Archives for September 2019

Life is crazy and busy, but I wanted to stop in super quick to remind you guys that today is the final day of our Sing A Brave Song heart campaign.  This is it!  Here we are!  The last day of September & the last day of this crazy heart campaign.  It’s just been incredible to watch it all unfold.  What an honor!

And don’t forget, donate today to be entered to win our final giveaway.  CLICK HERE to see what all is up for grabs.  🌈❤️

So let’s bring it all home.  CLICK HERE to donate & share.

Singing this brave song together has been such a gift!

Well this is the last week for our heart campaign and this week is amazing!!!!  In just 24 days we’ve raised $42,327 and it still makes me teary eyed.  It’s insane what love and kindness and generosity can do.  It’s amazing what can happen when we decide to treat and love others the way we want to be treated and loved ourselves.

Since we have met our goal and are still bringing in donations, we upped the goal just a bit and all the extra money will go towards medical bills for this sweet little heart warrior.  I totally thought on this last week I’d be pulling out all the stops and begging and pleading with people to donate so it’s feels amazing to know this campaign is already fully funded.  It’s crazy wonderful, but we still have an awesome giveaway this week and we can still give towards medical bills.

So without further ado…I present to you the 4th and final week’s giveaway.  It’s a doozy so hang on!

A little bit after Everett died the kindest woman named Terrie reached out and wanted to send us a quilt.  She uses her skills to encourage others and quilting is her gift.  Our quilt is insanely gorgeous and the biggest quilt I have ever seen!!!  She created this genius quilt with Feista…Everett’s stuffed donkey…all the letters in our family and a big beautiful rainbow with a heart.  The details are CRAZY!!!

Well Terrie has done it again and she has quilted heart perfection in quilt form just for one of you.  She reached out and wanted to create something special for this month and I was 100% here for it!  She chose a colored rainbow heart to represent Everett and asked what Amon and Leo’s favorite colors were…black & yellow…and created two hearts to represent them as well.  The quilt is 85 1/2″ x 67 1/2″, Rainbow Pixelated Heart Quilt, all cotton fabrics and I cannot believe this is one of our amazing giveaway items this week!!!!  I have been so excited to share all about it!

Terrie even asked me to make the tag for this quilt and Brave Will Be Our Song was a no brainer.  This month has been filled with so many brave people coming together to do something kind…it’s been an absolute honor to be such small piece of this campaign.  And thank you Terrie for a perfect giveaway piece.

 Let’s follow that amazingness up with more amazingness.  THIS mug by my dear friend Meg is seriously our favorite mug.  I love it for ice-cream, Josh Kelley uses it all the time for his coffee and Winter snags it for her milk.  It’s hands down our favorite mug on the whole rack.  Rainbow mug heaven.

These rainbow earrings by Gallivant, well I CANNOT GET OVER THEM!!!!  They are so pretty and lovely and light weight and I wore them out with Josh for his birthday and got compliments on them.  I am not very style forward so receiving compliments on something I’m wearing kind of makes my day.  One of you will be rocking a pair too.  They are ridiculous!!!!

 Are you seeing a trend yet with this last giveaway?!?! 😉  I love this little nod to our Everett boy.  We’ve got another precious piece of artwork for you this week.  I really wanted art to accompany each giveaway and this week’s piece was made by none other than the brave wizard himself, Toby.  It’s the sweetest burst of color and it reminds me of all the brave, wild hope out there in this world.  Amanda, Toby’s mama, crosses my mind every single day and she’s bomb for capturing this artwork just for one of you from Toby’s sweet hands created on Day #282 in the hospital.

And lastly, but certainly not least, this 2020 Fancy That Design House wall calendar.  Stephanie has created such a stunning calendar and I thought it was a perfect addition to this week’s giveaway.  Her design and art work is top-notch and couldn’t we all use a little more hope in our lives.

And if you’re wondering obviously this is my favorite page:

I have been so so so excited to share this giveaway and honestly, now all I can think about is Christmas.  Hahaha, but when you see such awesome items made and created by such talented hands, my head spins with gift ideas for loved ones, so keep all of these magic people in mind for the holidays.

Don’t forget anyone who donates/has donated from 9/21-9/30 will be entered to win the whole shebang.  It was been too fun mailing out goodies and hearing back from the winners and just give me all the love and kindness and generosity of the world.

So, 7 days to go.  The final stretch.  CLICK HERE to donate and be entered to win this week’s giveaway.  And grab the link below to share with your people.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sing-a-brave-song

Let’s do this!

You guys!!!!!  Saturday we walked in Nashville’s Heart Walk and it was just the sweetest and hardest and wonkiest and joyous feeling time.  I feel like this sums up doing things…continuing on in life…after your child dies.  Joy is still there, but sadness is still there too.  Always.  And Saturday was no different…especially when you are around such precious people and walking for such crazy brave hearts.  I teared up so many times I lost count.

