Need Ideas

Our family has a trip planned for March to go to Walt Disney World. Sounds like it should be fun for all of us, right, but this is actually not the first time we have planned to go to Disney. We had made a promise to two little girls three years ago that we would take them to there. Obviously this was the same year tragedy struck and those plans were no more. It has taken three years and a nine-year-old reminding us every so often that we still have not taken this promised vacation before we have finally decided that we were ready to give it a try. This will be our first family vacation without our Abrielle. (Not really sure I can call it a family vacation with her missing) So, here's where I am looking for ideas from everyone ~ I want to make sure our Abby is still included in this trip. I am thinking of having the girls release a balloon to Heaven while we are there, but not sure what else to do. I always have my bracelet on and have her permanently with me through my tattoo, but was looking for any other ideas anyone might have.

Donations

The Jackson family bought all these cute critters for the Foundation. Thanks!

Abby's Gift

Here is a scan of the pamphlets we handed out to help promote organ donation. They are tri-fold with four sections. I hope you can see them well enough.

At the Health Fair

I spent Saturday morning at the Health Fair at a table with Marilyn Johnson and Josh Allee. We had bumper stickers, pens, ice scrapers, bracelets, and flyers from Midwest Transplant Network to hand out to promote donation. I brought flyers on Abby's Gift and some butterfly magnets to pass out as well. In addition, Josh was handing out information on living wills and advance directives, so needless to say, we were not the most popular table at the fair. We had several people that would stop and as soon as they heard what we were there for, walk on. Some people just didn't want to face the inevitable fact of dying. We did have several that would stay for awhile to ask questions and listen a bit to our stories about donation. We heard many say, "They wouldn't want my organs," but after we would explain to them they were wrong, they would take the information. Hopefully we were able to educate some and convince some other people to register to be a donor.

Avenue City School Donations

Mandy Scott's class at Avenue City School gathered donations for the Foundation again this year and brought me a HUGE box full of goodies.
They also donated some other fun stuff that I am sure the kids in the hospital will love.

And some Christmas stockings that we will use next year to fill with goodies for any kids that have to be in the hospital during Christmas.

Come Join Me!

I will be attending the Health and Fitness Fair on Saturday in a booth with Marilyn Johnson to promote organ donation. I will be handing out pamphlets for Abby's Gift and butterfly magnets to all that stop by.

St Gregory's Donations

Remember back in December when the first and sixth grades helped out making cards? Well they also brought donations that day too. Thanks St. Gregory's for all your support!

Bagging Pictures

We had a smaller crew for the bagging on Saturday night, but that didn't stop us from getting a lot accomplished. We played catch up for taking 2 months off and, thanks to all the cards St. Gregory's school had made up for us early, only spent just over 2 hours getting everything bagged, carded, labeled, and ready for kids.

A Call For Shirts

Sew for Fun is ready to start on a Northwest t-shirt quilt for this year and is in need of more shirts. So, we are sending out a plea for your shirts again. Maybe you have some that have "shrunk in the dryer" or a hole in the sleeve, bring it in to Sew for Fun for them to use. Clean out your dresser drawers and get them to a board member. The quilt will benefit both Briley's Heart Cart and the Foundation again this year and work the same as last year, we're just ahead of the game this year.

Santa Gifts Shared

North Nodaway Elementary School's fourth and fifth graders had a visit from Santa in December. The class loved their stuffed animals, but voted as a class and decided to donate their bears to the Foundation instead of keeping them for themselves. We received 17 of the big brown bears and 7 of the little blue bears. Thanks to the 4th and 5th graders for sharing your gifts with us!

Please Say YES!

I had to make a trip to the license bureau this week to license all the company vehicles. This is a long process since there are so many to do, so I was there while four different people renewed their driver's licenses. One of the standard questions I heard asked to each person was, "Do you wish to have your name added to a national registry for organ donation?" I listened as only 1 person said "yes" to place their name in the national registry. Only 1 out of 4. I wanted so badly to ask why they would choose to not save a life if they could. It is not costing them anything. There will not be any junk mail coming their way. There will not be any phone calls made to them. Nothing. That is all there is to it. Just a simple YES. That is all it takes to save or change a life forever. Why would you not want to do that?

Bagging Is A GO

With the thawing this week, our road it better than what it was, so we are on for bagging on Saturday night at 7 pm.

Homemade Coloring Books

When I went to MTC last week, the offenders had completed more coloring books for the Foundation through their Restorative Justice Program. They donated another 75 of their handmade coloring books. This time, there were some smaller sized ones too. They are more of the fun pad size and include more of the puzzles, but they are still filled with many of their original artwork too.

Preschool Donation

I stopped by EFE's preschool classes to pick up the donations that had been gathered by Mrs. Nielson, Mrs. White, Mrs. Wilmes, and Mrs. Pitts during the holidays. They requested that the students bring donations for the Foundation instead of gifts for them. I must say I just LOVE preschoolers. They are just too cute and so much fun! Here we are trying to get a good picture to share, but it was tough to get that many to cooperate, so I'm going to share them all to make you smile at these cuties :)

Bagging ~ ?

We were hoping to get together to bag on this Saturday, January 16th, but with the last snow that came through, all that is now dependant upon the road conditions. We have had several donations during the holiday season (which I will share this week) that we need to get caught up on and some Celebration planning to start. I will keep an eye on how our road is and give everyone a definite by Friday morning.

Also, my apologies for neglecting the blog lately. I am going to do my best at getting back to the daily update routine so I don't fall behind with all the wonderful things people are doing to support the Foundation. I hope to get that started back this week.

Round 2

Another group of offenders heard my presentation today at Maryville Treatment Center. For some reason, it was harder for me this time around and brought more tears. I think it was partly because my emotions were raw after the holidays. I was not the only one to shed tears though. There were several inmates that shared in my emotions. I was glad that I made that kind of impact on some of them. One offender stated that he was incarcerated for drug offenses but stated that there were several times he was lifted into his truck to drive home after leaving a bar. He said after my presentation he could say that he would not be doing that again. Several other inmates had positive comments for me as well.

Prayers ~

Please keep the Pappert family in your prayers tonight and the many days to come as they tragicaly lost their infant son. His organs were able to be given to other children. We know the pain they are feeling and prayers are very needed.

A Visit

With the immenent snow that is to come, I decided I had better get another visit in to Abby while I could. The drive to the cemetery had been cleaned out at the end of last week due to a burial there and Marc had scooped us a path to her site, so Elly and I stopped on our way home (Mady was with Marc). We made our way down the path to see her, Elly talking the whole way, saying, "We going to see Abby." When we got to the front of her stone, Elly patted Abby's picture and said, "There's Abby." I replied, "Yes, that's Abby." Elly went about digging in the snow a bit as I stood next to Abby's stone. I ran my had over her picture and Elly saw me crying. She gave me a puzzled look, so I said, "I miss Abby." She said, "I miss her too Mommy" and gave her picture a kiss, which made more tears flow. I wonder sometimes what her little mind comprehends and what she knows and sees.

Rose Parade

I failed to remind everyone to make sure to watch for the Donate Life float during the Rose Parade this year, but hopefully some of you were able to watch it. If you go to www.donatelifefloat.org , you will be able to see the float design, its meaning, the donors honored with floragraphs, and those that had the honor to ride the float. I did have the pleasure of meeting Delores Benton Evans at the National Donor Recognition Ceremony in Washington DC in July and hearing her story. Her son Ryan Evans was honored with a floragraph on the float and was pinned on the National quilt with Abrielle. Make sure you read about how she received her kidney from her own son after he passed.