Hailey's Hope Delivery & Update

Hi everyone,

I'm so excited to tell you that I delivered a set of 30 NICU bags to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt on Monday on behalf of Hailey's Hope. This was our second delivery of 30 care packages to Vanderbilt this year. The delivery of 15 baby boy and 15 baby girl NICU care packages was mostly made possible thanks to the funds raised during our Flowers of Hope fundraiser this spring.

I was thankful to be able to share this latest Hailey's Hope delivery with my husband who had the day off. I was also able to finally meet the NICU director face-to-face this delivery. She greeted me with a warm hug and is such a sweet woman (who also has family in the military which is an interesting connection we have).  As usual, the delivery was short and sweet, but as always, it was so important and special. I will never tire of being able to remember Hailey in this way and never tire of helping families who are walking down a similar path that I've walked.

Thank you so much to those of you who have supported Hailey's Hope. I say it often, but I feel like I can never express my gratitude enough. Most of you are never able to see or know what your support does when you donate $20, for instance, but please let me assure you that your support touches the lives of others in a very moving and positive way. Whether it's the family who's receiving the care package that was able to be funded with your help or me, you are doing something good for people who need it. And from me personally, to our supporters, thank you so much for allowing me to continue to do this and keep my daughter's memory alive... I really can never express how much that means to me.

Furthermore, I'm happy to report that Hailey's Hope has donated 149 care packages, 10 bereavement memory boxes, and 77 mother's day gifts since starting in April 2010. I think that's amazing, and I look forward to continuing to increase those numbers. I'm also happy to share that Hailey's Hope will be donating 72 father's day gifts to the NICU dads at Vanderbilt.

With all of that said, Hailey's Hope has once again dwindled down to very little funds and items to fill our bags, and like usual, we practically have to start from scratch again to be able to continue to donate our care packages to the NICUs (because as we know, the need for our bags is so great we've yet to be able to meet it let alone keep up with it).

Since Hailey's brother is due in 8 weeks, I most likely won't be doing much new with Hailey's Hope in terms of seeking donations and running fundraisers. However, I will be brainstorming ideas to continue to raise funds after Hailey's brother arrives and once I get back in the swing of things. During this "break," Hailey's Hope will still be welcoming and collecting donations for those who choose to give (and we sure do encourage that if someone feels led!). And Hailey's Hope will still be participating in some various things with Project Sweet Peas, which I'll keep you informed about.

Last but not least, I do want to remind everyone that Hailey's Hope is currently holding a book sponsorship drive for the book Prayers from the NICU. To place and order and receive a discount from the author, I need to place an order of at least 25 books. Therefore, I need to have 25 books sponsored at $10 a piece. I'm hoping to reach this goal by the end of the month, but things appeared to have slowed. So far I still need 9 books to be sponsored. If you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring a book / books, you can find all the information here. These books will be included in the next set of care packages we donate.

So to wrap up, Hailey's Hope doesn't have much planned for the summer, but I do hope to have a fundraiser and make another delivery early this fall, and during the fall, I hope to find a way to raise enough funds and resources to make our special Hailey's Birthday delivery of at least 50 care packages to the hospital she stayed at in Alabama on her birthday, December 1st. These goals and plans will mean a lot of work and will require a lot of donations so would you please be praying for our project? Please be praying that our recent set of care packages will bless each family who receives them. Please pray the family welcomes the bag and finds the items to be helpful and comforting and that it would even be a source of joy to them. Please be praying for fundraiser ideas that would bring in a lot of support for our project, and please be praying in general that our regular supporters would be able to continue to support us and more importantly that we would gain new supporters. Please pray that Hailey's Hope will be able to reach and even exceed its goals for the rest of this year.

Thank you!

Blessings,

Kristin

(Oh and Hailey's Hope is so close to reaching 500 likes on Facebook - if you haven't liked our page yet, would you? www.facebook.com/HaileysHopePSP)