Interview: Dawn Merritt

It's fun to interview different people attending Sew Much Love to find out why they go and what they love about it! I talked to Dawn Merritt of the Lake Holm Ward this week. 

She has been volunteering with Sew Much Love since 2013 and is a ward representative. A ward representative coordinates the stake efforts with the wards, organizes set-up and take-down of supplies during their designated months, and is just a general amazing helper in our program. Her favorite project to help with is making donor quilts. Her favorite part of showing up every Tuesday is getting to see her friends she's made there. She loves that she can give her time to such a great cause and find new talents. 

Dawn's favorite scripture about service is Alma 3:26-27

26 And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their ^arewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one.

  27 For every man receiveth ^awages of him whom he listeth to ^bobey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth. And thus endeth the fifth year of the reign of the judges.

Thanks, Dawn!

Reminder that today 10-12 we have normal service hours followed by a potluck at 12:15, and representatives from Life Center NW will be there! For those who are ward representatives and committee members, the meeting will be today, too!

Girl's Camp Teeny Tears!

I was a 1st year leader at Girl's Camp this summer, and I was thrilled when the second day of service was indoors! (YAY for cooler temperatures for a largely pregnant lady!) I was even more thrilled when I realized that the girls were doing humanitarian service projects for Teeny Tears, one of our new projects with Sew Much Love! Here are some pictures of the girls making tiny hats and diapers for this worthwhile project! 

We will be continuing this project, along with many others, Tuesday, September 12th from 10-12 at the Auburn Stake Center, along with all of the following Tuesdays.

Quilt Miracle

Making these quilts, we never know exactly to whom they will go or how they will be received. We're always pleased when we hear back from someone about how one of our quilts touched their lives. We recently heard this story about one sister in our stake's nephew, and how our quilt helped his family.

Carrie Heighton is a member of the Game Farm Ward in our stake. Her nephew, Dallon, is 4 and was run over by a van. He was helicoptered to Harborview following his tragic accident. He had surgeries, and once he was settled in the ICU, the nurses gave him a blanket. He likes the colors, and while his mom and grandma were admiring the quilt, they noticed the tag. They were very touched by our quilt.

Additional Info on Angel Babies

We are excited to announce a new addition to the Sew Much Love (our stake Humanitarian project), Angel Babies. We will be working in connection with the Teeny Tears organization as well as local hospitals. We are looking for individuals who would like to come on Tuesdays or do some projects from home. If you know how, or are interested in learning, to sew or cut tiny diapers, make mini blankets, hats (no sew, knit or crochet) or simple beading we invite you to join us and would love to teach you! 

Teeny Tears

We have a new program that we are working with now as a part of Sew Much Love called Teeny Tears! 

Here is some information from their website:

"Approximately 26,000 children are stillborn in the United States every year, about 1 in 160 births. A significant number of these angels are preemie or micropreemie infants.  Many of these angels are far too small for even the very smallest commercial diapers.

Teeny Tears is a service organization that provides tiny flannel diapers at no charge to hospitals and bereavement support organizations for families that have suffered the loss of a preemie or micropreemie child through stillbirth or NICU loss.

Our wish is to bless families that suffer the same heartache, providing their angel with a soft, beautiful diaper in which to be photographed and laid to rest. WE PROVIDE TWO MATCHING DIAPERS PER FAMILY (and that's really important), one for the baby and one for the family to keep in a memory box. When possible, we will also make tiny micropreemie blankets that are appropriately sized for their beautiful little bodies. For the smallest of angels,too fragile to dress, we provide mini blankets with pairs of teeny hats.

Grieving parents often feel very lost, alone, and confused. Every special effort to honor their loss goes a long way. It is very difficult for a family to say goodbye to their child before they got to say a decent hello. These diapers, made with love, tell parents that someone understands that their child existed, that they are special, loved, real, and that they matter. The love that goes into these diapers tells a grieving parent that someone understands that their loss is tremendous. Because a 'person’s a person, no matter how small'."

This is just a snipet of information from their website, which is http://teenytears.blogspot.com/

It is wonderful to look through, filled with stories, pictures, information on how to make these, and why the need is so great. I learned a lot reading through their stories, and I recommend visiting their website to learn more!

