Everly's Angels Foundation, Part 3

Part 3

 

In parts 1 & 2, I shared with you the birth of the foundation and then the heart of the foundations purpose and mission.

For the third and final part of explaining Everly’s Angels Foundation, I will share our “who” and “how” with you. 

Who is a part of Everly’s Angels Foundation and how exactly do we plan to carry out the mission of Everly’s Angels Foundation?

Our volunteer board of directors consists of 6 people, all of whom have a heart and desire to carry on Everly’s legacy. 

The perfect place for a board meeting:  Sweet Peas Café!

Crystal Hopkins (President)                    

Kathy Mullins (Vice-president)

Jimmy Hopkins (Treasurer)                    

Garry Mullins (Secretary)

Jennifer Garner (Lead Creative Design)

Sarah Edgar (Marketing & Media Relations)

Hard at work planning for the Everly's Angels!

 

I am so thankful for these special people who love Everly and love our mission as much as myself.  Their gift of time and talent is so very precious and instrumental to our foundation and to the families we serve.

 

Now for the FUN stuff!  What are we going to DO?

 

 

Well, for starters, we plan to bless special needs families.  We are ur first event will be in October.  A team of Everly’s Angels will provide Trunk or Treat fun for a local church’s Fall Festival, designed specifically for special needs families.  Trust me when I tell you that being a special needs family is HARD work!  We were blessed to know about the event last year in time for us to enjoy it with Everly.  This evening is a night full of fall games, fun, music and NOW a new twist with Trunk or Treating!  I’m so excited that Everly’s Angels will be able to share in the fun night!

Here we were at this same fall festival last year with our Everly.

Daddy and Everly enjoying a dinner break from the festivities.

 

Stay tuned as we plan to complement the Special Needs Respite Program in our community throughout the year.  I can’t wait to continue our planning of more fun events and activities for these well deserving families!

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On a more serious note, another aspect of Everly’s Angels is to minister to grieving parents who experience the loss of a child.  Currently, we are partnering with the local NICU to provide a keepsake in the form of a bereavement box to the parents.  This beautifully crafted box will be filled with a few hand chosen mementos the parents can use while they are with their child in their last moments together.  The box will then become a treasured keepsake in which to hold special items belonging to the baby. 

 

As Everly’s Angels Foundation grows, we hope to have a further reach and extend our services to surrounding hospitals, hospices and obstetrical practices. 

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We are thrilled to be able to continue to share Everly’s NAME, STORY AND SPIRIT through the work of Everly’s Angels Foundation.

 

If you would like to help Everly's Angels Foundation, there are several ways you can do this:

 

*Shop at our Etsy store lovingeverly.etsy.com

 

*Donate on this website (click button on top right above)

 

*Join us on Aug. 4 from 4-9p.m. at Waters Ave Chick fil A where 20% of proceeds go directly to the foundation (be sure to tell them you are there for Everly's Angels)

*Save the Date for March 5, 2016 where we will have our first BIG fundraiser.  Out of town options to participate will be available.  Mark the date now, though.  9 a.m.- Noon

 

*Become an angel and help us by volunteering your time.  Plenty of opportunities for those who are not local as well.  Please email me at loveforeverly@earthlink.net for more info.

 

*Pray for our team, the foundation, and for plans that we will be a blessing to those who need us and that we will glorify God in the process. 

*We would love you to follow along on our Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/everlyhopkins and www.facebook.com/everlysangels

 

A Friend Indeed

I am SO over the moon happy for one of my nearest and dearest friends, Jennifer. 

Let me tell you about this amazing gal…she’s the faithful daughter of the King, supportive wife to her crafty husband and doting mom to two energetic boys. She’s also an incredibly talented graphic designer, skilled photographer and crafter extraordinaire!  She also just happens to be Everly’s Angels Foundation’s very own Lead Creative Designer!!! 

 

 

Over the years, she has blessed our family with her skill sets.  However, she just went above and beyond in such special ways this past year plus. Because she is so obedient and humble about her God-given abilities, talents and giftings, many are unaware of just how talented Jennifer truly is and how her heart is led to minister to others. 

