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First Week of Winners - Spring Raffle

4/8/2014

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Our first week of winners and a special drawing winner have already happened!! So exciting and the majority of these items have already been mailed out too - thanks to some extra running around we've had to do in our personal world and was able to swing by the post office on those trips too.
We're excited to start another week of winners - after I draw today's winner - we still have 22 awesome days of prizes left to give away and another special drawing prize if we can still 200 tickets in total (we're at 117 right now). Lots of great Pampered Chef and Scentsy items are being given away and you're not going to want to miss out on the upcoming prizes for sure!
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Our first winner was Debbie - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were sponsored by Marie Snyder - a local Pampered Chef consultant to Gracie's Gowns.

You can find Marie's business page on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/PampChefLady

And her business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/foodisfun

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Our third winner was Patricia - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were donated by Audra Smith - a Pampered Chef consultant that is close friends with a gown recipient's family.

Audra's business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/audra

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Our fifth winner was Ellen - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were sponsored by Marie Snyder - a local Pampered Chef consultant to Gracie's Gowns.

You can find Marie's business page on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/PampChefLady

And her business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/foodisfun

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Our seventh winner was Becky - her items were from The Pampered Chef!

The items for this day in the raffle were donated by Audra Smith - a Pampered Chef consultant that is close friends with a gown recipient's family.

Audra's business website is:
www.pamperedchef.biz/audra

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!!


To purchase your ticket(s) you can visit our website under the events tab - www.graciesgowns.org/events.html
and purchase them there using the Add to Cart button through PayPal.
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Donation to the Little and Dependent

1/25/2014

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Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital is one of the most amazing children's hospital in the country. Not only do they care for a variety of pediatric illnesses and needs, but they have a super special NICU. 

The reason their NICU is so special is because they are one of the hospitals that treat the highest number of drug-dependent newborns in the United States. And we aren't talking street or illegal drugs...these are prescription pain medications and most obtained under normal circumstance.

These babies are weaned off prescription medication, by being given doses of morphine until they are able to tolerate being completely off any kind of opiate. This process can take days and week to accomplish. The unit can hold 49 infants and over half of them are born with neonate abstinence syndrome (drug-dependent), these babies have to be watched around the clock for seizures and even worse, in case they stop breathing.

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When I was in college, this was a topic I was starting to write a research paper on...it is a personal subject as my youngest was born drug-dependent and not because I misused my pain medication, but because I was given excessive amounts of pain medication between all of our admission during pregnancy for pre-term labor and for the amount of pain I was in throughout the entire pregnancy because of the amount of scar tissue I had and two pregnancies very close together and severe anemia issues as well. 

Only problem was, when she was born, we didn't know what was the cause of all the problems we had in the first two months of her life, until I happened to read a forum on drug-dependent babies and all the pieces fell into place. It was scary.

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So when Ellen from Socks 4 Surgery posted the articles published in 2013 about Eastern Tennessee Children's Hospital and what their NICU was doing - we decided that some extra comfort needed to be sent to these precious little ones as well.

Ellen sent out socks and hair bows and in her awesomeness asked if we had any gowns that we could send their way as well. I had to wait until I got back to the house and went through what we already had sewn NICU Smock wise and put together a box that we will be sending out the the hospital this Monday.

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So in total we have twenty-eight gowns headed to the hospital's volunteer services and some of our brochures to be used throughout the hospital for other children that may want a gown of their own as well.

We will keep praying for the hospital's staff and volunteers that are working with and caring for these precious babies and their families. We pray for the babies and their families as well through this rocky start to their journey and lives. 

We hope these gowns find each little doing the best they can and provide them with a little extra comfort.

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Clicking on the picture above will take you to a brochure (PDF Format) the hospital has created on Drug Use during Pregnancy and about Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
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The Chartres Cathedral 

8/2/2013

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When I was in high school, I had to opportunity to go to France with my French teacher, friends in my level and students from other French levels as well.

It was an amazing trip - everything I loved all in one place. Music, the history of France, the shopping everyone talked about, the monuments and artwork...it was spectacular.

The cathedrals and castles were probably the most intriguing sites we saw. Of course the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre and Versailles were unique and ravishing, but the cathedrals really drew my attention above all else.

Something about the architecture, the amount of work that had to be done my so many people, over years and years of time...and even sometimes having to be redone because of fires, natural disasters and war. And the final project still standing for all future generations to see, it was breath-taking. Most of the cathedrals are still in use for religious services in France (sorry random side note there and memory from touring). Chartres Cathedral was the one that intrigued and amazed me the most. And here is why....

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The Rose Window - look at it, isn't it just beautiful! That is all stain glass. This alone took years to complete...the detail is so intrinsic and most of it is still the original glass that was used when the window was first constructed in 1215. The scene the window depicts is the Last Judgement, and was a gift that at the time cost 80,000 pounds! Now let me share a little story with you as to why I am even blogging about Chartres Catherdral, the Rose Window and why it's detail, the beauty and the work involved mean so much and can really put things into perspective for each parent who reads this.

Once again - this is from a posting on Facebook - though I do not know who originally wrote this, to give them the credit, but I pray one day they see the blog and realize how much of an impact it really has on those who read it.
Invisible Mother

 It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way
 one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be
 taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'
 
 Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping
 the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see
 me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of
 hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this??

 Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock
 to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is
 the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

 Some days I'm a crystal ball; 'Where's my other sock?, Where's my phone?,
 What's for dinner?'

 I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes
 that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had disappeared
 into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's
 going, she's gone!

 One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a
 friend from England . She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she
 was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there,
 looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to
 compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when she
 turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you
 this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly
 sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 'With admiration
 for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

 In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover
 what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could
 pattern my work:

 1) No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record
 of their names.

 2) These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never
 see finished.

 3) They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

 4) The passion of their building was fuelled by their faith that the
 eyes of God saw everything.

 A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
 cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird
 on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man,
 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that
 will be covered by
 the roof. No one will ever see it'

 And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

 I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost
 as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the sacrifices you
 make every day, even when no one around you does.

 No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've
 baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small for me to
 notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see
 right now what it will become.

 I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of
 the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work
 on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went
 so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime
 because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

 When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's
 bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the
 morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for 3
 hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a
 monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there
 is anything more to say to his friend, he'd say, 'You're gonna love it
 there...'

 As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're
 doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel,
 not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the
 world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.
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