It's been busy lately!

The end of summer and beginning of fall has been a busy and blessed season for Sent from Heaven. In August we celebrated our THIRD birthday. I set up a table at a Women's Health Day in Visalia where 100s of women saw our table and talked to us. They even awarded us with the best decorated table, which was very sweet.

On the last Sunday of August we invited everyone in town to join us for coffee at Component Coffee Lab, and they had a better than average Sunday! They graciously donated 15% of the profits to us, totaling just over $500. I also hung out there for much of the day, allowing me to connect with tons of people, including a local midwife at the Visalia OBGYN office. We are beyond grateful for all that Component owners Jon, Greg, Mikayla, and Miguel have done for us! Go support them!

In September, the shirt Faith over Fear shirt orders came to us with a $55 donation! After totaling up all donations from August and September, we received around $1000! What a blessing for us! We were able to use that to restock the beautiful books and memorial jewelry we include in our care packages, as well as all the other smaller items. If you would ever like to donate specific items to us, you can shop our Amazon Wish List! All items from the list are sent directly to us so you don't have to go to the store or even get the items to us.

October was Child Loss Awareness Month in which we shared about on social media. We also attended the Legacy of Love Dinner and Memorial Candle Lighting. This event is nicely done, free, and family-friendly. It happens near Oct. 15th each year, so plan to come next year if you can! Legacy of Love is a local support group for moms and dads who lose a child during pregnancy or the first year of life. Also, on October 15th, we delivered our 100th care package! While we mourn the loss of so many children, we are grateful to be able to offer hope to all these families during a most difficult time.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR US?

• January: We will launch a child loss support group in Hanford, CA that will meet monthly. If you know a place we can meet for free, please let us know!
• Spring: annual Always in Our Hearts silent auction. I think this is going to be a little different than the past two years. More details to come. We would love to include weekend getaways and tickets to amusement parks in the auction this year. If you know how we can get these, please contact us.
• Becoming a stand-alone non-profit: Currently we are a ministry of Sierra Baptist Church and this has been a great relationship but we don't want to take advantage of this either. To become a non-profit it costly and we need to establish a board of directors. This means we need a few people (4-5) who can commit to monthly meetings, volunteering as needed, and inputting ideas. CAN YOU DO THIS?? We would love to consider adding you to our circle of influence. 
• For now, we won't be sending out special emails but posting all information on the website, Facebook, and Instagram. We don't have the time or right person currently to help with emails and social media. However, we will try to add everyone who receives emails to our website subscriber list so you can still keep up with us.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support! Keep spreading the word!

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dreams for the future

When I founded Sent from Heaven about 2.5 years ago, I really wasn't sure what would happen. Up to this point, we have created nearly 70 care packages! They were all FREE, too! I have been trying to expand our reach by getting in touch with churches and hospitals. Sometimes this has been profitable, but often it has not. But I think there are other ways to expand our reach, so here are some dreams for the future:

• Hire a social media guru (an intern or volunteer would be great!)
• Create a board of directors that meets regularly and volunteers to help with what we're doing
• Hold memorial services for families who have received baskets at least twice a year
• Hold an annual couple's retreat for those who have lost a child
• Learn more about the grieving process
• Advocate for bereavement days at work after miscarriage
• Open other Sent from Heaven chapters around the nation

Are you interested in any of this? Send me an email at sentfromheavenvisalia@gmail.com

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What can you donate for Child Loss Awareness Month 2018?

$25 purchases a journal, tissue, snacks, and more for a care package

$50 gifts jewelry for several grieving mamas

$100 sponsors our October Balloon Release for package recipients

$200 pays for marketing materials and supplies

$350 helps us reach our grieving community

$500 sponsors our silent auction event

$1,000 gives hope to many who need it

Approximately 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage. Many couples suffer this loss silently.

Depression, anxiety, and guilt often follow after the loss of a child. And who is there to help? We are.

Many marriages end in divorce after infant death. There's a lack of community and resources for them. We want to help change this.

In the next year, Sent from Heaven desires to build a community with those who receive our care packages to help fill many of the needs described. We have created an online community for these families and will be having regular events for them. They need to know they're not alone.

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Future Plans

This organization has already been blessed and continues to grow with all of your support! Here are some things we hope to accomplish within the next year:

We would like to have a consistent number of care packages going out every month. By this, we mean that we want to be able to help more people going through this loss. We know there is still a stigmatism in society saying that you shouldn’t talk about miscarriage or child loss and we hope that by sharing our stories that we can reach out to more families so they don’t feel the need to suffer in silence.

We would like to see consistent monthly donors. Although we welcome and appreciate every donation we get, we know that unless we get consistent donations, we cannot consistently deliver care packages to families. We're working on a new "Sponsor a Family" campaign, so be watching for it!

We would like to follow up with families that receive our packages as well as send out cards on Mother's Day, Father's Day, around Christmas, and on angelverssaries for the first year. We'll have small gatherings to help us accomplish this task.

We want to open up a private group on Facebook to connect grieving families with other families that have lost a child. This gives them a place where others understand what they are going through, a safe place to talk about their angels, and share their resources. We just need to figure out the do's and don'ts of our group.

We hope to continue growing our site and adding more resources as well as stories from those who have lost a child. If you're among those who have lost a child, we can help you write your story if it's not written. We can interview you, and then write it for you.

We plan to reach out to local hospitals like Kaweah Delta and provide them with information on what we do. We hope that in return they will share our information with grieving parents so that we can provide them with a care package and information about other resources to help them with the grief.

We would like to reach out and establish a connection to other local churches, MOPs groups and mom groups. On April 20, we'll be sharing with the Hanford MOPs group! We'll be putting together simple little packets soon to deliver to churches, other nonprofits, and businesses.

We would like to make a connection with other nonprofits that have a similar cause. We would like to work with them and guide those who receive our care packages to them because a community is stronger when they work together.

We would like to partner with local businesses. This will help spread our mission, gain more support and donations. If you or someone you know owns a local business, please contact us to see how you can help!

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