Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Tonight's composition was created for us by our Facebook friend, Tim Beck. I actually took of the photo of Mattie in July of 2003. Mattie was sitting on Peter's lap on the beach and was looking at the ocean for the first time. It was absolutely daunting as Mattie's fist and expression indicates. Tim sent us this composition today and as I told him seeing this made me happy. Here is a person who lives in Arizona, who I never met and yet I feel like he appreciates what I am living without! I wrote this to Tim tonight, "Do you have any idea what kind of happiness and peace you bring to parents like me? You help us acknowledge our grief (and also show the world that it is acceptable to grieve FOREVER for our children), capture the spirit and essence of our children, and with each composition I feel as if you are helping me keep Mattie's memory alive."


Quote of the day: Candy is nature's way of making up for Mondays. ~ Rebecca Gober

This morning I drove to the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health. If you have never been to NIH's campus, well then let me assure you it isn't easy to access as a visitor. You need to go through a check point gate, in which you walk through a metal detector and your car gets inspected! Every aspect of it. So if you think you are just going to waltz in, deliver candy and leave..... it isn't going to happen. You have to think strategically when going to NIH, because it requires time. However, to my advantage today, I went on Veteran's Day. Therefore most of the agency was on holiday and traffic through the gate was non-existent. Everyone seemed more at ease and I spoke to several of the guards, who wished me a good trick or treating! Since they inspected all the candy in the trunk! I delivered close to 300 pounds of candy to the Inn today and fortunately they have this wonderful cart to schlep it inside. However, I had people taking photos of the candy and several people started chatting to me about the favorite candy they saw on the cart! It was a very lovely visit! 

After NIH, I then drove to my friend Heidi's house. Heidi has been doing a collection for the Foundation in her neighborhood as well as sorting the candy. This was ALL the candy Heidi sorted! It is a lot of candy, try around 500 pounds. I really appreciate when people sort the candy by type for us, because it is a very labor intensive process! 

Our newest addition to our candy collectors and sorters is St. Mary's Catholic School in Alexandria, VA. These girls are part of the Junior Catholic Daughters Club and they told me they enjoyed sorting and working for a great cause.