Well today is very emotional one for me. I seriously cannot believe how overwhelmed I am with emotions of sadness & joy mixed. Why am I feeling like this? Well as you know if you follow my blog, I am a poor man's philanthropist. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't have lot's of extra money to give out, I wish, I'd share with everyone. So instead I figure that I can always share my time, my expertise in any skill, my drive to work hard, my basic need to help others. I am always looking for some sort of goal that fills my need to help others. I don't know about you, but I know that I feel so fantastic when I know I've done good deeds. I wish the whole world felt like this, but obviously it is unrealistic. So this year, I had a huge goal to bring the scrapbook community in to help the kids in the hospital. Could we do it? through the 2 Saskatchewan Scraps events we started creating layout pages to fill albums. They were beautiful, I refer to them as a Joseph coat of many colours as each page is unique and different. They blend wonderfully as I know they were made with huge hearts. So I packed all these beautiful albums on Friday, got them ready to go. Then I phoned in Monday to get final number counts of the kids in the hospital. After all, our goal was EVERY child receives an album. So guess what I found out at 5pm, we were 9 albums short, 180 pages, with one day to go to deadline. I looked at my life, and saw that Jim couldn't help watch the kids, but gramma and grampa said they could for a few hours, but really, I'm a scrapbook machine but could I do 9 albums in one day. I know my limits, I reached it, reality...I needed help. I gave a good effort but think it was not going to happen. So at Monday night 11:54 pm I put out the call to local Saskatoon Scrappers to help. Yes, am I smokin crack? what kind of person asks this of people days before Christmas? I hummed about this decision for a couple hours, wondering if I finally hit that level of inappropriateness. But I had this goal of not letting anyone down. So I asked for help. And do you want to know what happened?
I received so much help from fantastic ladies.Ladies that I know were up to their arms in domestic goddess work, from baking to cooking to babysitting, to cleaning house, to wrapping presents, to creating scrapbook albums for gifts. Everyone was in reality preparing for the major holiday coming up. But for a few hours, The following ladies STOPPED everything to buckle down and join me in making this a reality. So I definitely want to say their names and give them huge thanks & credit:
- Pam Beaudry
- Kate Kading
- Kim Deibert
- Cheryl Leuschen
- Janet Weser
- Jennifer Gibson
- Karen Welch-Smith, her fabulous daughter Georgina & her friend (sorry I don't know her name)
So the 10 of us ended up creating like mad and made 18 albums. SO we exceeded the goal, but now the therapist has some on hand to use in rehabilitation throughout the year.
WONDERFUL!!!!!
Do you want to see what over a 1000 pages looks like?
This ENTIRE coffee table was covered in albums.3 rows wide, and piles high.
Wow!
So I took the beautiful works of art to the hospital today and met with the kind recreational therapist who works with these children. She is delightful and her heart is huge. I don't know how she does this job. In these wards I saw such sick kids, ones that had all sorts of issues. It broke my heart, I wanted to just pick up every one of them and hug them till I could make them better. I got such a choked up feeling in my throat that I thought I would burst out crying any second. Here I was, living a great life, blessed with 3 amazing kids that were healthy, safe and loved. How was I so blessed? I didn't know what it was like to ever have my life turned upside down because of uncontrollable circumstances happening to my children. How does a family get through this? So especially at this time of year, I am crying tears of heartbreak for these kids, but also ones of happiness as I wish them tremendous success in their recoveries.
I personally feel so comforted by my scrapbook albums, I love to look at them with the kids, to laugh about the memories, remember sad times and just to remember. So I hope these children will feel comfort knowing that this scrapbook community holds them in our hearts this Christmas.
So after having a delightful conversation with the therapist, I got to the root of their needs that is ongoing. If you would love to donate albums to the kids, their is a few guidelines to think about:
- album size: 6x6,5x7, 8x8 (no bigger, it is too much for the children to hold & work with)
- the albums need to be able to be washed down (so leather, plastic, are the best) In the isolation area, they have to disinfect things all day long to prevent germ spreading
- they work with the kids to rehabilitate them, so they are always looking for premade albums as well as things precut, ready to assemble. so precut page sizes, precut photo mats, stickers and alphabet stickers on hand, and of course adhesive.
Now her area to store these in is not very big at all, so she definitely appreciates all the help but said it would be best spread out throughout the year as they have no storage. She said with the kids that have extending periods of stay (ex: 6months and greater)They work on an album to document their stay for when they get out, or in worst case, for their parents. She guesses approx. 50-60 cases in this nature a year. So approx. 4-5 a month.
So if you would like to help out at all, fire me an email and I can help you get in touch with the right people!
So thanks again!!!!!
On another note, after seeing such generosity in this time of year, I decided that I need to be generous too! So I asked who wanted me to create them a mini album the other day. I thought that in this time period I could work on a couple. Forget it, I've decided ow that EVERYONE who entered will get one by me, as well as the ladies who are not on that list that helped me reach my goal yesterday. So if you can give me a little time. You are ALL going to be given little prezzies of love from me!
So ladies that weren't on my previous contest list that helped, send me what you'd like for a theme.
(Karen,Kim, Janet, Georgina & friend,Pam) Thanks girls!!!!
Like I have always said and believe.
PAY IT FORWARD!
So, I will be heading out of town for the holidays, and taking a little blogging break till the New Year. I do encourage you to remember the true meaning of this season, the celebration of HIS LIFE. whether or not our beliefs are the same, I do believe the principle of this season can be unified. That being, to celebrate each other, be thankful for health and happiness, to think of others, to help those in need, to be loved and give love. It's not all about the presents...
So Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year. and for those of you who want to do a week of palydates, we are back on the 28th and ready to destroy our house. lol. (isn't it always?) but I am hoping to have one huge day of kids everywhere, having fun. so let's talk.