Request a Care Package

 Have you or someone you love recently lost a child who's age 18 or under? Pregnancy loss and an adoption falling through are included in those families we serve. 

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a brief review of 2020-21

First, I must start with a big THANK YOU to all our supporters, any way you support us is meaningful and helpful. Thank you for praying, giving, and sharing! Keep it up! Here are a few things of note from the past two years:

• August 2021 marked FIVE years since Sent from Heaven started! Woo hoo!
• In 2020, 22 care packages were delivered by mail or picked up by the requestor. This number was down from 51 in 2019, our highest number of packages in a year to date. This was expected considering the vast effects of the pandemic.
• So far in 2021, 20 care packages have been delivered. 
• Three modified care packages were sent overseas to Asia, and I know at least one has arrived!
• Financial support has remained steady, allowing us to continue sending care packages by mail when needed. However, the price to send a flat rate medium box has gone up again to $16.25!

 What can you do for us?

• Pray for our reach and the grieving families. Pray these families would be able to see hope in the midst of their great pain.
• Give financially. You can do this online or by sending a check with "Sent from Heaven" in the memo to Sierra Baptist Church in Visalia. 
• https://paypal.me/sentfromheavenca?country.x=US&locale.x=en_USWe could use a little help with our online presence, if anyone has ideas or wants to pitch in with that.
• Spread the word about Sent from Heaven however you can--online or in person! If you'd like some of our business cards and/or postcards for passing out, we would love to get some to you.
• If you're on Facebook, please navigate to our page and leave a review.
  

We hope you have a peaceful and blessed holiday season!

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What items can I give that will go in care packages?

As you can see, no two care packages are exactly alike. Each one is assembled based on the grieving family's need. There are some staples for every basket though, so if you'd like to get items to go directly in a basket, here's what we need:

• Individually-wrapped and non-perishable snacks for adults and children that are more healthy
• Boxes of tissue
• Packages of pocket tissue
• Meal gift cards of at least $25
• Herbal (non-caffeinated) tea

You may also purchase coloring book sets for $10 each from my friend Jaime who's an Usborne representative. More info to come on this!

Why these items?

When the idea of this organization was formed we sat and brainstormed about items we would have wanted or did receive that we really appreciated. Many of these items are chosen particularly to help with the immediate grief. Other items are chosen to hopefully help families heal, like books about grief and memorial jewelry.

All donations are tax-deductible.

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1 Candle: 1 Book Donated

We're so happy that Family Tree Candles and Sarah Philpott, author of Loved Baby: 31 Devotions Helping You Grieve and Cherish Your Child After Pregnancy Loss, are helping us out! During the entire month of April, one of Sarah's books will be donated for EACH candle purchased from Family Tree Candles! There are incredibly brave and special people behind both of these, so let me tell you a bit about them.

Sarah Philpott writes over at allamericanmom.net about her life as a Christian, farmer's wife, and mom in the South. A few years ago she experienced two back-to-back devastating miscarriages and was coming up short when she looked for a book on it, so she decided to write one. Her chapters are short, simple, and concise ranging in subjects from what one deals with physically to the myriad of emotions and remembering our sweet babies. With help from other women, Sarah's book also touches on different types of losses: miscarriage, still birth, and ectopic pregnancy. Nearly all the proceeds from the books sales are spent getting more books into the hands of grieving women who need it. Check out the book "trailer" below to find out more.



Meg Whitley is the creator and owner of Family Tree Candles. She's from Tennessee and pours a little southern charm into each candle she makes. Her candles not only smell great, but they are pretty, too. They are hand-poured high-quality soy wax candles in glass jars with gingham ribbons tied around each one, nestled inside a stamped canvas bag--ready for gifting! Fragrances are also added naturally with essential oils.

For our book drive, you can purchase a Loved Baby candle which comes in their ever-popular pineapple sage scent. For each candle purchased, Meg is donating the profit from the candle to purchase books that will go directly into our care packages. We have already put this book into several packages and have had excellent feedback on it, so we're eager to get more!

