And Now For The Rest Of The Story

A quilt full of flowers and butterflies that I made now belongs to a girl with a big smile who just underwent surgery in Medellin, Colombia! 

I made the quilt back in 2019  and donated it to Wrap-A-Smile.  

Wrap-A-Smile partners with Rotaplast, International to provide quilts to children undergoing cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. 

Rotaplast also has a Facebook page and that is where the photo was found. I'm not on Facebook; however, the page is public so I could see the photo. 

Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit the Rotaplast surgical missions were cancelled for a couple of years so all the quilts planned for those missions like the one I made in 2019 stayed in storage for awhile. Wrap-A-Smile also quit accepting quilts for awhile when the missions were cancelled but now are back in business. 

And now that Wrap-A-Smile is accepting quilts again I have 20 quilts I hope to get boxed up and shipped off within the next couple of weeks. FYI - I have found Pirate Ship an economical way to ship. I wonder where they will end up!  

And sew on...

*****

CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

May 14 - I received a 25 lb. box of crumb blocks, orphan blocks, fat quarters and other fabrics and batting. I have plans to make 3 crumb quilts for kids asap. 

Today, May 15 - Hubby, John, had a CT scan a couple of weeks ago and had an appointment this morning with his pulmonologist to go over the results. GOOD NEWS! The doctor showed us the scan from October when he was in the hospital with aspiration pneumonia and one from January and the current one. He showed us on the current scan that the fluid is gone and lungs have healed up as much as they can. He still has bronchiectasis and uses a nebulizer and has some problems breathing but he can walk without a walker now and is not on oxygen and a few months ago he was on oxygen, could not get up out of a chair and had to walk with a walker! Pulmonologist told him to keep doing what he is doing and come back in November! Root cause of most of John's health issues stems from oropharyngeal cancer and all the radiation he had over 20 years ago. He can no longer swallow so gets his nutrition via feeding tube and pump. When he could not swallow very well he was aspirating most everything he tried to swallow. Then they put in feeding tube and he was still aspirating bolus feedings. Aspiration led to aspiration pnuemonia and inability to swallow and eat anything before feeding tube led to weakness and malnutrition. Now that he no longer aspirates and lung damage is healed and he is getting nutrition and gaining weight with enteral feeding and doing physical therapy exercises he is getting healthier every day!!! (Oh, and he has a good wife that helps him out too!)

And guess what...another celebration...today I found a four leaf clover when I was weeding. Lucky me! I am pressing it to save. This is from a red clover (trifolium pratense). I've never found one from a red clover. In the past I have found four leaf white clover (trifolium repens). In the middle ages it was believed by some Celtic groups tthat wielding a four leaf clover would help you see fairies and ward off evil spirits and grant the holder good luck.  I just looked down and immediately spotted it. I was already thinking that I'm a pretty lucky person so now I'm wondering what the future holds!