Yes, I cried.

We delivered afghans today. There was my sister Renice and my friend Rebecca. Behind them, it’s me, Sherry, her daughter Amanda,and my husband Eric (who wasn’t in the picture).

But, he was having a good time, because I let him ride the golf cart with the cute volunteer. Hmmm. Does he look like he’s having too much fun to you?

And we gave out 140 afghans to children with cancer and to their siblings at Camp Sanguinity. They were delighted!

Every moment this last year was worth it.

I came home to find a comment on my blog from a parent, and I’m putting it here in its entirety, because you might not find it otherwise:

God Bless You!
I stood in front of Cook Children’s yesterday and watched as both of my boys (Tyler 10 & Ryder climbed on buses to head to Camp Sanguinity for a week. Tyler was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Sept 5, 2007. After 8 months of stress, emotional upheaval and a lot of praying Tyler is in remission and In Maintenance for 3 years. I am at home in an empty house this week wondering what they are doing. I know today they will be smiling and thinking how wonderful people are to do such AWESOME things for them and other kids fighting cancer. I can’t wait to see their afghans and bags! You and all the other ladies that took time to make these beautiful squares are a blessing! This afghans are something that they can treasure their whole lives to commemorate their trip to Camp!
Its the little personal things that people do for us that put such smiles on our faces and hope in our hearts! I only hope to pay it forward in the future! Also a Thank You to everyone that donated money to help send a child to camp. As a parent and care giver it means so much…hospital bills come in the mail everyday and prescriptions are needed every month…even with insurance it gets hard. So being able to send my children to camp without having to worry about where to get the money is such a blessing! My kids get a chance to be a 10 year old boy without cancer for a week and a 8 year old boy without a brother who has cancer! You will never know how much that means to them or us as parents! I will sit and worry, wonder and miss my boys terribly this week but to be honest the caregivers need a break at times too! At least I know they are in the best care possible and that angels will be delivering very special gifts to them this week!
Have a Wonderful Week and Bless You!
Tyler’s carepage
http://www.carepages.com page name: tylerrossjones
All Our Love
Ann Marie Jones
Proud Mom of a cancer fighter and his Awesome brother!

Ann Marie, it was a blessing to us to be allowed to give. Thank you for your kind words, and best wishes to you and both your boys.

I’m crying now, because I have to put the pictures from Camp Sanguinity on a Flickr page that is protected. We can’t show you pictures of children’s faces on a public blog.

If you want to see it, and have a Flickr account, you have to be my “friend” to see them. Setting up an account is free, and only takes a couple of minutes. Get the account, then go to my page and make a friend request. If you don’t want an account, I think I can e-mail you a “guest pass” to see the set, so leave me a comment with your e-mail address. I have only put two pictures up on the set so far, but I’ll finish it out in the next few days. Sherry will have pictures, too, so you can contact her (she has an awesome camera and photographic skills!). I can’t put up more pictures tonight, because I’m exhausted.

It’s a good kind of exhausted.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Share A Square project has ended, and the afghans were delivered on July 7th, 2008. Although we will not continue that project, an exciting NEW endeavor, called the Good Medicine Project is in progress for summer camp 2009. We hope you will join us.]

Isn’t anticipation delicious sometimes?

You know what I mean. You can remember it. Perhaps it was the night before a first date with someone who made your heart go pitter-pat. Maybe it was as you awaited the birth of your child. Maybe it was while you planned for your dream vacation.

I’m experiencing something like those nights long ago when I was a child. I have the thrill of the eve before Santa Claus visited. I have the antsy, can’t sit still, heart thumping thrill of wonder. Monday is a day I’ve waited for all year. It’s a day that will be a gift for me, as we give to others.

On Monday, several of us are going to drive to a summer camp for children (it’s called Camp Sanguinity) to deliver 140 afghans made by volunteers from around the world. The children who will receive them either have cancer, or have a sibling with cancer. You can see those afghans on my Flickr page. Though the photographs aren’t exceptional, every afghan is. Every afghan is filled with love. Scroll through the entries at Share A Square to see some of the squares up close.

More than 400 people around the globe participated. Only five of us get to see the children as we give the afghans. I wish there could be many more of us. I wish that everyone who helped could be there, but you will all be with us “in spirit.”

I want to show you one of the bags that was in a package I got from Barbara this weekend. She collected bags to give to the children, so that they can preserve the name tags that are on their afghan squares (each child will have at least 48 tags from the different people who participated). I opened the box and squealed like a girl as I held each bag in my hand. This is only one of the bags. I hope Barbara will come in here and tell us who made it!:

You see the lovely crochet? But, that isn’t all! Open the bag and there is a box covered with needlepoint:

Isn’t that beautiful? But, that isn’t all!!! Open the box and there is more needlepoint!

Do you see why I weep with joy and anticipation?

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Share A Square project has ended, and the afghans were delivered on July 7th, 2008. Although we will not continue that project, an exciting NEW endeavor, called the Good Medicine Project is in progress for summer camp 2009. We hope you will join us.]

I’m so excited!
I’m hopping around like popcorn in a pan.

Last Friday, I visited at Cook Children’s Medical Center to finalize the plans for the delivery of afghans to Camp Sanguinity. While I was at it, I delivered a cashier’s check for $1229.47 - money that was donated by my wonderful readers. The camp director was tickled pink.

This has been a pretty amazing year. Volunteers from around the globe have been working to make afghans for children with cancer. Each afghan has 48 different squares from different people (with name tags showing who they are and where they live). My Flickr Badge on the sidebar will take you to the gallery so you can see them all. Thanks to Sherry and Barbara, each child will also get a “medicine bag” to hold the tags so they can remember their new friends.

AT LAST!

Delivery will be Monday, July 7th!

I had hoped we would be able to visit on Sunday, and perhaps I’d have some more volunteers to help deliver. But, that’s the day the kids arrive at the camp, and there is just too much activity going on that day. We wouldn’t be able to give them out until 9 p.m. That’s just too late at night! Those children would be exhausted by that time, and to be honest with you I “turn into a pumpkin” long before midnight! Not only that, we would have to drive home on country back roads!

I think I’ve been lost out that way before, and I don’t want to do it again!

So, on Monday, after the campers eat lunch, they will go back to their cabins to rest. At that time, we will visit the cabins and give each child an afghan. I imagine that those of us delivering will split up to visit the cabins. I don’t know what that is going to do to my ability to take pictures. I don’t know how many pictures the camp will allow me to take, anyway.

I’ll keep you posted with more when it happens.

Seeing the faces of those children will be wonderful!

Getting these boxes out of my garage will be quite delightful, too!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Share A Square project has ended, and the afghans were delivered on July 7th, 2008. Although we will not continue that project, an exciting NEW endeavor, called the Good Medicine Project is in progress for summer camp 2009. We hope you will join us.]