You may remember in January that Secular Liberty Homeschoolers announced we were volunteering to help make and donate two-ply cotton flannel hearts to NICU families at Cape Coral Hospital.
Some background: Each NICU family receives three hearts. One heart is placed under the baby's head, and the others are for parents to wear.
The hospital does this because research has shown parental, especially maternal, scent positively affects hospitalized babies. It helps them bond with parents, even while they're in the NICU, and creates the familiarity the baby needs to start and continue breastfeeding.
We knew we wanted to help as soon as we heard about this, so we asked one of the hospital contacts what we could do.
She said they were rationing hearts to only two per family, because they were running out. And she added that if we could provide 100 hearts, it would go a long way.
I put the information out there to our group members and followers of the regional homeschooling message board, and the response was astonishing.
Dozens of volunteers stepped up to provide fabric, cut templates and sew the hearts together. Even the kids helped out by adorning tags with beautiful artwork and thoughtful notes.
In the end, we shattered the goal of 100 hearts, creating 211 hearts that we donated to Cape Coral Hospital on February 14, making it the most heart-felt Valentine's Day ever.
You should be so proud.
You created something that gave struggling babies comfort.
You helped give families hope.
Years from now, someone will look in their memory box, see a lovingly sewn piece of fabric that used to be bigger than their head and know that someone who didn't know them — someone they'd never meet — cared about them.
You did that.
Thank you for being amazing.