Thoughts About Dedication

I've been wanting to make some pieces to be able to sell and have the monies go towards something as a dedication to my mom's memory.

First on my list is to have a room dedicated to her at Tri State Bird Rescue...

But I'm going to need some help...

Rooms or areas to be dedicated are around $2500 to $5000 for starts.

So I'm thinking of setting up an Etsy shop for called "My Mom Pattie" and donating all the profits from it to non-profit organizations in her memory.

I think there is a way too that I can set up a way to collect donations via paypal to go towards this for people that don't want to buy anything, but want to help out.

So I'm going to be making a bunch of pieces specifically for this.

I will ask some of my jewelry making friends to help by donating their skill and time to make some finished pieces for the "My Mom Pattie" Etsy shop using those pieces.

I think my sister Teren is going to do some drawings that we can use on some of my porcelain pendants. Stick figures are her specialty:

I know mom is happy about this collaboration... She always giggled at Teren's silly yet true to character stick figure drawings (you should play Pictionary with her... she and I kick butt on the same team!).

So after we raise enough money to have a room dedicated to her at Tri-State Bird Rescue, we'll move onto the next one such as to Cancer Research (something having to do specifically with Leukemia), and so on...

And with our 2nd pregnancy, Dave and I have decided to donate the cord blood. This will be associated with The Brady Kohn Foundation. We banked Chloe's cord blood with a private company, but this time, we feel confident donating it instead.

When my mom was sick, a stem cell transplant from her brother (a perfect match) was the one thing that was going to potentially "save her" if she would've made it past all of the infections. But Pneumonia settled in and as her Doctor said, the Leukemia cells really liked her and just wouldn't let go. The cells were like little injured soldiers in her body, and just couldn't be stopped - not even with all the chemo and drugs - they were always there and kept going...

The whole issue of stem cell research was something I walked the line on until I heard about umbilical cord stem cell donation and talked to so many nurses and doctors at the hospital about it and the benefits. And really, I'm not going into it here - this is not the place...

But one day, if I have to go through what my mom did, or if Chloe does, or anyones else the I know... I sure hope that they have a stem cell match in the donor bank or a sibling match (my mom had 4 brothers, and only 1 was a perfect match), so that there is a viable treatment option available for them after getting through all the pain and agony of having such a bad disease or cancer...

With my mom, the donation of stem cells from my uncle would've given her a new supply of white blood cells if they were accepted by her body. Her dilapidated immune system would've been washed, and this new supply would've given her body the things it needed to heal and build up her immunity again. This was the one shining light at the end of the treatment tunnel that she struggled to get to.

The "if only" were:

If only the Leukemia cells would be all gone,

If only she could avoid deadly infections,

If only the stem cell transplant would take.

So out of all those "if only" things, having a perfect donor match was the first stepping stone for hope for her.

So I hope that you may consider helping us out with out venture as I get it set up.

Mom loved feeding, listening to, watching, and "talking" to the birds - indoors and out.

Even one of Chloe's first things she could do was to make that puckering "talking" noise at the birds whenever she heard one or saw one. She would pucker up and point...

Mom would love that!!! They would probably sit and look at all the different birds together (like Chloe and I do...).

Updates will follow (side bar will be updated with the Etsy Shop once it's set up).

Thanks!!!