Jessica Smith is going to be one of the leaders of this new project for Sew Much Love, so hit her up if you have questions or want to participate! 

General Women's Broadcast

I hope many of you were able to view the General Women's Broadcast this past Saturday night, and if not, it's easily accessible on LDS.ORG to view those 4 talks! 

The text isn't yet available, but you can view the video of the 1st talk here:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/media/session_0_talk_3/5372724733001?lang=eng

The first speaker, Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, the 2nd Counselor in the General Primary Presidency, spoke about how we should center ourselves on Christ, leaning not to our own understanding. She gave 3 ways that we can center ourselves and trust in Christ, including 1) Feasting on the Words of Christ, 2) Praying, and 3) Serving.

She shared a very touching story about a woman who was extremely ill and only felt OK 1-2 days a month, while being in extreme pain, exhaust, and nausea the rest of the time. Although many people would've seen her situation and felt that she was exempt from service, her husband encouraged her to serve. On those few OK days each month, she and her family would deliver Get Well kits to others going through similar circumstances and perform other acts of service for those in the community. 

The point of this wonderful story is that we often put excuses as to why we aren't serving. It's easy to fill our time with other important things that get in the way. It's easy to not feel so great and not feel like we're in a great place to serve. However, at those moments when we feel the crummiest, when we feel that we need to just focus on ourselves, those are often the moments that we can greatly benefit from serving others. This woman and her family were brought great joy, peace, and comfort through serving others, and it was her greatest source of happiness during those dreadful times. 

I absolutely loved this lesson from Sister Cordon's talk, and I'm guessing it applies to many other women besides just me. As a young, busy mom, of course I can find lots of excuses to not serve, but I'm always happier when I choose to serve. Service is one of the greatest ways to lift our spirits, improve our perspective, and bless the lives of others, along with our own lives.

So, if you're feeling happy and wonderful and have lots of time, of course you are welcome to serve on Tuesdays with us. However, if you're feeling down, hopeless, depressed, or busy, and like it's hard to serve, it's probably a wonderful time to join us as well :)

6 Year Celebration!

On Tuesday, February 28th, we celebrated our 6th anniversary by doing what we always do every week...giving service!  Many hygiene kits were put together, quilts tied and quilts hand quilted.  In addition to our regular 2 hours of service, we celebrated with a wonderful potluck luncheon.  Wonderful food was enjoyed by everyone!

We enjoyed hosting our guests from Life Center North West!  They shared a picture of a completed donor quilt with the hand prints placed in the blank blocks.  It was touching. We also showed them how to put a quilt on the frames and they enjoyed seeing and learning that process.  We always love it when we get together with this wonderful team from Life Center.  They are caring women who are dedicated to their careers and are so compassionate with the people that they serve.  It is an honor to partner with them. 

Debbie Christian, Executive Director of the Auburn Food Bank, also joined us for our celebration.  She shared a story with us about a homeless woman who was given one of our hygiene kits.  She was so thankful for the washcloth that was included because for the last 10 years, she had been washing her face with paper towels.  It felt so good to her to have a wash cloth touch her face.  We were all moved to hear that our hygiene kits are needed.  Debbie said they are one of the first things to go at the food bank.  She said, "keep them coming!"  And we will!

We also honored Sister Sara Crabtree, our former Stake Relief Society President, with a hand quilted quilt.  This quilt was designed by Sister LaRay Barrett. Sister Barrett was an important part of our humanitarian committee and taught us many things, but most of all loved all of us and had a smile and kind word for each of us every week.  We certainly miss her.  We thought it fitting to honor Sara with a quilt that she designed and worked on.  We appreciate Sara for having the vision to start Sew Much Love.  It has provided many sisters with a weekly  service opportunity.   We have seen sisters reactivated and sisters go to the temple because of their association with Sew Much Love.  Hundreds of quilts have been made and donated, as well as many other items to people in need in our community and in our stake.  Thank you, Sara, for you vision, for your hours and hours of service and for your dedication to your calling!

Sew Much Love has certainly evolved over the years.  We look forward to what the future holds for our Humanitarian efforts.  We are confident that with faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ we will continue to influence lives and serve as He served.  Thank you to all who are serving, all who have served and those who will be called in the future to help us in this great effort!