If you don't want to purchase online, you can purchase a candle directly from us and we'll order it for you. Thank you for your support! And give Sarah and Meg your support, too! Go follow them on social media!

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How can you help Sent from Heaven?

There is likely at least one family in the Valley who loses a child each day. These families need to be reached. Often this subject is not talked about or only talked about a little because people don’t know what to do or say. But these families are hurting, big time. It’s the most painful loss next to losing a spouse or other living children. And yet, people rarely get time off work to grieve about it.
There are so many ways you can help us right now and over time. Right now, we’re holding our first annual donation drive October 1-15, in honor of Pregnancy, Infant, and Child Loss Awareness Month. Here are some things we need donated

• Journals for men and women. We want to make sure that journals are included for both the mom and dad. We may even include one for an older child, if that suits the family. You can pick up journals inexpensively at places like Hobby Lobby and other craft stores. Joann’s in Visalia is going out of business right now, so you can likely get journals really cheap there. I often see journals in the Dollar Spot at Target, too.
• Meal gift cards. We would like to try to include gift cards to non-chain restaurants to help support our local community. As we’re our locally-based organization, we want to support our local businesses. A gift card in the amount of at least $30 is needed for each care package. Costco actually does sell some gift cards to local places at a discount.
• Tissue. Small pocket packages or boxes are fine. Get it in bulk for cheap at Costco or someplace similar. I saw 3-packs of pocket tissues in the Dollar Spot at Target recently.
• Amazon gift cards. These would be used to purchase books about grieving the loss of child.
• Donations for children’s books. Click the box on the left-side of this page that’s about donating for children’s books. For families with other children who will be grieving, we want to include a book for those children. Your donation here will also help us raise funds to purchase supplies for our care packages.
• Healthy snacks. I would love to see us supporting local places with this purchase also, like snacks from Central Valley Snacks downtown on Main Street or The Naked Nut. I know there are other places that I can’t even think of either. Make sure it’s a non-perishable snack. Or if you sell or purchase Thrive food, I would love to include a bag of Snackies. Some good snack options would be dried fruit, fruit leather, granola bars, veggie chips, etc.
• Memorial jewelry. I’m looking to my Premier Designs jewelers for help with this one. Many of you received an email from me recently asking for donations of Heaven and Identity necklaces. I can’t get enough of these on my own and need your help!
• Bibles. It doesn’t need to be fancy. A simple paperback Bible in an easy-to-read translation will be perfect. An NIV or NLT translation would be great. I saw a small paperback Bible at Hobby Lobby recently for about $2.
• iTunes and Google Play gift cards. We will use these to purchase and send downloads of a song to each family. You can purchase this in bulk for a discount at Costco, or at most other large chain stores.
• Coffee or tea. Hot drinks are comforting and reviving. I would love to see coffee from local roasters like Tazzaria or Maverick’s. Tea could just be purchased at grocery stores. Costco usually sells some in bulk. I would recommend an herbal tea, and perhaps something that’s soothing like chamomile. I would like to include at least a half pound of coffee and/or a box of tea in each package.
• Baskets or open-top containers. We don’t need anything large because the largest item being put in our package is a book. You can find colorful plastic baskets at the Dollar Tree that would work great. Again, since Joann’s is going out of business you can also check there for clearance items.

There are other ways you can help!

We need you to spread the word! Tell your pastors, friends, MOPs groups, etc. about us. Share and like our page on Facebook.

We need more prayer partners. We will soon start sending out a regular monthly update to our prayer partners with our praises and prayer requests. If you’d like to be part of our prayer team, please let us know!

We need helpers or more members for our board of directors. Currently, just three of us are behind this whole thing, but we’re going to need more brains for ideas and hands to serve. If you want to be part of this ongoing or a case-by-case basis, let us know.

We need you to write your story. If you have lost a child in some way, we want to share your story with our community. It’s healing and helpful to know you’re not alone when you can find stories from others about their loss. It also helps you know what to expect in the coming months. If you’re not a writer, Amanda can interview you and write it for you. Otherwise, she’ll just edit your story once you write it. During October, we would like to publish several stories each week in honor of this being Child Loss Awareness Month.

