This is a guest post from Kim Tracy Prince:

I get very emotional when I see, read about, or watch on TV a child in pain. A family struggling to accept the reality of an impaired or afflicted child in their lives. An empty crib, clothes that are never worn, a mother who has lost the light of her life.

Ah, there is so much misery in the world. Every time there is a natural disaster I have the urge to adopt an orphaned child whose parents were taken in the earthquake/tsunami/AIDS crisis/insert here. Don’t tell my husband – we already have two little boys. Someday, when the time is right, I will bring it up.

Until then, my most far-reaching power is here on the internet. This week I am working with a charity called Trisomy 18 Foundation which is a finalist in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook – it has won a grant for $25,000, and is now among 100 charities up for five $100,000 prizes, or the first prize – $1 million to help pursue a Big Idea! The winner will be chosen by public vote from January 15-22. Will you help spread the word to your readers to visit their Facebook voting page and help them win?

One out of every 3,000 children is born with Trisomy 18. That means that every day in the United States alone, 10-20 families receive the news about this diagnosis, which may take their child from them before he or she is even born. Victoria Miller’s baby boy Isaac was born with Trisomy 18 in 2001. He lived only 11 days. At the time, the support community for families affected by the condition was very small, so Miller started the Trisomy 18 Foundation to raise awareness, improve the lives of the families, and drive research initiatives to focus on prevention and treatments. Miller tells her story in a special video on YouTube.

As a mother, naturally I was touched by the sadness that Trisomy 18 must bring to the families who are affected. But it didn’t really hit me until I visited the Facebook voting page and read the comments written by those parents and relatives who had the joy of knowing their babies for as little as 4 minutes before they slipped away. Those children never had a chance. With funding of $1 million, the Trisomy 18 Foundation can make significant progress toward improving treatment and prevention of this condition.

If you are on Facebook, I urge you to click the badge above and simply vote. You can also visit the Trisomy 18 Foundation information site where there is code for the video and other badges that you can put on your own site. It’s only for a week, but it can make a huge difference in the life of a family.  Please spread the word.

BADGE CODE:

<a href="http://tinyurl.com/votet18" ><img src="http://www.trisomy18.org/images/content/pagebuilder/42812.gif" alt="Trisomy18 Vote" width="202" height="244" border=0 /></a>

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Kim Tracy Prince is a TV producer in Los Angeles and a mother of two young boys who has been blogging at House of Prince since 2004.  With the community of bloggers and internet users she has built over five and a half years, Kim is hoping to make changes that will help unfortunate people.  She also works with Help a Mother Out, a network that encourages people to donate diapers to homeless and needy families.