God Knows

If you have watched the news at all this week, you could not have missed that coastal Washington and northern Washington was deluged with over 6" of rain in a 24 hour period of time which caused severe flooding, rivers to over flow their banks and landslides.

One of those areas hardest hit was Grays Harbor County and the Aberdeen/Hoquiam area the place our family settled into when we moved up here and it breaks my heart that these people who have little to begin with are now having to deal with this mess!!

We are blessed!  Two of the areas hit the hardest were areas known as Queets Avenue and Canyon Courts. Both of these areas are where I wanted to purchase homes and hubby kept telling me he just didn't feel comfortable with either of them. This is when I see the hand of God in my life!

We of course moved away in 2013 about 45 miles inland where we sit away from hills or rivers and while we got soaked with the same 6" of rain, our ground is heavily rocked and socks in quickly.

I however, have reached out to ask for quilts and toiletries from others in my community and today at noon, I am meeting with some people to do what we can.

What I find miraculous is that after the rain stopped, I received an amazing package from Sandy in Arizona that had 8 quilts in it. I wasn't expecting this and Sandy blessed the families of OSO awhile back as well.

Went to a Shasta 911 Dispatchers Daughter

Went to a 911 Dispatcher Who Lost Their Home in Fire

 These large quilts enabled me along with the help from Jennifer in IL, to completely close the books on smaller needs from 2014.  We still need 130 for Okanagan County from the Carlton Complex Fire, but I believe by spring or summer we will have those.

Yesterday, I opened my mail to find a letter fittingly enough from someone in Rochester, MN and a check to help with postage. The sender told me she has followed me for years and the plight with my son Joseph.  

Amazing! It is the true hand of God!

I know you might wonder, how many quilts I actually get to each year and this past year I would probably tell you very few, however, here is a picture of all the spools of thread I went through in 2014, so guess I was busier than I ever expected!

41 Spools in 2014

Whatever you do, do it with love, do it with a joyful heart, share your talents with others, teach a child how to bake, quilt, knit, crochet, play an instrument, plant flowers.  Reach out to the homeless and at least share your smile, it costs you nothing to give it away. 

I leave you with this story that made me cry on Christmas day:
My son Joseph is homeless and several months ago, he made the decision to go into detox and get sober and he has remained sober.

Christmas day his older brother went to hang out with him and told me this story: Joseph had been given a small cooler full of handmade/homemade warm Tamales and (let me tell you if you live in the SW, you know receiving Tamales as a gift is amazing!)

Mom, they were the most amazing Tamales I have ever eaten, the very best and I had one and was going to take some home with me. Then a man in a very nice car came by and asked us if we knew where he might be able to find some Tamales.  Without an ounce of hesitation, Joseph got up and handed the man the entire cooler with the words, 'we already had one, Merry Christmas!'  The man attempted to pay Joseph for the Tamales, but he told the man they were a gift to him so he could gift someone else!

Whatever our story is, however our day is going, our lives are going, we can always find someone who is worse off than we are and yet, who is willing to give their all to someone else in need!

I recently received a wonderful letter from a quilter who has been an amazing contributor to Layers of Hope - Quilting 911. It was to let me know she was sorry she could no longer donate to us as she had found charities that need her talents closer to home.

I was humbled she felt the need to let me know, it wasn't necessary. I have always believed in 'paying it forward,' I understand postage is expensive and I understand some of you aren't really sure I do as I claim, but I do not need any explanations or apologies. I am just happy knowing others are being blessed by your talents!

Thank you for all you do to continue this ministry!