She is the silent force behind SO much of what you see for Love for Everly, Team Everly and now all Everly’s Angels.  I would be remiss if I didn’t share with you all that she does for “us” as a collective whole.  Here’s literally just a sampling of what she has created for us because of her servant’s heart and her love for Everly and our family:  priceless photos of Everly at 2 months old (the infamous book shot and me holding Everly); series of photos of both boys a couple of years ago and most recently Garren’s 16^th; our handout business cards; Love for Everly Etsy shop and website, including all graphics and photos of products; designed the bookmarks for the shop and a few new things I can’t wait for you to see that are ready to make their appearance in Everly’s shop as well.  In addition, Jen channeled her creative juices into creating a beautiful vision for Everly’s Celebration of Life…from the bucket list frame she and her husband surprised me with to the topiaries adorning the tables to choosing and enlarging of photos used.   Needless to say, she has a vision for design, color and style that is unparalleled.  We are SO lucky that she is our creative designer for Everly’s Angels!

 

Her family is also wholeheartedly behind her and what she does for us.  Not only are they supportive, hubby Jeremy even puts his muscle and woodworking into projects she's made for us and her kiddos Noah and Xander willingly share their mama with me.

 

One of the two biggest gifts she has ever blessed us with came days after Everly passed away.  Jen came to the house to photograph Everly when she “came home” for the weekend.  She also photographed each of us with our sweet angel and it was a precious time for us.  However, it isn’t easy for someone who is unfamiliar with a family to do such a thing, let alone someone who is so close to the family.  And the photos, most of which we’ve chosen to keep as private family memories, are some of the most touching and intimate we have and will always treasure.

The second gift that is noteworthy is the creation of our Love For Everly website.  Words really can’t express the gratitude I had in my heart when she surprised me with it!  Up until Everly’s passing, I was writing on the CaringBridge website. Then after sissy’s Celebration, Jen shared with me this secret she had been quietly working on for weeks…www.LoveforEverly.com.  Not only was it the most beautiful thing I had ever seen...colors chosen specifically for Everly, little details picked out just for her…but each element fit Sweet Pea’s personality just right.  The mind-blowing part was that Jen had painstakingly copied ALL of my blog posts, pictures and captions one at a time and in chronological order from Caring Bridge and placed them into the new website.  One at a time.  All 76 of them.  And all hundreds of photos.   What an amazing gift to use your talent to uplift and encourage someone else! 

Jennifer has sacrificially spent hours upon hours upon hours creating, designing, uploading, working to bless our family.  She continues to do this and does so willingly. 

 

Not only does she spend precious time creating and designing for us, but she also spends time with us.  She’s been coming over to be with me…laughing, crying, shopping (yikes!!), planning, cleaning, organizing (the pantry still rocks, girl!), photographing (#gottahavethecamera)…one day every week since Everly passed away.  It is one of the highlights of my week and the day I most look forward to!  There were a couple crazy weeks on my side that prevented her from being able to come over and even Garren asked where Jen was after noticing it had been a whole week.  She brings so much joy and fun into our home while she’s there that all of the family loves having her stay!  I’ve kept her so busy (#reallyjusthavingtoomuchfun) a couple of times that we’ve had sleepovers at the house!

 

That brings me to this…

Jen just opened her own Etsy shop called Pocket Full of Kisses (do we not just LOVE this title??)!!!!  I’m so very proud of her for the work she’s put into designing her products!  And, yes, every single one is handmade!  Her creative mind works 24/7 and so it’s only a matter of time before PFOK Design Studio is stocked full of designs!  I would LOVE to have everyone check out her Etsy shop...click here…like it on Facebook, favorite it on Etsy and let her know how talented she is by ordering some of her new designs!  I just ordered mine and can’t wait to put them to use!!  Oh, and in case you were wondering, she does custom orders so keep that in mind! 

 

 

How blessed and lucky I am to call her friend! 

 

 

What's Next?

Today marks seven weeks since Everly went to Heaven. 

No, today isn't any easier than it was before but we've learned to cope better. 

Everly at 4 months old.

Right away we knew that keeping busy would be beneficial for us.  Necessary even.  And busy we've been!  So much so that I'm having to carve out this time to write much like I did when I would hold Everly in my lap and write in previous posts.
So, here I sit trying to encapsulate our life for the past few weeks since Everly's Celebration of Life February 20 and the only comparison I have is that it's like a roller coaster.  It really has been. 

We've had a touring-like schedule during the day, with Jimmy working long hours and me with the boys, school and catching up, but each night ends the same for Jimmy and myself:  tears of sorrow and hearts hurting an unspeakable, unimaginable pain that is our now constant companion.  

Please understand that I share this not for sympathy but because I know it's hidden well. I know  we have disguised it. 

It's there.  All.  The.  Time.


