Blanket Fort Friday {BFF}: Heaven Sent

This is Jack. I believe that God brought his family into me for a reason, although I didn't know why at the time. Jack was diagnosed with SMA and I e-mailed Kathy about sending Jack a blanket from B4SMA. Kathy said they would love one. So we sent out a blanket that weekend. I still remember receiving the e-mail with Jack's pictures, he was one of the most adorable and expressive babies I had ever seen! On my birthday, January 8th, Kathy e-mailed me asking if I could have anything for my birthday what would I want. I honestly didn't know what to say! So I said the first thing I thought of "a shopping spree at JoAnn Fabrics". Kathy said since she couldn't take me shopping, how about she send me some fabric. I, of course, said yes! I didn't hear from Kathy for a few weeks and then suddenly we received 5 MADE blankets with stuffed animals 3 days from her! We were in awe. Honestly, we didn't know what to say. I talked to Kathy every so often. We have received a total of 8 blankets from Kathy over the years in memory of sweet baby Jack. There are dozens of SMA families who quietly support B4SMA in memory of their babies and children by donating blankets and stuffed toys.

Most of them are not involved in the SMA Community and prefer to be anonymous. This post i1a thank you to each and every one of them. Your angels will never be forgotten in spite of their all to brief time on Earth. To borrow a quote from another SMA quilt organization (more on this in a future BFF post), COLE's Quilts, “It’s not how deep the sea. It’s not how wide the sky. It’s how sweet the time, From hello to goodbye.”. Thank you, Jack and all the other SMA Angels, for guiding
your families to choose B4SMA as their way of keeping your memory alive. And even as the day of B4SMA no longer being needed approaches your memories will like to in the hearts and minds of the individuals who received a blanket in your memory and everyone they know. The chain of blanket hug love will never be broken.

Jack with his B4SMA blanket

Butterflies for Hannah

Earlier this year we were the recipients of a generous donation from Hope for SMA. An organization started in memory of a little girl named Hannah, Hope for SMA is dedicated to finding a cure for SMA but, like us, believes that family support is also extremely important.

Julie, Hannah's grandmother, asked that a portion of the donation be used to make blankets in memory and honor of Hannah. It took a bit of time and searching but we were eventually able to find exactly what we thought represented Hannah and her amazing family.



G'ma J'Lo, one of our most important and dedicated volunteers (don't worry, we will do an in-depth description of each of our major volunteers once the new website is up), and Grandma GoldenHeart, one of our other most important and active volunteers, set to work on creating beautiful blankets with the material we found. Below is the result; mostly butterflies but we did manage to find one that will be better suited to a boy (which has already been sent and received to a little boy named Logan. Click Here to see a photo of Logan enjoying his blanket).

Aren't they wonderful? Hannah never received a blanket from us at B4SMA but never the less her memory lives on through the donation from Hope for SMA and we are extremely grateful.

Want to know more about Hannah? Watch her story, told by her amazing mom, Jessica, by Clicking Here
Want to support B4SMA also? Email us at b4sma_kids@yahoo.com for further details