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.]

Just a few days ago, these three afghans graced the porch of my friend Connie, in Gladewater, Texas. Now, they are in a box on their way to me. An afghan from Jenny McB. is in the mail, too. And, Sherry has one she will deliver in person when we meet (which will be soon, I hope).

When those afghans are in my hands, there will be 140 afghans for Camp Sanguinity. It’s been an entire year in the making.

We will deliver them on either Sunday, July 6th or on Monday, July 7th (I’m meeting with the camp director next Friday and will know more). If you have been a part of the project (in any way) and would like to help deliver them, please let me know. It can be arranged!

That day is going to be astonishing.

I’ll take what pictures I am allowed to take, but because of privacy issues I may not be able to show you many faces. It will be hard to translate the thrill of giving these away.

More afghans are being made for the children who are too young to attend the camp or whose cancer is too advanced for them to be able to attend. These children will know that hundreds of people stopped what they were doing long enough to care. I have many more afghan kits, if you still want to be a part of the project.

The people who have contributed to this project over the last year have given of their hearts. They have worked tirelessly to make granny afghan squares to be stitched into these beautiful blankets of love. Time after time, these volunteers have thanked me for letting them be a part of the project.

That’s the part that astounds me. That’s the part that makes me break out the box of Kleenex. I knew that people had big hearts.

[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.]