Love in daddy's arms

Know this when we are out.  When we are working in the yard.  When you run into us at Publix.  When you see us at the gym.  When we are at church.  Yes, even when we are laughing.

During the day, we are consumed by work, activities, functions, workouts, school and just the normal humdrum of our daily lives.   

But when the sun goes down and the children are all nestled in their beds, visions of sugarplums, unfortunately, are not what's dancing in our heads.

Simply put:  we miss our daughter.  We miss holding her.  We yearn to hear her, smell her, to kiss her, to see her smile.  It is still to us, 7 weeks later, unfathomable that we will not have that again while on this earth. 

It is every parent's worst nightmare.  To lose a child. 

But here we are living it.  Having to go on and move forward.  Having to figure out how to live when you have a hole that can not under any circumstance be filled. 

How does one do that?

That is what we've been trying to figure out for the past 50 days, 7 weekends, 1176 hours and 70,560 minutes.  

But, just like a modern day fairy tale, this story does have a happy ending. 

We have to make it so.  We are responsible from here on out with how we choose to live.  We have free will for how we handle our sadness.  We make decisions daily to live with intention in our grief or to let it get the best of us. 

Everly would want us to be happy.  To make others happy.  To encourage active living. 

 We desire to take our love for Everly and to love others.  We long to share how she lived life to the fullest and help others do the same.  Diagnosis, limitations, predicaments do not have to be barriers.  We hope to share these messages. 

So with that Everly's Angels was born.

Everly's Angels is still in its infancy with planning, goals and how it will impact others.  However, our heart is and will remain to share love with all and to help others live life well. 

We do not know right now where it will lead but we have taken the first few baby steps...

Everly spent much time in the PICU as well as some time in the NICU at birth.  I was fortunate that I could spend every night there while Jimmy or my parents were with the boys.  However, not all babies and children were able to have a caregiver remain in the hospital with them.  Some parents both work full-time, some have other children to care for at home and still others just live too far away to make it a feasible option to commute daily.  As unbelievable as it was for me to accept, there are other situations where one or both parents were not allowed to visit the child in PICU. 

After spending time contemplating the experience we had in the PICU even though it was a "hospital" stay, we realized that two things made it so...the nursing staff (y'all already know how we feel about our friends there) and how we chose to spend our time.  We chose to make the most of each day we had with Everly, including those hospital ones. 

Our heart has been touched that one of the ways we would like to help is with our time.  God wants us to give of our time, talents and treasures. 

And so we shall.

I began the process last week of becoming a Pet Therapy volunteer with Ala, our 5 year old malti-tzu, at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.  Some of you may know that Ala has been making therapy visits to nursing homes and in elementary schools for the past 5 years now.  So, we are thrilled that we will be able to bless those children in the PICU with what might be there only non-medical visit of the day.

The babies in the NICU sometimes aren't able to have a caregiver stay with them 24/7 for the same reasons as those in the PICU.  We would like to fill in some of the gaps.  So, my parents, myself and Jimmy have a heart to become "cuddlers" there...feeding, changing diapers and providing another set of arms to soothe a crying or fussy baby.  Right now, they have no openings for this volunteer position but the application is in :-)  Prayers that a spot opens up when God deems it the right time.

Our almost 16 year old son also was touched by his sister and has a heart for special needs children.  He volunteered this past weekend at a local church's respite care day for parents.  He enjoyed it so much that he has decided to continue to go back. 

Jimmy and I also were asked to participate in a NICU Parent Support Group to assist other parents.  Some of these parents, like us, will be entering this new world of machines, tubes and special needs like we did.  Some just need to know that living outside the NICU is possible.  And others just need someone to talk with who understands.  We are so excited about this new project! 

These are just three examples of ways we are beginning our new "next."  Our heads are buzzing with ideas for the future of Everly's Angels and our hearts soaring!  We now have an open Etsy store with Team Everly t-shirts, sweet peas and even specially designed bookmarks.  All proceeds will go into future plans for Everly's Angels. 

We do not know where this new path will lead us, nor who will be touched by it but we do know that the way Everly touched us is how we would like to impact others.  If you have a heart to get involved or just would like to help us brainstorm with us, we would love to hear from you!  I know many of you are much more experienced than we are and we need YOU. 

Thank you, family, friends and complete strangers, for walking alongside us on this walk.  Thank you for taking the time to get this far down in the page, too.  We appreciate every single thought, prayer, call, message or kind gesture toward our family and on behalf of our family. 

With God's love and with your support, we CAN continue and not only continue but to share Everly and her message with ALL!

Matthew 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.