I cried watching Amon run around knowing the heart he carries in his chest still needs another surgery.  I cried watching our kids decide who to walk in tribute to.  I cried watching Harper draw a rainbow and write Everett’s name on the memorial wall.  I cried hugging Amanda, Toby’s mom, and walking side-by-side her knowing the fight Toby still has ahead of him.  I cried because I know the fight and the relief and the grief far too well.  I cried watching Aunt Jen write out her 3 nephews names.  I cried for Everett who wasn’t there and I cried for Amon and Leo who were there.  I cried because I miss him so very very deeply and would give just about anything to hold his small body once again.  I cried because life is so damn complicated and beautiful.

I hate that Everett isn’t here with us, but I love what he has taught all our hearts.  I love that he deeply impacts us daily in a way no other person could.  Everett has taught us love and compassion and empathy and fight and bravery.  We carry on for him and to bring honor and awareness and to celebrate his amazing life every single day.  We carry on moving another day closer to seeing him again.

On Saturday we also hit that 50% mark for this audacious heart campaign.  I can’t even believe it.  Together we have almost fully funded someone’s entire adoption expenses.  I knew this would feel big, but it still feels really really insanely big and I stood in our kitchen and cried when I saw where you guys had taken us that day.  Thank you for joining us in this love endeavor.  We are marching on and moving into the downhill slide…chasing after $4,700 with 2 weeks to go.  Are you freaking out because I AM?!?!?!   WE CAN DO THIS!!!!  Can you even imagine?!?!

We dreamed of a whole bunch of people coming together to do something kind…something any of us would be so overwhelmed with gratefulness if we were on the receiving end.  Loving like we want to be loved.  Right now 705 people have come together to raise $35,300.  This blows me away and thrills my heart.  We are coming for you $40K.

I cannot cannot say enough how important sharing is!  I know donations get us to the goal, but sharing with more and more people in hopes they see the campaign and read about why this is so important is SO SO important.  Please continue to help us spread the word and donate.  And don’t forget all of this week’s donors will be entered to win this Saturday’s fun giveaway.  After this week’s giveaway there is only one more left!  CLICK HERE to share and donate or grab the link below to share.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sing-a-brave-song

This insane heart campaign has grown wings and we are soaring towards telling a beautifully broken little heart, “You make us all the luckiest to love you.” ❤️  Thank you guys for jumping on this crazy love train with us.  This morning I received a donor match so for every $100 donation we receive today an anonymous donor will match those up to $500.  So 5 people donating $100 will turn into $1000.  Let’s go!

You guys are the best!  Thank you for believing in this with us!

Hi!  Well here we are on week 3 of this crazy heart month.  The Nashville Heart Walk was last Saturday and next week on the 29th is World Heart Day.  This was just the right month to launch this heart campaign into existence and hope and give and love along with you guys.

Each week we host another fun giveaway for all the donors from that week.  And I’m back to tell you what one of this week’s donors will find in their mailbox!

The past two week’s I have shipped everything together, but this week you will receive several packages because I’m sharing about some favorite companies.

First up, we’re back this week with another set of 4 key fobs.  I’ll be gearing up soon to add more to my shop in time for the holidays, but in the mean time this is your shot at a set of 4 fun and colorful key fobs.

Brave Will Be Our Song has been our theme for this heart campaign.  I hand lettered several different versions of these words and this 5×7 black & white print will accompany this weeks goodies.

I’ll never forget standing in Chuck E Cheese with Amon watching him play a game with another little boy just days after we arrived back in Tennessee without Everett.  I honestly don’t remember much from that time period.  We were picking out burial plots and arranging his visitation and celebrate of life service and choosing all the burial things like his casket and what flowers would be in his pall.  Just all the things a parent never wants to do and we were suffocating in all of it.

As I watched Amon and this other little boy the sweetest woman came up to me…the other little boy’s mom…Carmella…and she said all these kind, empathetic words to my heart.  I stood in that Chuck E Cheese and cried.  I want my son back…none of this is fair…though we sing about death losing it’s sting, it still stings deeply…and I just needed someone to acknowledge that none of this was okay and that is what Carmella did for me that day.

Carmella is a local artist and is insanely talented.  When she wanted to donate an item to our big heart month I was over the moon excited.  Please check out her store HERE and keep an eye out for her re-stocks!  She in crazy talented and even more crazy kind.

Anyone else ever heard of this pretty awesome shopping place called Amazon?!?!?!?  Hahahahaha.  A $25 Amazon gift card is up for grabs this week too.  Treat yourself or save it for the holidays.

