Don't start your holiday shopping until you read this.

This is Annabel.
Annabel is the daughter of my best friend from college, Sarah. Sarah and I had a lot of adventures in college and continue to get into all kinds of mischief. Even though we have not lived in the same state since 1999, Sarah and I still talk weekly. We've been through a lot together - weddings, births, deaths. I am so very, very lucky to have her as a friend. I could, quite honestly, write an entire post just about that. I could even post lots of entertaining pictures of Sarah from over the years. But I won't, mostly because Sarah has a blog too, and she'd probably retaliate and the pictures of me would be far more entertaining. Instead, I'll show you this picture of Sarah and Annabel together. I shamelessly stole it off her blog (Fine. I stole the other one, too.)
OK, so back to Annabel. Sarah and I had the luck to be pregnant with Nathan and Annabel at exactly the same time, which was lots of fun. Annabel beat Nate to the finish line by just 6 days, and they met each other for the first time when they were six months old.
What you would never know just by looking at Annabel - who is, like her mom, gorgeous - is that she has a chromosomal abnormality called Isodicentric 15 or IDIC 15 for short. As a result, Annabel struggles to do a lot of the things that come naturally to most 2 year olds, like walking and communicating verbally. She's made amazing progress through different therapies and is blessed to have parents who are dedicated to helping her reach her full potential.

Not a lot is known about IDIC 15 because it is very, very rare. Many of Annabel's doctors suspect that it may be underdiagnosed, because its symptoms closely resemble those of other conditions and disorders, like autism. And, as is the case with many causes, research into IDIC 15 is woefully underfunded.

This is where you can help.

I invite you to check out IGive.com. IGive.com is not a place for to donate money directly to IDIC 15 research (if you're interested in doing that, check this site out.) Instead, IGive.com is a portal through which you can shop at popular internet retailers like Amazon, Gap, Pottery Barn, Barnes & Noble, LL Bean, Ebay, Boden - pretty much anywhere you currently shop, as there are more than 700 retailers involved - and they will give a percentage of your purchase to the cause of your choice. IDIC 15 is one of the available causes. You can even take a tax deduction for the percentage of your purchase that is donated.

Here's how you do it:

1. Go to IGive.com

2. Under "Find and Select Your Cause" leave the drop-down selections as is and type "isodicentric" into the keyword search box.

3. Choose "Isodicentric 15 Exchange Advocacy & Support" from the results at right (this should be the only result.)

You will then be taken through a few screens to finish the registration process, and then you can visit the directory of stores on IGive.com and start shopping. In order for a portion of your purchases to be donated to IDIC 15 research, you must use the IGive.com site each time you shop.

It's that easy. Clicking just a few extra times when you do your holiday shopping online can make a huge difference. I really hope you'll give it a try.

Oh, and because I know I'll get a boatload of flack if I don't mention it, Annabel has a really great dad, too. His name is Mike. And she has a baby brother on the way in February. You can learn more about the entire family by checking out their blog, The Sunshine Diaries.