Christmas DELIVERY Set for Later Today !

Ahhhh ... It's Delivery Day - The Christmas Project filled with lots of goodies which include - a Christmas Ornament, Dr. Pepper, Word Puzzle, Almonds, Chocolate, Candy, Lotion, Lip Balm, Christmas Cakes & Wreaths, Russell Stover Chocolates, as well as an envelope filled with a Dinner Gift Certificate, Walmart Gift Card, McDonald's Gift Card, Free Sonic Drink, Free Kids Meals, Free Appetizers, etc.... I think I covered everything! I am so hoping all these parents can use all the goodies they are about to receive! 

The kids are also getting an activity tote handmade filled with activity pads, crayons, bookmarks, coloring sheets, pens, pencils, etc - Really hope they like them!

Very Challenging - One Down - 23 to Go!

I wanted to share the "Love" and progress I am making with getting these stockings personalized with the words "mom and dad" to put on them. I have been fighting with my machine all evening but good news, I got ONE cut out! LOL!!! Only about 23 to go! Well, it's progress anyway! Here are a couple of pictures of my progress!

ONLINE - Fundraiser for Leah's Hope with "Celebrating Home"

Fundraiser for Leah’s Hope – www.leahshope.us

(http://www.celebratinghome.com/fundraiser/LeahsHope/participant/4320)

I am trying to do an online fundraiser in order to help fund my Christmas Project for parents of hospitalized children, Leah’s Hope Ministries. Here is a basic description of what I am trying to accomplish - - Below is a letter with a link to the online fundraiser – will you please help me make this fundraiser a success and forward to all your friends and even post a link on your social media sites – 

I am trying to provide several blessings to families of a hospitalized child this Christmas Season. Although this time of year can be harder for others, several families end up in the hospital, in the ICU fighting for their child's life, etc... my mission for this ministry is to shed a little "light" & “encouragement” to these families by way of being an experienced parent of a child that had extended stays in the hospital. My daughter was in the hospital for a total of 14 months. It is not easy financially, emotionally, or physically to watch your child suffer in a hospital bed, much less during the Holidays. We take things for granted, being able to be with our own families this time of year but “many” are not able to do so and even end up losing a loved one! Can you please help me?

I am trying to provide a “Special Christmas” to some of these parents with a child in the ICU this Christmas Season. I am in need of a total of 12 more dinner gift cards to be able to feed both parents in addition to finding the funds for 24 – “$20 Gas Cards” to place inside a Christmas Stocking.  In this regard, I need your help in pulling the funds together to purchase these gift cards. 

Our ministry runs solely on the financial assistance provided by various generous people which is very little. All our financial aid comes from people who voluntarily donate the amounts they think proper to our ministry. This fund is then utilized by us to cater to parents in order to be able to provide food, handmade items such as blankets for the children, gas cards, books, magazines, puzzles, etc. This is why I am looking to you for help as far as helping Leah’s Hope to give a “Gift of Hope” this Christmas Season to some Parents of Critically ill Children. With your help, I will be able to accommodate and fill 2 dozen (24) stockings filled with a dinner card, gas card, personal items and snacks.

Your Help Would Be Extremely Helpful! Thank you for considering in helping provide a better Christmas for these families.

http://www.celebratinghome.com/fundraiser/LeahsHope/participant/4320

A Great BIG Thank you to Santa Fe Cattle Company!

Santa Fe Steak House has graciously donated lots of goodies to add to our Christmas Stocking Project for many parents this Holiday Season who has a child in the ICU. A Great BIG Thank you for helping us get closer to our goal of 24 Christmas Stockings to fill! We received 8 Gift Certificates for dinner for 2, valued at $25 each as well as MANY FREE Appetizer coupons plus the Kiddos get to Eat FREE with a coupon as well! Santa Fe in Midwest City, OK - Thank You!

Donation Flyer

I created this flyer for a donation box to collect donations for all the gas cards needed for my Christmas project for all the Stockings we plan to fill for Christmas to give out to the Families that have a Child in the ICU this Christmas. Please feel free to let me know if you know of any establishment that would be willing to put one in there store. I received a call from a local restaurant recently and am excited to share all of this with you in a few days!

One Step Closer to Christmas Goal

Thank You! Thank you Liz!

