Life As We Know It...

Kylee created this very special picture of her body (complete with lungs, heart, and intestines) at school. As a nurse, I have a true appreciation for this artwork (and, of course, the abnormally large head that houses her brain).

Connor tested for his orange belt at karate. He did a bow kata in addition to an open hand kata and did a great job! These are a couple pics of his last moments as a yellow belt right before his test. :)

A few weeks ago, Connor decided that he'd like to explore riding the bus to school. This was a huge relief to me because, as I've mentioned in a previous post, pick-up time from school coincides perfectly with Hadley's naptime. So, Kylee and I would listen to Hadley scream at the top of her lungs for 30 minutes in the car rider line while waiting for Connor. The bus is a great option. With the stop being about a block from our front door, Connor can easily walk to and from the bus. He still lets me walk him there in the morning, but walks home with the other neighborhood kids in the afternoon. Here he is waiting for the bus with our neighbor, Renae, and boarding the bus to head to school.

And we end with Miss Hadley, sitting in her stroller, looking adorable. I LOVE the blue flower. :)

Haddie Chat

Our baby girl turned 3 months old last week!

Hadley's latest trick is being quite conversational...she gets lots of encouragement for all of her cooing from big brother and sister (and, let's face it, Mommy and Daddy, too). Brandon caught a bit of it on tape, so we thought we'd let you all see first hand what she's up to:

What a joy our littlest blessing is! :)

Caden's Cubs Update

Hello!

It's been awhile since we've shared what's happening with Caden's Cubs, so I thought I would take a minute to update you all. We have been blessed by our friends and family with some generous donations recently, which allowed us to purchase our first sizable batch of Build-A-Bear giftcards. This is great because when we hear of a family that can utilize Caden's Cubs, we can now send them a giftcard from our batch on hand within a couple days rather than ordering the cards individually and having to wait several days for them to come in the mail.

In the last month, we have been able to provide giftcards for about 10 children. This is exciting, yet disheartening, for us. Each family's story touches our souls, and we are so grateful to be able to do something to let them know that even strangers are praying for them and their babies.

Our goals over the next few months include getting ourselves set up with some notecards, address labels, and perhaps even some informational pamphlets to be sent out to the families we give cards to. Right now, we are using generic cards to send things out in, and we think it would be wonderful to be able to use cards and address labels with the Caden's Cubs logo on them when we mail giftcards. It is our hope that eventually, information about Caden's Cubs can be given to families in the hospital so that they can contact us if they are interested in making a bear in honor of their little one. That is a big vision. We'll see where the road takes us.

Some have asked how much money it takes to create one bear. Right now, the cost per child is about $25. Build-A-Bear has given us a discount, so we will be able to provide $30 giftcards for a cost of $25. This is, generally speaking, enough for a stuffed animal and an outfit at Build-A-Bear.

We continue to accept direct referrals. If you know of a family who could benefit from this experience, please let us know. All you need to do is provide us with the names of their children and their mailing address and we take care of the rest. Of course, we always love to hear a little of their own personal story...we feel a connection to all these families.

Before I sign off, I want to say a special thank you to Spencer and Steph. Your gift will be a true blessing to us and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us further our ministry. We are truly humbled.

To all of you that have contributed or will contribute in the future, we want you to know how blessed we feel by your generosity. Each giftcard we send is a piece of healing for us...and also brings healing and joy to a child who needs something to cuddle while remembering a precious angel.