Big Announcement- Giving Back

For the last few months I've been busy planning a wedding, traveling for work, spending time with the boys and enjoying life. But over these last few months I've also been trying to brain storm a way where I can give back to others and showcase this to my boys, get them involved in other peoples lives.

With Tracen's birthday rapidly approaching I always get very emotional the weeks leading up to it. For Tracen's birth story you can read it here. As many know he was born on December 21st 2010 at 36 weeks with breathing problems and was sent straight to the NICU. He stayed there for 10 days which we brought him home on December 31st, New Years Eve.

In hindsight 10 days is NOTHING compared to the hundreds, no thousands of kids that spend months or their whole lives there. I remember hearing the doctors tell us we wouldn't be bringing our baby home for Christmas and I was devastated, distraught. These are words that the parents of the kids in the NICU hear all the time. Birthdays and holidays are spent in confined quarters, limited visitors and strict instructions on what they can and can't bring into the hospital as gifts.

Recently my friend Jenny (of Monroe Fox Photography) was talking about a fundraiser called Snow Pile. Jenny is an amazing photographer but what many don't know is she is an art therapist at The Children's Hospital. She spends hours upon hours with many kids battling illnesses no child should ever go through. I knew right then I would sign up as a volunteer but it just wasn't enough, I wanted to do more.

Jenny mentioned that many gifts are donated but since they have a strict policy on what they can keep the kids in the NICU sometimes don't get as much due to the regulations. As a NICU mom I knew what I wanted to do. I was already in the process of creating all new items in my Etsy shop to launch in the beginning of November, why not make this about the kids!

SO! Here it is! 8 brand new kids shirts and 4 brand new adult shirts, all printed on American Apparel tee shirts! 10% of ALL profits sold from now until December 1st will be put in a collection for the 43 beds in the NICU at The Children's Hospital of Michigan. My family will then contribute on top of that in which we will purchase gifts for the families. New hard board books that they can easily wash, scrap book supplies for the parents to make memories and stuffed animals that don't have button eyes, since they are not allowed in the NICU. I hope that you are as excited as I am to give back to the children and families that are going through much more than you or I can even imagine!

You can also sign up to donate or work the Snow Pile and other fundraisers at the hospital here! All of the older style shirts in the shop are now sold at 20% off in the store [all proceeds of those sales will be put in this fundraising collection as well.] Per the hospital, all donations need to be in by December 15th so this is time sensitive. I will be sharing everything my Youtube channel and here with details on how much we raise and what we buy for the families. So if you don't live locally you can still visually see what is going to these amazing kids and families!

If these are for the holidays all orders need to be in by December 7th they are processes and shipped to you before Christmas.

Please share this post with others so we are able to give these families gifts for the holidays as many won't be at home for them.