Liz from "Wish Upon a Hero" - graciously donated to Leah's Hope, a gift card to the Dollar Tree in order to purchase 24 Christmas Stockings - This is a huge help and gets us one step closer to reaching my goal to give every parent of a child in the ICU this Christmas Season a stocking full of goodies which hopefully will contain a restaurant gift card for lunch or dinner as well as a gas card. I have a huge challenge ahead of me - Thank you again Liz - 

Halloween and Christmas 2011

Oh, the holidays are on the horizon! Love, Love this time of year. Although this time of year can be harder for others. Several families end up in the hospital, in the ICU fighting for their child's life, etc... my mission for this ministry is to shed a little "light" and encouragement to these families, as a parent of a child that had extended stays in the hospital.

I am working on 2 dozen Halloween treat bags for the children at the hospital to put a smile on a child's face this Halloween. Christmas will soon follow - 

I am truly needing some help here to achieve my goal. I need 24 gas cards, 24 dinner cards as well as the 24 stockings which I will have embroidered to read "mom & dad". 

I have some friends working on the items for the kiddo's for Christmas as well - these are going to be so cool!

Donations of any of the above mentioned would be such a great blessing!

Special Christmas 2011 in the ICU!

I just mailed out a Christmas campaign to several Restaurants near Children's Hospital as well as to Gas Station corporations in hopes of receiving donated Gift Cards for these parents that have a child in the hospital at Christmas. Already received a few rejections but am hopeful that I can be able to get some support from a few. My idea for these 24 families is to provide a "Nicely" filled sock for Christmas that I will have embroidered "Mom & Dad" - Filled with a dinner gift card and hopefully a gas card as well. It will also contain items of need, some snacks, maybe something personal or personalized just for them. I am wanting and "my goal" for each sock to be valued at around $100 each - That means, for 24 socks to be done like I would like, I would need $2400. This is why I am posting this ahead of time and not keeping this a secret until done - I need your help in making this campaign an awesome success and want to make a difference in the lives of these families.

I have something special also planned for these children as well for Christmas but right now I am focusing on the bigger challenge in looking for help.

Parents with critically ill children may not have too many Christmas's with their child - I only had one special holiday season with Leah and it was such a memorable Christmas - we actually had her home in 2009 - that was the only Christmas or holiday for that matter that we were able to be a real family and all be together. Leah's first and only birthday was in the hospital - so this is my motivation behind trying to bring families closer together and enjoy what time they have together while they have it and trying to make it a bit more special. 

I am certainly not saying that all children won't "make it" - I am a very positive person and truly believe God creates miracles each and every day - What I am saying - God has a plan with every child and if He wants that child with Him on certain situations, I want to make every day count for these special parents and their time together with their child while they have it!

If you know of anyone in the restaurant field or have connections to help get wal-mart cards, gas cards, groceries, gift certificates of any kind, etc ... I could sure use the help! I have contacted Dollar Tree Corporation to help fill the stockings. Not sure where that will lead - but never hurts to ask!

Here are some of the rejections I have gotten so far and I know there were more but these are the ones off the top of my head....so if you know of anyone that could possibly help get through some of the red tape and being rejected over and over - I would appreciate any help you could provide!

Wal-Mart
Target

Hobby Lobby
Michael's
Conoco

________________________________________________

Here is the letter I have mailed out to the restaurants looking for help and have customized it to each individual company as well as looking for gas cards, etc ... so, I thought someone might like to copy my words in order to show and say what I am trying to accomplish.

________________________________________________

Hello, My name is Shelly Adams, founder of a small ministry for parents of hospitalized children, Leah’s Hope Ministries. We provide encouragement to families with critically ill children that are in and out of the hospital. Our ministry supports these families by providing care packages of items needed during their stay at the hospital. While many parents have to take off work and lose income in order to help their child get well, theses parents’ well-being is at risk. My mission with this ministry is to try and relieve some burden that can become emotionally and financially chaotic for these parents during this trying time in their lives. 

Our ministry runs on the financial assistance provided by various generous people and all our financial aid comes from people who voluntarily donate the amounts they think proper to our ministry. This fund is utilized by us to cater to parents in order to be able to provide food, handmade items such as blankets for the children, gas cards, books, magazines, puzzles, etc

.

I am trying to provide a “Special Christmas 2011” to some of these parents with a child in the ICU this Christmas Season. I am in need of a total of 24 Restaurant Gift Cards to be able to feed both of the parents and to be able to place those in these packages I am putting together for Christmas.  In this regard, I would like to request to see if your restaurant or establishment could help me out with some gift cards for this project from your restaurant. Thank you for considering to help provide a better Christmas for these families.

