Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Greeting from the Enchanted Family in KY

I recently spent about an evening knitting my rows on a very special shawl. I consider it an honor to be chosen to knit on the “Traveling Shawl”. When I was asked if I would be interested in sharing in this project, I was overjoyed.

When I got the package with the shawl, there was a big to-do around here. I had been talking about it for about a week, because I knew it was coming. The children just love mail time around here (kind of like Christmas every day, lol) and they brought the package to the shop. I opened it and took out the shawl and everybody around oohed and ahhhed.

When I had the time to knit on it the next day, the children all saw me doing it and taking great pains to make sure no one interrupted Marmee....(read that k1,2,3....just a minute, Marmee is busy, I will talk to you at the end of this row, LOL). Just in case you don't know, I have 6 of my 8 children living with me and sometimes we even have 2 or 3 trying to get my attention at the same time, hard to believe I know... ;) Anyway, when I devote that much concentration to something, the kids want to know why, so I began to explain what I was knitting on and why.

I immediately knew who I wanted to honor when I was asked to knit. I have a very dear friend, Patricia, that lost her sister to breast cancer, and I saw how she and her mother, Sue, handled that loss. I love them both so much and they faced it so bravely. I knew I wanted them to know that I had noticed and had not forgotten. The other person I wanted to recognize is a breast cancer survivor, Judy. This woman is the spunkiest, most courageous person I know. As many of you know, when you face the life altering circumstances of this horrible disease, you also have to face the fact that others lives around you are going to alter. Judy has demonstrated to me that you can take what life deals you and your immediate world with a smile on your face. These people are my heroes and I wanted to honor them.

The children wanted to honor them too, so they all wanted to knit one stitch on the shawl. Kay graciously gave us permission! Greg joined in too and knit one stitch. He hadn't knit since he was a kid, but he remembered how! Then came the request to give their savings to the foundation, as the shawl has a $5 suggested donation. Every donation is entered in a raffle to win the completed shawl. I was so happy to watch them be as moved as I was by this shawl being a part of our lives for a couple of days.

3 comments:

T said...

This entry made me cry. Love the kids helping.

NancyM said...

This made me cry, too. I love the photos so much!

Grace said...

I love that they helped you with the shawl, I am all goosebumpy now!