Alana's Foundation

   Sorry that I did not post right back.  Had a little computer trouble.  As I had mentioned before, we did go to NH to hear our daughter Ashlee compete for vocal solo.  Praise God, she won first place for states and regionals.  We have never heard her sound so beautiful.  Before Ash walked up to perform she whispered to both my husband and myself, "I'm going to sing this for Lala."  That was her nickname for her sister, Alana.  Of course we both started to cry.  I pleaded with the Lord to please let Ashlee get herself together so that she could sing.  God is good.  In a few weeks she will be traveling to SC to perform for nationals.  We are all quite excited.

   As for my volleyball, we also won on the night of my daughters competition.  We are now into the semi-finals.  We were the sixth place team out of 16 teams in the league and beat the third place team last Thursday.  What a great game it was.  I know this Thursdays match will be just as exciting.

   A couple of posts ago, I had mentioned that my husband and I want to start a foundation in Alana's name.  We were trying to think of a name for the foundation and how we were going to pursue this matter.  Well, we have a name, it is called, "Alana's Bubbles for Joy Foundation."  Our daughter absolutely loved bubbles.  For her birthday last March 26, we had gotten her a bubble maker.  It was in the form of two little bears that blew bubbles from its mouths.  Boy, did she love that toy.  What we are hoping to do is to raise either enough money to purchase bubbles and bubble toys or get donations of bubbles and bubble toys to donate them on her birthday each year to hospitalized children.  We would like to start with Connecticut Children's Medical Center and Mt Sinai Children's hospital in NY.  A friend of my husband is going to help out in getting this project up and running.  Please pray for us as we begin this project.  It means so much to me and my husband and we know it will be a blessing to many children.

   I wanted to also mention that we are getting started to foster children again.  All of our paperwork is in.  Our support worker will be at our house tomorrow to talk with us and go over our paperwork.  There are so many children out there with medical needs that need someone to care for them.  That is where my heart is.

   Many people ask me and my husband, "Are you sure you are ready?" or "Don't you think you need more time?"  I do understand their concern.  But, you know,  the grief of my daughter's death will always be there.  I can't sit around and wait for the grief to go away, because it won't.  We will miss her till we are someday reunited with her in heaven.  What I can do, is to continue on.  To continue on with God's grace, with his "Amazing Grace".  We want to honor our daughter by having and giving joy to others.

   As I get more information about the Foundation I will post about it.  Thank you all for your continued prayers.