"Every woman has moments in their life which she can learn, laugh 
and feel empowered."

Shauna's Empowering Moment

Here is the short form of my empowering moment:

I had no idea I was so strong until July 18/07; that was the day I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer at 39! I dug in my heels and decided that this disease was not going to take my life. I have a great husband and an amazing son, I have everything to live for! My journey has not been easy, I had bilateral mastectomies on July 29/07, started chemo in August of this year and finished chemo on Dec 11/07. Starting on January 2nd it is time for radiation! There are days when I want to quit, but they are far outnumbered by the days I know I can win. The strength one can find within is absolutely amazing and that is why I have decided to try to help other women with Breast Cancer. I have started a photographic journal of my battle with this dreaded disease with a local photographer and we are hoping to take this to a more public forum. The pictures are of what it really looks like to have had my breasts removed(in some of them I am not wearing a shirt) and of my family. For me these pictures are liberating; I am proud of who I am! I am still the same person I was before July 18th....a woman, a wife and a mother!

You see, I have cancer, cancer does not have me!

Thank you,
Shauna

Anistasia's Empowering Moment

Since moving to Nova Scotia, I have had many new experiences and learning curves in my life. One of them being water, lack of , too much and everything in between. I moved into my home in December, and soon learned you can run a well dry, which means going without water for awhile, sometimes a few days. Another problem I had was lack of water pressure, so I had a plumber out to look at the problem ,as well several men had given me their opinion. The plumber looked at the taps and all the plumbing lines in the house. According to him and most others, the size of the tubing was too small, (its always a size thing). So I asked for a quote to replace it with the appropriate size. Meanwhile it was a pain to get enough water out of the taps for showers, or wash dishes. I would get buckets of water out of the kids bathroom (which for some reason seem to work better) to help with the dishes. It was at best frustrating. One morning I was tired and just wanted a hot shower to wake up, got the water running and jumped in. I managed to get wet, and started to wash my hair, I have alot of hair . While trying to rinse off it was near impossible to get all the soap out with such a small amount of water. I was so exasperated, looking up at the shower head I decided I was going to have water, not just drips . So that thing was coming apart ! Naked and soapy, I started to dismantle the shower head. Half way through I thought “Oh crap, I hope I know what I am doing” , which I did not , but I have never been one to let fear or common sense stand in my way .I continued on and VOILA water and lots of it. At first I was relieved because now I could get the soap out of my hair and then amazed that I did it! I am happy to report that all of the taps in our house have a beautiful steady flow of water, no more buckets. I think back to that day, a wet soapy naked woman fixing this problem I had for months. I feel there is not too much I would not try to fix. I will be cautious with my electrical system , my hair is curly enough as it is.

 Anistasia

Jacqui's Empowering Moment

Every woman has many empowering moments to share, here is the one I have decided on. Living in an old farm house the only source of heat is a wood furnace and with my husband away I am solely responsible for throwing in, piling and when needed, splitting. Also the kindling needs to be split to start the fire each morning. There may be a lot of women that have split wood in there life time but up until this point I was not one of them. So here I was faced with yet another challenge that needed to be solved or we would be pretty cold. I was not happy about this and immediately made a mental note to investigate a second source of heat for next winter.

At first I started out with a small hatchet kneeling on one knee, by the end of the winter I had an axe standing on both feet and swinging hard. The best time for me to split was usually at the end of the day. I would think about something or someone who had frustrated me and with one wack the wood almost fell apart. The strength came from sheer determination and this voice saying “I can do this.“ It was a great way for me to release my built up emotions of the day. Plus it also got the wood done at the same time and we women are very efficient at multi tasking. Each morning it is a great feeling of accomplishment to have those neat piles of wood waiting for me to start the first fire of the day to keep my family warm.

 Jacqui

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