I'm the proud mama to a polar bear

Yesterday Brian picked up this mysterious package from the Peace Corps office addressed to me from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Inside was a stuffed polar bear. At first I was like, "How did the WWF know that I love polar bears and where to send it?" And then, when Brian pointed out that there was a letter inside, I found out that it was a Christmas present from my sister, Allison. She made a donation in my name to symbolically adopt a polar bear. What a great idea! I had a huge smile on my face all day, while the bear sat on my lap at work. Allison says the idea for adopting a polar bear came to her after we bonded over our shared distress from the polar bear story arc in the BBC series "Planet Earth." (Note: If you haven't seen the "Planet Earth" series, go out right now and rent it. Or buy it from Amazon, it's worth the investment. The series is the best thing I've ever seen and I'm totally not exaggerating here.) Just thinking about the poor polar bears who are out drowning in the arctic ocean because global warming is melting the ice (aka where the live) makes me teary eyed.

Anywho, included in the materials was information on other animal "adoptions" available from WWF. I was excited to see that they had some of my favorite species from "Planet Earth" including the snow leopard, arctic fox and amur leopard. Then, of course, they had your expected cute and cuddly animals (lions, pandas and clown fish) and some species that personally I think should never be stuffed (Who wants a stuffed anaconda, stingray or octopus?)

I tried to upload a picture of me and my polar bear, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'll keep working on the picture, but until then just imagine me (a proud mama) with a huge grin on my face holding a stuffed polar bear. Merry Christmas!