Home from delivering the goods… Annabelle says THANKS everyone for making my birthday so special!!! |
My apologies for the delay in this post.
A few weeks ago, we were finally able to drop off the items everyone donated to heart babies at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital!
THANK YOU everyone who donated, from those who generously mailed us packages to those who gave at her birthday parties, we were humbled and honored that you would celebrate our daughter’s life in such a super amazing way and help us give to other babies in their time of need!
In all, we were able to give nine bags full of goodies, 4 for girls, 4 for boys, and 1 gender neutral, in addition to a basket of extra things for older kids, and some other misc items for wherever they saw a need. I went into it, going to be pleased if we got 4 or 5 this first year, so I count it as a success!!
Each bag held:
– at least 2 or more baby blankets (I wanted multiple blankets in each because they get dirty FAST in the hospital!)
– one button up outfit/shirt
– one set of socks
– one set of baby mittens
– one or more baby hats or bows
– one or more baby rattles/toys
– one stuffed animal
– one bottle of GOOD baby lotion
– one or more hand-embroidered burp rags
I estimated each bag to be a value of about $60 to $70 (in some cases more) so that’s over $600 worth of gifts!
I put a little note in each of them, letting them know that it was from “Annabelle and friends”.
Looking back, there are a lot of things I’ve learned for when we do this in the future. This is the first “project” that I’ve ever hosted (I’ve always been on the donation end, not the organization end!) so I definitely have some, “yeah, won’t do that again” things!
Like… I will coordinate before hand with the hospital (it took me quite a few weeks to get it coordinated once I was ready to be able to actually take it in, which is another reason it’s taken so long to update you!)
Annabelle delivering the presents! |
And I will DEFINITELY have help in delivering. The genius I am arranged to meet our uber cool social worker INSIDE the hospital by the elevators, not realizing this would mean I’d have to take all nine bags and extra stuff in myself, with Annabelle. OVERFLOWING bags, I might add.
And that other person will be photographer, so I can be in the picture too and have more than one that doesn’t have horrible lighting!!
But… my heart is just full that we were able to hopefully bless other families!
THANK YOU for prayers and for those who donated! You made Annabelle’s birthday SUPER memorable and special, and we appreciate it more that we can say!
I have a friend whose husband is in the armed forces overseas. So last year we did a gift collection drive @ work for his unit. Lots and LOTS of Hmmm-probably-shoulda-thought-of-this moments. Glad things went well and you were able to take some nice gifts.
It's a learning process, isn't it Flossie!! That is awesome that you were able to do a gift collection for his unit! Bless you guys for that, and Bless HIM for his service!
thats so awesome that you were able to bless all of those kids. I was praying for you guys even though I couldn't donate.
What a cool thing you did, Krista. And what a cute picture of Annabelle…I just love her smile. 🙂
Aw, I can't believe another birthday is rolling around for Annabelle! That's wonderful the way you were able to bless those kids, I love it!