Blessed Friendships Part 2

As I mentioned in the previous entry (Blessed Friendships Part 1) we have recently been overwhelmed by the kindness extended by some of our dear friends. As those who have been reading our blog for a while may be aware of, Michael is currently conductng a Beanie Baby Drive as a service project for Boy Scouts. (You can read about it here and here.) The Steinke Family decided to help us in a very big way! Brad and Kelly have been friends with Kevin since high school. Brad and Kevin both served in the North Dakota Army National Guard together right out of high school (just 2 years Brad, just 2 years). From the beginning of my marriage to Kevin, I have known about this great couple. They are the proud parents of two great kids Hunter and Danielle. Together as a family they took on our service project as their own. The presented the project to Hunter's Student Council at their school and it was accepted. The school held a beanie baby drive where almost 1200 beanie babies were collected! They sorted and boxed up all the stuffed animals and shipped them directly to Kevin. Even today, two days after the final numbers, I am humbled at their support of this project. It's friends like this that make the separation from Kevin bearable. Knowing that so many of you care about our family and are willing to do a small part (or in this case a very big part) in helping us support Kevin, well again, words are not enough! To date, Michael has collected almost 1800 Beanie Babies and many of you who read our blog have contributed to that. Thank you so much!

To the Steinke Family, thank you so much for your support and your love. What an amazing family you are. You guys are our heroes for stepping up to help us provide a smile and a memory for the children of Iraq.With their permission here are some pics from their Beanie Baby drive.

My favorite pic of Danielle & Hunter!No matter the weather, true friends come through for you.Holy cow!! That's just awesome!