"Hey! Where's my mail?"

Many of you might be wondering where your C4F mail is? Well thanks to some volunteers it will be going out this weekend! One or both of the boys has had fever/snotty nose since the end of last week. We want to send crafts, not germs. :) So whenever someone is sick, our policy is to not touch crafts. Some of the families we send them to have low immune systems and can't even have visitors. So do I think a snotty nose could travel via envelope? My answer is: why even risk it? Totally not worth it. All that to say we have some lovely volunteers that will stuff, address, stamp, seal, and mail off close to 80 smiles this weekend! Thank you!!

In our house we are thankful for snotty noses for a few reasons. While I would rather not any of us catch a cold there are some positives:
1. Braddock is always a snuggler by nature, Beckham on the other hand is not. Most of this week though, he has been saying, "Momma a snuggle" and crawling into my arms. So I take all the snuggling I can get, snot and all!
2. It is a great lesson for the boys to learn that God loves them very much and cares about something as small as their snotty nose. So we are able to pray for their colds and other friends with "big boo boo's" in the same prayer.
3. Thinking about my first 2 reasons from a momma's heart is such a great illustration of how God loves it when we just snuggle up to Him. We can give Him our smallest to largest worries, troubles, fears, challenges, joys and happiest moments. So I am thankful for snotty noses that make me realize we might have delayed mail and forgotten a couple of chores but taking time to snuggle up is so important. Especially for someone who loves us so much!

There were many families that did experience difficulty over the last few weeks. Another mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor, now the second young mom in less than a month that we are praying for, a family lost their grandmother, several friends had very important doctors appointments surrounding the next steps in their treatment plans, several experience difficulty in their current diagnosis and families with pending adoptions that are changing by the hour. Please know friends that even on days when you don't receive mail from us, WE ARE STILL PRAYING! We love you all and we are praying for you often! Mail will be arriving soon and it will be snot free!! :)

xoxo,
Erica aka "Momma"
and 2 sleeping snotty boys (Braddock and Beckham)

Hey Friends!

An update, long over due! I have finally updated our current prayer list on the blog! Yay! We were using our mailing labels at the house because we were getting additional families a few times a week. Now that they are updated we can all pray for them specifically! We will be posting some craft ideas for this month by the end of the week. I'll have to admit with temperatures in the 80's its been hard not to skip "spring" crafts and go straight to summer! But we will be doing the month of May with the spring theme and then bounding into summer! We get so many request asking how people can help. So I wanted to share a couple of ways that are super easy:

1. Pray- we have so many families that are facing unbelievable circumstances and situations so the more people praying for them, the better! Here is a link to our updated Prayer List:
http://crafts4friends.blogspot.com/p/friends.html

2. Craft- Big or small, easy or complex, we would love your help with crafts. It can be as easy as printing off one of our crafts ideas, coloring it and sending it in. Or you can design your own craft, spending endless amounts of hours perfecting it and send it in. The only guideline is that these are made for encouragement and uplifting so we ask that you keep that in mind while creating the art. You can use paper, sand, glitter, plaster of paris, molding clay, fabric, paint, or whatever your favorite "medium" is! Once completed, whether it's 1 or 15, you can mail them in to our P.O. Box below and we will distribute them. Make sure you check our Facebook page for photos, you might see the family with your artwork!!

Crafts4Friends
11250 Old St. Augustine Road
Suite 15307
Jacksonville, FL 32257

3. Donate- That can come in the form of time, postage, supplies, monetary donations, or clothes. Yes, clothes! We have been selling clothes from our own closets to help with the expense of postage and supplies.  So any gently used clothing we are able to resell and put that money towards Crafts 4 Friends. Each month we spend at minimum $30 for shipping and last month, due to the size of some of the items we were at $50. We are also in the process of filing for our 501(c) status which will require us to raise more funds. We have set up a paypal email address: Crafts4Friends@gmail.com

4. Add- If you know someone who is experiencing difficult circumstances or would love to receive crafts in the mail let us know! We love praying for and making crafts for our friends!

Thanks for supporting us and following us in our journey to share joy with so many families!
God Bless!
Momma (Erica), Braddock & Beckham