Card Totals!

Hey everybody! It's here...the Totals!!!! I've been SO excited to tell ya'll! :)

This year was a RECORD BREAKING YEAR! 

7,268 CARDS!!!!!

Can ya'll believe it?! I'm still in shock! 

I want to Thank all of my returning card makers and I want to Thank all of the new card makers! Welcome and I'm so happy ya'll are joining us, in hopes to bring love and smiles to others!

I was able to add 4 more hospitals and a nursing home, where my Mee Mee is now.

Although I was able to add more hospitals, we still had TONS of cards left over and no time to find more hospitals on such short notice (the cards literally came in by the hundreds on the last couple of days!) So after brain storming, I decided the best thing to do was add an extra card in each envelope for the kids to give to their sibling, parent, Dr., nurse, or friend. Most of these kids won't get to do Valentine exchanges at school, so I thought this would bring something a little more special to the cards. So my sweet daughter stamped a couple of hundred and my Amazing Momma came over and stamped THOUSANDS of these to add to the extra card!!

 A little story about all these post-its, I went to the store to pick up a couple of packages and the more I thought about it, I knew I needed a Bunch more! I looked at my receipt from the day before and they were $0.01! You read that right, 1 cent for a pack of 200! I went back to the store to find out if it was a mess up and they checked the price and it was a discontinued item, which meant they could sell it for 1 cent! I went to check on how many they had and they had a ton left! I told the cashier that I felt stingy for getting all they had, but I really feel like the Lord ordained that! He knew I needed all of them! Almost down to the EXACT amount of packs I needed! I had 2 packs left over! :)

Well here are a few pics of the counting process, a little glimpse of 

the HUGE MESS, and the packaging.

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Here are the 3 shipments.
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I've never done this before, but I always wished that ya'll could see all the cards I received. Although this isn't all of them, here a some that I fell in love with! 

There were many more I loved too, but I couldn't post them all! I was SO inspired by the cards this year, seriously, it's a privilege to get to see and hold them all! :) 

(If anyone doesn't want their card posted, please let me know and I will take it off. I apologize that I didn't get to ask for permission first, the time FLEW by this past week and it really slipped my mind. Sorry! :( )
(Click on pictures to see better.)

And I'm shocked that I had time to take pics of them! This was the hardest and most time consuming Card Drive to date! I think because I had gotten my daughter, nieces and myself to start sealing the envelopes, before I realized that we would have so many that we would add the extra card! So it was double work, unsealing them to add the extra card, but it needed to happen, so I did it! So some days I worked about 20 hours straight! (insert the BIG eyed smiley face here!) :) 
I also had personal things going on at the same time. We had about 4 funerals to attend the last 3 weeks! Some were family friends and one was my step-brother. He tragically and suddenly passed away, so it was a very hard time! :( I also had a cold that was brought on by my allergies, so I got to the Dr quick to get some shots and meds and got well pretty quick. Lots of hand washing and germ-xing going on here for awhile! I'm well now though! :) 
So with all that said, the Lord carried me through this Card Drive and everything else I have been going through and for that, I am very Thankful!  

I am Thankful to all of you who sent in cards! There were 186 people who sent them in this year!!!  That is a lot people and packages! :) They came as far away as Qatar, Singapore, Quebec, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Norway, Aruba & Western Australia, just to name a few! I know that life gets busy and you all have things to do, so Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to help me with this ministry! I can never Thank you all enough! Thank you to the money donations for the shipping and the cards and gifts you gave me, you really didn't have to do that, but they are Very appreciated! Thank you to all the Sponsors and the Amazing prizes and for getting the word out about the Card Drive! There are going to be some happy people soon, when I announce the winners! :)
A BIG Thank you to, Kari for donating the envelopes again this year! 
And another BIG Thank you to, Christy for the Card Drive series on YouTube, where she makes the cards for Card Drive and mentions all the details about it! I only wish I was brave enough to do a video, I can't stand to hear myself talk! :)

As I mentioned before that we got to send some to a nursing home this year, my Mee Mee had a stroke in March and was moved to the nursing home soon after. She is unable to speak, eat, walk, or move much of her right side. She knows us some days and some days she doesn't! She sleeps a lot, but in a way, it makes me feel better for her, so she isn't reminded of all the things she can't do anymore. She is currently sick and has pneumonia, if you will, Please keep her in your prayers. I was very Thankful that I got to make her a special card. She always loves my cards I give her and I always give her flowers, so I knew I wanted to make her a card, where the flowers would last longer. She LOVES flowers! I hope she likes this one! 

The main issues I had with the cards I received this year was the glitter, shimmer pens and Wink of Stella. The hospital doesn't want anything glittery, because it can be harmful to the kids. We all understand as card makers that some of the supplies are safe, but the hospital staff might not, so all they see is glitter and they want to keep the kids safe! So please be aware of these supplies for next year. I tried to email as many people as I could, but I'm sure I left some out. We just want to keep the kids safe and continue to have the trust from the hospital, that we are going to do just that! Thanks for understanding! :)

 Here are a list of the hospitals, foster homes, and nursing home.

St, Jude Children's Hospital
TX. Children's Hospital
UF Health Shands Children's Hospital
St. Joseph's Children's Hospital of Tampa
Nationwide Children's Hospital
St, Louis Children's Hospital
Seattle Children's Hospital
Akron Children's Hospital
Cook Children's Medical Center
Shriners Hospital for Children- Shreveport
Shriners Hospital for Children- St, Louis
Shriners Hospital for Children- Salt Lake City
Shriners Hospital for Children- Cincinnati
Shriners Hospital for Children- Galveston
Shriners Hospital for Children- Houston
Shriners Hospital for Children- Boston
Shriners Hospital for Children- Northern California
Sinclair Children's Center- Foster Home
Pendleton Place- Foster Home

NEW 
Shriners Hospital for Children- Los Angeles
Shriners Hospital for Children- Tampa
UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Arboretum of Winnie- Nursing home

I'm going to be working hard this year finding even more places to send these to! Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

And I'm still working on the drawing, please bare with me, I'll be posting soon! :)

Thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart! 

~Winter