craft hope

One of the things I love about the Craft Hope community is the giving nature of everyone involved. You give your time, your handmade items, and your love. You carefully craft handwritten tags to accompany your gifts. You spend hours, after the children have gone to bed, working on your donations. Finishing one last thing. You go through your yarn stash. You find just the right fabric. You pull items from your own Etsy shop. To help others.

Every little thing makes a difference. It is that sweet comment, posting our button on your site, and twittering about our effort. You are spreading the word. You are showing the world you care. And that matters.

Last summer, we did a project (project 3) to benefit the Miracle Foundation. We collected blankets, beanies, booties, burp cloths, crib sheets, blocks and balls for children in orphanages in India. The first item that I received, out of the 2,809 items we collected, was a beautiful quilt by Ronit. It was the only I thing I had in my possession when I went to visit the Miracle Foundation’s headquarters downtown Austin. I sat there and held that sweet baby quilt. Thinking about my own baby soon to be born, and the new baby in India that would soon be wrapped in love by that beautiful quilt.

Caroline, the founder of the Miracle Foundation, held up the quilt and was in love. She asked if Ronit would mind making a few more to hang on the walls of the orphanages. They are concrete walls, with no decoration. Not like your home, or mine. No pictures strewn about of their families. No cheerful artwork. I quickly emailed Ronit and was greeted with an ‘of course.’ And not much longer, three beautiful quilts arrived for the children in India.

Thank you Ronit. Thank you Craft Hope community. You are the most loving, caring group of individuals I have ever been blessed to know. You are appreciated and you are making a difference.

{Peyton Thomas Ricker passed away this morning, December 15th, 2009. Please continue to pray for his family. All of our thoughts and prayers are with them.}

I think Craft Hope rocks. I am standing on top of a mountain and I am shouting it. Can you hear, hear, hear, hear me, me, me, me? The crafters of Craft Hope rock, rock, rock, rock. That’s an echo by the way. Just in case you haven’t had your morning cup of coffee and aren’t awake yet.

I received a comment last week from a sweet lady who is the aunt of a little boy with cancer. Peyton was diagnosed with Pontine Glioma, a very aggressive tumor in the middle of his brain stem. She told me that he loves manatees and would love it if someone could make him a sock manatee. She said she’d pay for it. WHATEVER. That is out of the question. So as fast as my fingers could type I sounded the horn. I twittered, I Facebooked, I emailed. Can anyone make a sock manatee for this little boy. It’s urgent. And not more than five minutes later emails started coming in.

A day later, I had my first picture of a sock manatee. He was whipped up in a day by Cheyenne. Thank you so much Cheyenne!

A few days later, a picture of a manatee quilt. Carin, of Margaret’s Hope Chest, made this lovely manatee quilt. Thank goodness for fast fabric shipping. She is a mama that dropped everything on a Saturday (before Christmas mind you) to make this quilt for this sweet little boy. What a wonderful example of the Christmas spirit. Giving of oneself, of ones time for others. And what a lovely organization that we are grateful to be partnered with, led by a woman with a heart as big as Texas.

They are all now on their way to his home in Houston. Merry Christmas sweet Peyton. We all love you and are praying for you.

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We are requesting prayers for sweet Peyton and his family as they go through this difficult time. You can follow them on their family blog. And he’s also written a sweet book about manatees. You can buy it here.

If you would like to know at a moments notice the needs of people who have called upon Craft Hope please follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.