2018 Card Totals

Hey everybody!
Well I finally got all the packages sent off! I sent half of them off on Friday (February 2) , a ton more on Monday (February 5)  and the last 3 Texas hospitals on Tuesday (February 6), way later than I normally send them out, thanks to the US postal service! They have not been  my friend this year! I collected cards the last 4 days while I was still counting and packaging! The dates on these packages were expected to be delivered on or before the 31st and I collected them the 3rd, 4th, and 5th! I even got 2 packages on the 6th, but they’ll have to wait until next year since all the cards were already packaged and being shipped. 
And I'm hoping and praying that the US postal service gets all of the packages to the hospitals on time! I have already received 3 emails from hospitals saying they received theirs and they LOVE them and I have checked the tracking on all of them and only 3 haven't gotten to their destination yet. But they are expected to arrive there tomorrow or Monday. 
So Thank the Lord for that!

But, back to the totals...this year was the biggest year yet!!!

With a total of 7,735 CARDS collected!!! 

I am truly humbled by the 200+ card makers who sent in cards! I appreciate the love and dedication and the understanding that there wouldn't be prizes this year, in fact, a lot of you said you didn't do it for the prizes anyway and you just liked to help, so Thank you! 💓

I want to Thank all of you for spreading the word about the Card Drive, and for the extra work from Christy @ Christy Gets Crafty- Valentine Day Series, that she has so generously been making videos to help spread the word of the Card Drive for the past 5 years! 
Thank you SO much, Christy! 
And I want to Thank Jenn @ Scrapbena Creations, she made a video this year too, 
to help spread the news! Thank you, Jenn! 

I also want to Thank the ones who sent in money to help with shipping, the stamp sets that you sent me to help build my stamp collection back up, since the fire took many of them, the gift certificates to help with stamp supplies, house supplies, and money to help my family from the devastation from the
 fire. None of that was required, but I'm so Grateful for them! Words can't adequately Thank you enough for your generosity and love! 💓

My plans last year were to find more hospitals, but that is easier said than done sometimes
 and I never hear back from some hospitals. I was able to add one more hospital to the list though, so I am Thankful for that!
Here is the list for this year:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Texas Children's Hospital
St. Louis Children's Hospital
St. Joseph's Children's Hposptial
UF Health Shands Children's Hospital
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Cook Children's Medical Center
Pendleton Place (Foster home)
Akron Children's Hospital
Seattle Children's Hospital
UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chilcago
Shriners Hospital for Children-
Shreveport
St. Loius
Cinncinnati
Galveston
Houston
Boston
Northern California
Pasadena, CA.
Tampa
Salt Lake City
Nemours/ Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children

I was able to add the extra card in each one again this year. I had a Great response from the hospital staff last year when we did this, so I felt it was the right decision to do it again, since we had enough cards.
My Momma, daughter, and I were able to get the post-its stamped this year.

Here is a pic of all the shipments of cards.

Here are some of my favorites. I really wish I could have taken a pictures of all of them,
they really are Amazing!

There were still some issues with glitter paper & stickers, some that were too large to put in the envelopes, some that had last names, some that added the city, and some that added their youtube channel names. I hope everyone reads the guidelines more carefully next year,
it really does cause me more trouble when they aren't right.
I Love when the cards are Exactly by the rules, it makes my life so much easier
and the sorting goes so much faster! And when
you are getting about 4 hours of sleep a night, because of all the sorting...it's Really important! :)

I had also asked if you would include your info with your cards and some of you did, but some didn't. If you didn't, can you please email me so I can have your email address? I need it for the email reminder for next years Card Drive and I always send out a Thank you email too.
 wintersims1@aol.com

As some of you know, my family and I have had a pretty rough year.
Our 12 year old dog Tucker went missing in March and we never found him, my daughter and her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years broke up, our son was in a wreck and totaled his truck (he and everyone else was fine, Thank goodness!) and the next day we went through a hurricane, all in August. And then we had our house fire and lost everything and our sweet cat, Po, too, all in October. Then just a few days after the fire, we lost my sweet Mee Mee, in November. My son Chace went through his first heartbreak with a girl and then the devastating news that my daughters ex-boyfriend/ first love, passed away in a car accident, all in January. :'( It's been tough.

I've had to draw my strength from the Lord through all of this and to be able to continue the Card Drive this year. I have all of you to Thank for your support, encouragement, and kind words that you have shown me and my family, I couldn't do this without all of you! 💓
I always had those sweet babies on my mind and heart and I knew that they still needed a little Love on Valentine's Day, so I had to be strong and do the Card Drive, 
regardless of how tough it was and I'm so glad I did!

Thank you all and I can't wait for next year's Card Drive, it will be #10!!! 
I hope you all have a Very Blessed Valentin's Day and 
remember those sweet kids in the hospitals too.

~Winter