Mike and I loaded all the supplies that morning into two separate vehicles, and took it to the community center about eleven thirty. We then unloaded, and set everything up to be ready for the crowd coming to help at one. Once everything got set up we were ready for everyone to show up. To our surprise our amazing crowd of helpers put all 205 boxes together........in ONE hour! We were speechless. I was so exhausted from getting everything loaded, unloaded, and sorted that I only made about ten boxes. I felt like I fell behind, but I was also talking to everyone that arrived as well.
I then sent Mike back to the house to pick up Jude, and his nurse Charlotte, and a flat of boxes. I figured we would accept everyone's offer to continue to help. Once he got back I had the crowd color boxes that would be used for the Christmas Smile Boxes making party. We had hired Toybox the clown, and a face painter to entertain the crowd, and they were a hit! Toybox was amazing with balloon animals, and more. The face painter entertained as long as she could, and even painted a mustache/beard on my child........sigh! Jude even joined in the fun, and received a balloon hat, and a rattle specially made by Toybox the clown. The nurse, and I both noticed that Jude would perk up when other kids would come around. He would wiggle his feet like he wanted to walk, and his eyes would dart towards the kids, and he giggled. I know he wants to play so bad, and I hope someday he will. I was SO happy that his nurse came with us Sunday. I knew I could relax and worked the party, while Jude was in very capable amazing hands. Wonder if I could convince her to go on vacation with us...lol.
After the party ended, we filled two SUV'S and my car full of boxes, and headed towards Children's hospital in Dallas. It took the Child life coordinators four LARGE bins, one small bin, and a wagon to take all the boxes inside. We had new helpers this time, and it was so amazing!!!
I will post some pictures tomorrow of all the great Smile Boxes activities. Now we focus our attention on Christmas boxes, and I feel a bit overwhelmed. After awhile people have "heard enough" about your charity, and they begin to move on. That doesn't mean you need any less help. We know Emily's boxes make a profound difference to the patients, and their siblings, especially at Christmas time. Cook's explained to us that the patients receive lots of donation at Christmas, but the siblings normally have nothing. So it's very important to us to get out as many boxes as possible. Our goal is 400 boxes, plus teddy bears for all the babies, and siblings. That means we will need at a minimum $3000, but would prefer $4000, to insure we make the boxes the best we can. So today my head SWAM with ways to achieve this goal. I posted an update on facebook, but didn't receive one response. So now I am trying to figure out the best way to achieve this figure. Any ideas are welcomed. Besides having Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber show up along side Toybox the clown I am at a loss. I do have some amazing friends that are talking about helping out including our great blogging friend Steve who once again dedicated a weekend day to helping Emily's Smile Boxes.
Jude is currently trying to crawl off his Cowboy's blanket, so I better go get him.
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