Sunflower challenge and sharing a piece of my heart.

Today is a very special day. Today I celebrate 19 years married to an amazing man. Who would ever have known when this ‘then teen’ met a certain ‘young man’ that 23 years later incl. 19 years of marriage, we would be more in love today and stronger than ever. Our married life has been faced with challenges beyond comprehension. Issues that, as young marrieds, you think you will never possibly have to consider. Like having a child with a terminal illness. Yet, we remain a unit. Yes, we have had ups and downs. I don’t think we would be where we are today without them but, I love him more now than ever, and more because of the challenges we have had to face together. They say the percentage of divorce in marriages that involve children with complex medical issues is close to 90%. I am proud to say that we are in the 10% that is making it and are stronger because of it.

Now, today we had our Challenge reveal coffee. The challenge this time was a piece of sunflower batik that was about .8 metre in size. The Challenge: go create something, anything and bring it to coffee morning. So I am sharing photos of our creations. They are all so unique and so fun. We always enjoy seeing what the others come up with. If you click on the photos it tells a bit about them I think. ( I am really having issues figuring out how to put the photos in now wordpress has changed their format-I apologize if they don’t show up)

I made Cheryl and Yvonne some lovely little fabric coasters and gave them a little Mary Englebreit Journal. It is so nice to share little lovey gifts on our coffee mornings.

Now, here is where I share a bit from my heart……………. and I don’t know how to ‘activate’ a vision that I have. If you are new to my site, welcome. I am a mommy to 4 children. 3 boys and a girl. Andrew, our youngest, has a degenerative disease of his nervous system. Simply explained-he has a terminal disease that is slowly over time destroying his autonomic nervous system. We have in home nursing. He does go to school but has aides and, at 10 years of age almost, functions at a 4 year old level. Our other three children are healthy and active ( our 14 year old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 3.5 years ago-but it doesn’t stop her) Our children have lived with relative chaos in their lives since Andrew was born. They would awaken to find that I had had to rush Andrew in to the hospital in the middle of the night and at times like that, he might be inpatient for a couple of days or a month. They have had us cancel special events when nurses didn’t show up to watch Andrew. We can’t take vacations to fun and exotic places as a family because Andrew won’t have health care. We can’t do things very spontaneously, as going out for a day requires several hours of preperation and planning. They have attended counselling to prepare them for the fact that one day their brother may very well die. They have seen dear friends of ours bury their children as they, too, had a ’special’ family like ours. Through it all, they hardly complain, they grow in their Christian Faith and in Compassion for ALL humans regardless of colour or ability. They don’t see boundaries but opportunities. They will be better, stronger more caring adults because of the childhoolds they have had to live. Now, this brings me to my plan………..

We have been blessed with many special gifts for Andrew over the years. In fact, a quilter whose blog I visited recently has so generously offered to have her group sew Andrew a blanket. How special is that. Obviously, as Andrew is the one who is very ill, much attention is always showered upon him, and rightfully so. I know many families whose families are like ours. Where very special and amazing siblings stand quietly supportive and altering their lives due to the fact that their family’s have hurdles to face. I would like to start a special outreach Ministry that makes quilts for the siblings of critically ill children. What child-young or old-would not love a quilt to cuddle with when times are very hard or days are overwhelming. I don’t know how to start it. I think I will put a call out to quilters to make a 12 by 12 block in a certain quilterscache pattern with a certain colour scheme and hopefully 12 blocks per quilt will work. I am happy to put them together and quilt and bind them. I want to send them to these special siblings and let them know that we recognize what they go through and that people out there love and care for them too. Please tell me what you think. Tell me if you think this could work. Tell me if you have better ideas of how to do it. Our church sermons have been about outreach and ministry and finding our place to touch others with God’s love. I truly feel that this may be a way for me and others to touch children in a very special way.

PS One very important question is: If you are a quilter, would you be willing to consider making a 12″ square once every couple of months and send it in unfinished??

to make a