HUGE awesome in the mail!

In the last few days I've been floored by generosity. By how my little idea of helping these parents has sparked so many other people into giving and caring. I know life really sucks sometimes, and everyone has times in their lives that feel monumentally overwhelming and just not worth it... but this project really does prove something that I've known all along. People are GOOD. People are WONDERFUL. And life is completely awesome, just sometimes you have to go looking for it.

And I've been pelted with awesome lately! A few days ago I had the best mail day ever. Julie from www.alittlepregnant.com sent her donations, as did Donna from www.mymiraclebaby.com. The day before that I received the wonderful package from www.fodeo.com. And I've collected my donation money and am using it to purchase more clothes at a deep discount from www.preemiesrus.com. And I got new thank you cards from www.nypapercrafter.etsy.com as well! HOORAY! More on the clothes and cards after the photos.

Julie from www.alittlepregnant.com went overboard on awesome. Seriously. These 8 handmade blankets are completely huggable and outrageously soft. I'm a big believer in the power of hand made. About how love and affection is literally made solid when you give someone something you have created. And these blankets are precious.

(I wrote a little bit about why Handmade Matters a while ago at my craft blog, here: http://coffeebeancards.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-exploding-box-and-why-it-means-so.html)

Here are the 8 blankets folded neatly.

I LOVE the monkey + banana one.

But I think this bright doggy combo is my favorite.

Along with the super fuzzy blankets she sent some winter preemie sleepers.

And here is some of the precious donated items from www.mymiraclebaby.com. So cute! She sent along 14 onesies plus 4 long sleeved gowns. I now have enough clothes to put TWO outfits in each bag! A chort sleeved onesie and a long sleeved ensemble. Isn't that amazing??

Here is everything put together:

And on top of Julie's gifts it makes one big happy bundle of mail received in an afternoon!

Here is what the www.fodeo.com gift looked like when it arrived. These are the tubes that contain a disposable camera. Once the photos are taken (by the nurses in the parents' absence or by the parents themselves) it gets popped back into the postage paid tube, dropped in a mail box, and in a few weeks they get a well crafted musical DVD montage of their photos!

All of that totally went over Henry's head though, and he just thought it was a drink.

Nevertheless it made him quite happy!

NEXT, with my final financial donations, I am going to be buying several of these:

http://www.preemiesrus.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=122_125_140

These are called Sweet T's. They are designed for the smaller babies, those around 2-4 pounds, those who won't have the blessing of a going home outfit for a very long time. Many babies spend months on end in the hospital before being able to come home and those little precious kiddos need clothes too. So these Sweet T's are adjustable, the fold up through the legs and fasten at the sides, they have loads of space for all the tubs and monitors and patches that are attached to these little babies.

I will be donating these Sweet T's directly to the nursing staff. When they hand out one of our gifts to a baby who is only 2, 3, or 4 pounds big they will be able to add an additional outfit to their bag. The parents can keep the "lerger" preemie outfit designed for a 5 pound baby, but in the meantime they can keep their ultra tiny baby in a sweet new outfit while still in ths hospital.

And last but not least, I received a LOVELY parcel of thank you cards from Debbie over at www.nypapercrafter.etsy.com! Thank you so much Debbie, you'll see photos of your cards in the next round. :D

And so! That was a pretty big post, but a lot is going on. Before I go, I've decided not to return the anti-bacterial soaps in exchange for the hand sanitizers. The truth is that several parents who were there for Thanksgiving will still be in the hospital for Christmas, and for those few families who are there for both holidays I'd like to make sure they are receiving different items. So Sanitizers for Thanksgiving, Soaps for Christmas!

I'm off for now, more very soon I promise. And thank you to Everyone who has helped!