission Phnom Pen.
There was a girl the doctors called Dora, because of her bowl haircut.
She was five and had five things wrong with her heart.
Before surgery she wanted to learn English
I taught her how to say I love you.
After surgery I could not get her to smile.
It almost broke my heart.
But a few weeks later I was send a photo of her in the hospital.
She was healed and happy and getting a gift from Santa.
She had the biggest smile.
That was the best Christmas gift I could get.
I felt such love.
It has been my honor for me, and my family, to be a part of Mending Kids.
And to be honored for spreading love is one of the great honors of my life.
In my speech I got to thank my husband for feeding the many Mending Kids that have been in and out of our house.
Because, as previously mentioned, I'm a terrible cook.
And I did mention that my son wrote an essay saying he mostly took care of Sandra because my Spanish was bad.
Oddly...I don't recall him cleaning up any vomit.
And the best part...I got to wear that gold dress.
At the second event, in the appropriate black dress, I got to emcee the USD gala.
I helped my son's university raise 1.3 million for scholarships for students and student vets.
What a week of funlanthrooy.
Honestly I don't know if I will ever have a better week.
Or wear two better dresses.