We need help making lists of churches and services, especially in cities outside Visalia. If you can point us to a website with this information or recommend places to us, please send them.

 We need a social media expert. We won’t be able to continue running all our accounts by ourselves, and we’re not geniuses at this social media stuff. We want to grow our Facebook and Instagram accounts to reach more people, of course. If you would like to volunteer to help us with this now, we would be honored and thankful. If you can discount your services, let us know. If you know someone, get us in touch.

We need a graphic designer. Again, we’re not experts at designing flyers or websites, but we need to look professional and polished. If you can donate your services or discount them, we would greatly appreciate it!

We need a lawyer or an intern at a law firm to help us with all the legal paperwork. We heard from another non-profit in town that they were able to get their paperwork and help for the first year done pro-bono. We definitely need that kind of help. If you or someone you know can help with this, please put us in touch.

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What's in a care package from Sent from Heaven?

We will craft each care package to each family. However, each package will contain some standard items. Each item we have chosen reflects what we cherished and needed most during our times of loss. Some items may be used more immediately, while others may be used over the year after. Additionally, these items may change over time, but as we start up, this is what we’re planning to include.

Standard items:

• Tissue.Aubin recalls not having any tissue around when she lost Liam and likely went through a lot of toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins instead.
• Journals. Moms and dads can use a private place to record their thoughts during this difficult time.
• Meal gift cards, preferably from local restaurants. Typically, families will receive meals from friends and family for a period of time, but once the leftovers run out, it will still be difficult to get dinner on the table. Since this a locally-based organization, we would love to include gift cards to local places (non-chain). Costco sells gift cards to several fabulous local restaurants, including the Jessen Restaurant Group (Tazzaria, Pizanos, Glick’s, etc.) and Pita Kabob.
• A book. This will vary depending on the type of loss the family experienced, but we would like to include at least one book from our list of recommendations.
• Healthy snacks. Again, we would love to see snacks from local places like The Naked Nut and Central Valley Snacks, or even Snackies from my Thrive friends. During a time of loss, you don’t want to go grocery shopping and you’re probably not that hungry, so healthy snacks fit the bill.
• Memorial jewelry. I (Amanda) work for Premier Designs Jewelry and cherished our Heaven necklace immediately after my losses. I even gifted one to Aubin, which I know she also cherishes. It’s a beautiful reminder of where our babies are now and that we’re living for heaven, not this life. We may also include the Identity dog tag necklace for men in our care package.
• An outfit from LuLaRue. It’s always nice to get something new. It’s especially nice to get something new during a difficult time. And the best thing about LuLaRue is you don’t have to go to a store!
• Music. It’s very healing for most people, and we’d like to include a download of “Thy Will” by Hillary Scott or “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle that would be sent by email to the family.
• A list of local churches and other services. We know of a lot of the churches in Visalia, but have little to no knowledge of churches in surrounding cities. We are also aware of a support group for child loss in Visalia and counseling services. We just need information about these things in other cities.

Other possible items:

• Bibles. If we know that a family doesn’t have a Bible or may not believe in Jesus, we want to include a Bible. Often God and religion is scrutinized during times of despair, so we want to make sure families have the Truth to read.
• Children’s book. If the family have other children who are grieving the loss of a sibling, we will include a book from Usborne based on the child’s age and need. Right now we’re holding a book drive for these books, so you can donate $25 to buy one Cuddle Bear book set or two Here in the Garden books.
• A pedicure and/or manicure. A few weeks or months after the dust settles, it’s a good idea to get out and do something fun. Being pampered is a great option during this time, too. We need to get in contact with some local salons to see if they can donate this.
• Coffee.It’s comforting and you often don’t sleep well during a time of loss, so it’s a great gift. Again, coffee from local roasters, like Maverick’s and Tazzaria would be our preference. Not everyone likes coffee though, so we wouldn't include this with every package. We may include tea instead.

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