Finding New Purpose

So last week was a little stressful, as I had to register Sammy for Kindergarten in the Fall, and I have found myself dreading the moment I leave him at school for the first time... and every time after that. He is my shadow, my cohort, my company throughout the day, and the thought of running errands by myself, or not hearing his voice on the other end of the phone throughout the day as he calls me on the intercom to tell me he loves me, is just killing me.

I have found myself wondering what I will do with my time which, if you saw the state of my house at present, would make you laugh; there's PLENTY to be done around here. But I am craving something that will give me a purpose bigger than me, that will take me outside of myself and meet a need for someone else. My online Bible study group and I have been making baby blankets for Mercy House in Kenya, which we learned about through our Good Morning Girls leaders Courtney and Angela (I'll have to post pictures of some of mine!), so I know I will continue to support that cause. But I still wanted something else.

So I got talking to a girlfriend of mine who is a self-taught photographer, and takes some of the most beautiful pictures! She has had a real burden for people suffering from cancer, and just completed a photo shoot for a woman who has breast cancer, a new baby, and was about to have a double mastectomy. I have a great fear of cancer, and it makes me so sad to hear stories like this one, or to see loved ones die from it. In the last year, I have lost an extended family member, a friend's father, and a dog to this horrible disease, and I have watched my sister-in-law, at a young age, have a double mastectomy also. Cancer is nasty.

And so, as my friend and I got talking about all of this, we have decided that, come the Fall when we both have most/all of our children in school, we will take a couple of mornings/days in the month where we go to hospitals and visit with cancer patients; she will take a beautiful portrait of them, and I will take some cute 'chemo caps' or handmade toys of some sort for them to have.

A picture to remind them they are beautiful, and (hopefully) a little something to cheer them up!

I got started this weekend. Here are 4 of the hats I've made so far! (I have to make some boy caps, too!)






I am very excited to start this new venture! I would be lying if I said I wasn't a wee bit nervous, too. But God is good, and I pray that He would be in this with me, and that I would not run ahead with my own plans without making sure they are also His.