30 Days of Project Sweet Peas Giveaway Day Two!!

As I have written about so many times before, one of the things that I do to remember and honor my son is donate care packages to families that have a baby in the NICU. I am able to do this through the help and support of Project Sweet Peas, which is a group of families just like mine, who have been in the NICU and know how hard it is. There are twelve local project spread out across the country that deliver these care packages. I am honored to be a part of this organization. And we need your help!!!


We have applied for a grant through the Pepsi Refresh Project, and have been selected as a finalist to win a $25,000 grant!! So here is how you can help us: vote once a day, every day for Project Sweet Peas to win. We need to be in the top ten at the end of the month to win. And to entice you to help us out and vote every day, I am doing a 30 Days of Project Sweet Peas giveaway! Everyday in the month of April I will be writing about the amazing things going on in Project Sweet Peas. And if you leave a comment that you voted each day, I will randomly pick one of these comments to win an Awareness Bracelet of your choice! I make awareness bracelets of all colors, and I have a Pregnancy and Infant Loss Charm Bracelet featured right now. 

And the winner from Day One Giveaway is (picked with the help of random.org) . . . . . Michelle from Missing Juanito!! Michelle please send me an email at megan@projectsweetpeas.com and let me know which Awareness Bracelet that you would like. Check out Bracelets for Awareness for idea, you can pick any bracelet with any amount of charms!

Welcome to Day Two of 30 Days of Project Sweet Peas! TodayI am going to talk a little bit about why my husband and I decided to start our own local project to benefit Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka, KS and Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO.

When I was 21 weeks pregnant with Will and MJ we received the devastating news that MJ would be born with CDH. I remember the doctor told me that some people would shock us with amazing support, and so many countless people did! But he also told us that some people would shock us and be so unsupportive. That very same day we experienced that unsupportiveness. A family member, who shall remain nameless called me and simply told me that I had so many things to smile about in my life that God wanted me to be sad for a little bit. WHAT? God wants me to be sad because I have had such a great life??? Did she not remember that my father almost died of cancer the year before? Did she not remember so many other things that I have not been able to smile about? That comment started a trend of unsupportiveness from the unnamed person and I am glad to say that they are no longer in our life. I am glad that I can shield Will from the pain and hurt that their comments and actions have caused me.

After losing MJ we experienced the same shocking supportiveness and shocking unsupportiveness from people that surrounded us. It's the shocking supportiveness that I hold so close to my heart and choose to focus on. I could not have gotten through the many days and nights without being surrounded by the people that love me and my family.

One day I was browsing around the Internet and I came across a website called Project Sweet Peas. I read their mission statement, I checked out a few Local Projects, and then I saw that you could start your own local project if you wanted to. Immediatly I emailed info@projectsweetpeas.com and called my husband and said lets do this. We both wanted to not only lend the same support to so many other families, but do this for MJ. To make sure that his name will live on through our love. I don't know if we ever thought we would be able to bring it to where it is today, but we are both so happy with where we are at. We have donated 52 bags since October! And the end of the month we are getting ready to donate another 50 bags! That would be 102 care packages in just seven months!

So please, please, please, help us give that comfort and support that helped us through so many days and nights to people who are going through the same thing that we did: watching their child lie on a hospital isolette and fight, simply fight for LIFE!  And head on over to http://www.refresheverything.com/projectsweetpea and vote for us. You can vote once per day, per email address. So if you have multiple email addresses, you can vote more then once!

And don't forget to leave a comment that you voted, so that you can win a FREE Awareness Bracelet of your choice!

** You can also get in on the free Awareness Bracelet by posting our link on your blog so that your readers will vote!**