From a Mother who's child was in GoodSam

My daughter was at Good Sam Hospital for 6 weeks. It was a very difficult time for our family. She was given a blanket made by one of your volunteers (Shirley). It brought a smile to her face, and truly gave her comfort.

Thank you for the blessing,

Lori

Another thank you

I got this email address off the chapters section of projectlinus.org and just wanted to send you a very big thank you. Both of my children were hospitalized at the same time, My son in PICU and daughter on the pediatric floor of Santa Clara Kaiser for breathing problems. It has been a very hard time for our family and when they were admitted we hadn't been expecting a hospital stay so all we had was the clothes on our back, so these blankets that they recived helped add so much warmth to their hospital stay (and a splash of color in the hospital). They both cherish their blankets. Thank you so much for your volunteering and donation, we greatly appriciate all the work you do.

thank you so much,
-Danni

From hadquarters

Every little stitch…..

How long does it take to make a memory? A
moment? A lifetime? Sometimes the moment IS the
lifetime and that becomes the memory to grasp.

The young mother sat in the rocking chair holding
her precious daughter in her arms. The tiny
infant was wrapped in a soft, pale pink blanket
with a shell stitch. As the mother rocked her
child, she sang the song that mothers have sung
for generations…”Lullaby and goodnight…” At the
same time, she traced the tiny features on baby
Danielle’s face and hands -- perfect fingers,
tiny button nose, rosy mouth that looked like she
had been kissed by an angel. Eyes closed,
motionless, silent. Tears rolled down the
mother’s cheeks as she sang and rocked and looked
at her newborn daughter - the daughter she had
anticipated and loved before she was even conceived.

She expected to be rocking her baby in her newly
decorated nursery, not a funeral home. She
expected to be welcoming family and friends to
meet little Danielle, not greeting them at her
wake. She expected to be choosing between
onesies and a full layette of pink outfits
perfect for a petite newborn princess. None of this was to be.

Instead, she held her daughter whose dreams would
not be fulfilled. Her daughter whose life ended
before it even began. Her daughter would never
wear those frilly dresses and bonnets. Her
daughter was swaddled in a blanket hand made by
another mother…perhaps a mother who knew the
heartbreak of loss. She noticed a small blue and
white tag sewn inside the blanket – Project
Linus. How kind that someone she had never met
would take the time to make such a beautiful
blanket, the only one Danielle would ever know.

When it was time to say the final goodbye to
Danielle, the mother chose to keep the blanket –
the only thing her daughter had ever touched. It
would become one of her most cherished
possessions, the only thing she would have left besides her memory.

Thanks to the generosity of Project Linus
volunteers, Hansen Mortuary in Phoenix, Arizona
provides bereavement blankets for families whose
dreams have been shattered with the death of
their child. The families who received these
blankets are moved beyond words to have one
thing, one precious thing, to keep that once held their baby.

To the volunteers who make these special
blankets, you have your own story as to why you
choose this particular mission. Many of you have
losses of your own or are close to someone who
has experienced this unique grief. For some of
you, this is your way of paying it
forward. Thank you for the humble healing
mission you have chosen. You will never know the
depth and breadth of your gift.

An adoptee's Mother

To Project Linus,

I just recently finished my kinship class so I can hopefully adopt a close family friend. We were all given blankets for our children. I would just like to thank you for the blankets. My children were so happy to get them. They were all beautiful. Thank you for all you do for children in our area.

Amanda

See-it all works!!

Hello Project Linus,

We would like to thank you for the adorable blanket. Our little one, Jacey, is in the NICU at O'Connor Hospital. The blanket is keeping her incubator covered while she sleeps and gets stronger.

Nicole and Peter

This is a family member who adopts a child

Good Morning Everyone;

I have just completed my eight week session of the Foster Pride /Adopt Pride Kinship/Relative training. Where at the end of this eight weeks I receive a beautifully hand crafted blankets, and I just wanted to take a few minutes out of our busy day and give everyone there that made these beautiful blankets in your group a sincere Thank you, for your beautiful generous gift for my grand daughter Cheyanne; if Cheyanne could talk I am sure this is what she would say so I am just saying it for her.

Thank you!