Regards,


Shelly Adams
Founder, Leah’s Hope
http://www.leahshope.us

Behind the Scenes!

I wanted to send an update out there to what I am working on. I am going to be focusing on trying to learn to sew for the next month or so. So, there may not be very many posts made by me due to trying to master this challenge I have set for myself.

I am about to purchase, thanks to a few donations, an embroidery machine that I have found that I like and will suite my needs for this ministry, so I am pulling double duty on trying to learn all the ends and outs to this sewing craft, all learning from scratch.

I really want to be able to provide some really nice "Homemade" Gifts for these children, the mothers, the dads, even for the medical staff for giving all they do for all of us! Giving the "Gift of Life" through God's Wisdom!

I have such high dreams and challenges set for myself and really hope I can accomplish what I have in my head. Please be praying for me as I embark on this mission! I really want to have this mastered for this Christmas season!

I will try and keep you updated - I would embrace any donations such as fabric, thread, just whatever extras you have lying around that you don't actually need, for me to be able to practice on and would so appreciate anything you can do to help me out!

My intent is to make some cute onsie's for the NICU or for the older kiddo's - shirts and outfits too - so if you have any clean "hand me downs" to practice on that I could forward on to the hospitals when finished, that would be greatly appreciated! Just go over to the "donate" area or the "contact" area for mailing information! Thank you again for all the generosity and for helping this ministry!

Just Because ...

Been doing some thinking - I am unable to provide as many care packages to families at the hospital as I would like on a consistent basis due to several reasons so, I thought I would do a twist on "uplifting" a few spirits at the hospital. I think I am going to try and figure out a small trinket of some sort and a "Just Because" uplifting card to give all the parents and then maybe a small item for the child. I would like to do this on a monthly type basis. Will have to see how this goes and see if I can keep up.

Today is a Great Day!

Awesome - I did some Diaper Cakes in trade for a sewing machine - 

I love Creative Solutions! 

I can now sew my own baby blankets, etc but there is only one problem!
 
I have no idea how to sew or the first thing about a sewing machine!

Can You Help? ...

I would just like to share that I would appreciate any help you might want to help with - I need a head start on a few things in order to start getting baskets to the hospital. Here is what I need to get accomplished and what I want to get done...

I want to be able to send a personalized Thank you card to all who graciously donate to Leah's Hope! Also, I am needing some handmade cards as well with "Thinking of You" and words of encouragement to be able to be placed in the care packages. If you make greeting cards, I would love it if you could help get a supply going.

Also, if you make blankets, sew, embroidery, or any kind of kid friendly type item that would go side by side with what I am trying to accomplish - shoot me an email, I would love to discuss things with you. I seen on someones blog a while back that seemed to be a really neat item that I would like to find some one to make for me since I can't sew.

She made these really cute colored pencil and pad holder satchel type thing that I thought would be ideal to put in these baskets. It would carry crayons, and other drawing type items with a zipper pouch - Very cute for keeping everything in one place for the child to draw or color.

My goals and wishes - I feel I want these care packages to be more of handmade items, rather than a lot store bought stuff... I want these parents and these children to feel the "LOVE" and Compassion and that Someone Cares!

With that being said -  I need your help! I do not intend to send out an incomplete basket - I have some criteria and must haves before I release a basket to a family!

Every care package will have a gas card,  a few handmade items as well as something for the child plus a handmade card with words of encouragement.

Can you help?

Happy New Year! Obsacles to Overcome!

I have been doing a lot of thinking on how to organize how to help other families that have extended stays in the hospital with their children. With HIPPA laws and patient confidentiality, this becomes a road block for me. I have to get creative I guess!

My other thoughts on what I want to accomplish -

I want to do this as anonymously as possible! I am certainly not looking for credit, nor pats on the back, etc.... Not even a Thank you!

But on the other hand, I want these families to know that they are not alone, I would like to give them a hug and give them a sense that there are people who care! How would I accomplish this?

I am guessing, that is where this Blog comes into play! I need others to help me find families in need that would benefit from this service!

Please spread the word and forward this Blog to your friends and families. I am in Central Oklahoma and will travel to any hospital here in this state to fill the need and give a little compassion in times of need!

Won't you please help me?

God Bless!

Mother of Leah, Shelly