| It is hard to believe that it is already December!
Where has this year gone? As the year draws to a close I am reminded of what a blessing it truly is to “do life” alongside so many amazing, resilient families and children. Our team truly loves the work we do.
As the holiday season kicks into high gear, my thoughts are focused on your families as you prepare for holidays that might not look exactly as you had hoped. Mothers on bedrest at home or in the hospital, families in the NICU with a critically ill child, parents learning to navigate life post-NICU with multiple specialist and therapies, or those of you who have experienced the devastating loss of your child this year or in the past - all of these situations during the holidays can bring about a wide range of emotions, feelings and circumstances that no family ever planned on having to confront. Sometimes, life is just plain hard. But you don't have to do it alone.
I hope that in the coming weeks as we all prepare our hearts for the holiday season that you will contact us if you need anything. Whether it is a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, or the need for resources and suggestions on how to navigate the holiday season, our staff wants to help make this season a time where you know you are supported - no matter where you are in this journey. Please pick up the phone and call us, or send us an email. We want to walk alongside you. One of our core values is the belief that there is always hope, because we are here to travel alongside you and encourage you along the way. It is our greatest wish that your family will find peace, comfort and the joy that you so richly deserve during this holiday season.
From our little family to yours we wish you all a very blessed holiday. Thank you for allowing us to walk alongside so many of you this year.
Lisa R. Grubbs, President and Founder
NICU Helping Hands
| Let's Catch Up!
What we have been doing this Quarter? | | | Thanksgiving in the NICU
Each NICU Helping Hands Program Facilitator and volunteers made sure that antepartum and NICU families who were spending the holidays in the hospital did not go without Thanksgiving Dinner. |
| Parent Support & Education
Interactive sessions included: The Power of Advocacy, Being a Part of Your Baby's NICU Care Team, Holidays in the NICU, Safe Sleep, Infection Control, Developmental Panel, Bonding with Your Baby, Coping in the NICU, Adjusting to the NICU Environment, Self Care, Building Your NICU Support System, Preparing for Discharge
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| | | Sibling Inclusion
Once a month, siblings of infants in the NICU gather to make rice babies. The sibling will take a sock, weigh out how much rice their sibling weighed when he or she was born, and then decorate the baby.
Families also enjoy spending time together playing games, making personalized crafts to hang by the baby's bedside, and writing letters to their siblings. |
| | Crafting Hour
Each week, families from Antepartum gather and either watch a movie, meet the other families in the unit, or create a keepsake for their baby. This holiday season, our crafts included things such as: Personalized holiday onesies, keepsake boxes, button canvases, wooden signs, | |
| | | Trunk-or-Treat
Because last year was such a huge success, we decided to host our second annual Trunk-or-Treat! It was SO MUCH FUN! We can't say thank you enough to our gracious hosts at Southside Church of Christ who allowed us to use their parking lot yet again and to all of our sponsors who allowed us to bring in our current and post-NICU families for a morning of games, crafts, snacks, and of course costumes. |
| | Beanies for Babies
Due to an abundance of requests to make hats for our tiniest Texans in the NICU, NICU Helping Hands Volunteer Seamstress, Nona Vandergriff was kind enough to head up a new group of volunteers to knit and crochet holiday hats. For more information about how to become involved in the Beanies for Babies group, please email us at [email protected]. | |
| | As the calendar year comes to a close many of you will be thinking about your family’s year end giving plans. We know that you have so many wonderful options to choose from when supporting organizations financially, but we hope that you will consider giving a year end gift to NICU Helping Hands this year.
Our organization is dependent on generous donors like you to fulfill our commitment of never charging families for our services. We operate with no overhead costs from office space and we have a very small, hard working staff and hundreds of volunteers, so that we can pour all our financial resources into programs for families that are going through one of the most traumatic times life has to offer up. Your financial gift will allow us to offer our programs to more families and siblings in 2019. It will allow us to make sure families are receiving in person bedside support in hospitals, receiving printed educational materials to help them navigate the journey, and ensure they are getting plugged into support programs during and after the NICU. For those families who experience the devastating loss of a child, your financial support provides them not only a beautiful custom made angel gown® garment to wrap their child in for their final journey but printed national bereavement resources after they leave the hospital.
No gift is too small and with your help we will impact lives and make a difference for those experiencing hospital bedrest, the hospitalization of their critically ill baby in the NICU, or the death of their little one in 2019. We are so grateful for all of our supporters this past year and we wish each of you a very blessed holiday season. | | | Below, you will find our itemized Christmas Wishlist.
Please keep in mind that most of our wishlist items can be found at local dollar stores and do not need to be name brand items. | | If items for our Holiday Wishlist are purchased online and you wish to have them mailed directly, our shipping address is:
3023 S UNIVERSITY DR
SUITE 211
Fort Worth, TX 76109 | |
| NICU Helping Hands
Fort Worth, Texas
(817) 668-5191 |
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