Look how insanely cute this Vintage Rose Heart Strong sweatshirt is!!!  This sweatshirt and their Purpose x Love Pouch will come to you from Jessica’s Four Hearts Shop so the winner gets to pick their size!  Is your brain already thinking about Christmas the way mine is?!?!

About Four Hearts Shop:

“All proceeds from this shop benefit Ethan M. Lindberg Foundation. Through practical support, advocacy, awareness and joy, Ethan M. Lindberg Foundation is changing the way we care for children and families facing the #1 birth defect, congenital heart disease.”

What an amazing shop!

And last, but certainly not least, you guys know I love Lindsey from Bottle of Tears.  Lindsey is so graciously going to send one of you my most favorite earrings ever ever ever!!!  I wear them ALL THE TIME and they are lightweight and gorgeous and make the most perfect little tinkling noise in your ear when I walk.  I might have a problem. 🙂  The Long Arch Teardrop Charm Earrings are perfection in an earring.

I would be beyond thrilled to receive this package of goodies in my mailbox.  I wanted these giveaways to be special and really things I liked too.  I wanted this entire campaign to be real and meaningful and special.

To enter to win this week’s giveaway don’t forget to CLICK HERE to donate and help us spread the word by sharing!  Thank you guys so much.  We’re well on our way and I can’t wait to see where we land all together.

It’s no surprise this September Heart Goal we’ve set is big and kind of absurd and pretty lofty, but I really believe it can be met all together.  I feel like there’s something to be said for lots of people coming together and rallying around another human being.  I feel like there’s something to be said for generosity and love and kindness.  I feel like there’s something to be said for weirdly wonderful internet communities and the power we have all together.

Each week on Saturday we’ll be drawing for our weekly giveaway to thank one of our donors from that week.  Each giveaway is special and has fun items I truly would LOVE LOVE LOVE to receive myself.  It was so exciting last week cutting up all the names, folding the papers and then watching as Amon and Hudson drew the winner.  I posted all about it over on my Instagram page and you can follow along each week.  I do send out an individual message to the winner so they know they won!  So without further ado here are this weeks giveaway items!

First up are these three…yes, three…awesome Nellie Taft tees!!!  I gotta be honest, I really wanted to keep the Okay Cool one, but we shall part ways all in the name of giveaway love.  These tees are ethically made here in the U.S. by two women entrepreneurs and the tees are just so great!  They are all three sized Medium in an adult unisex size.  Definitely a roomier medium in my opinion…they DO NOT run small.  A keeper for yourself or an easy gift for a friend.

Before Everett had his surgery my kind friend Sherry sent me the sweetest heart necklace known to man.  I have worn it constantly and almost exclusively over the past 2 years and even bought an additional one for Harper.  I call myself an emotional jewelry wearer because most of the jewelry I wear has an emotional meaning or tie behind it.  I find myself and our little family weaving Everett into every part of our life…even giveaway items.  I want him to always be remembered and celebrated and represented.  So I wanted to share a similar heart piece with this week’s winner and I snagged this necklace from the local Esther Rose Collection.  It’s simple, lovely perfection!

This 4×6 print will come along with your giveaway this week.  This is basically my heart on paper proclaiming what I know with every inch of my heart & body…our kids make us the luckiest parents on the planet.  I tell them almost every day they make us the luckiest and I hope one day they tell their own children the exact same thing.  This is a print of the hand-lettered original I did for this campaign.  It’s colorful and simple.  It’s small and mighty.  It’s a piece of my heart.

You know I love good candies so it was a no brainer to include somewhere in our months time together some Twin Snakes and this super fun bag of Starmix.  These are regulars around the Kelley household.  Twin Snakes are so so so so so good!!!!  I keep telling you guys to try them and that’s what I’ll keep right on doing.  If you like candy, get you some Twin Snakes.  The Starmix is crazy fun too.  Here’s what it reminds me of…it’s like Haribo took all their misfit gummies and threw them into one bag.  It’s like how you can now purchase a bag of not fully popped popcorn or a bag of burnt pretzels.  This is the gummy equivalent and we love them!  They are all different things and we’ve even had the joy of a single headed, an un-twin if you will, Twin Snake. 🙂 Fun, sometimes hilarious and yummy.

And there could not be a giveaway without a Target gift card.  THERE JUST COULDN’T!!  Might I recommend you spending the entire $25 on Twin Snakes?!?!  Target is my go-to because who doesn’t love Target.

I can’t say enough how this goal only gets met together.  You might think, I don’t really know very many people or I don’t have social media so sharing wouldn’t make a difference…well you are so wrong.  You can share in so many different ways…word of mouth, email, text, shock the world and WRITE A LETTER, social media, blog, twitter, snapchat, etc etc etc.  Sharing absolutely spreads the word and it only increases our chances to ease this financial burden in full.  Can you even imagine?!?!  Just makes me teary thinking about it.  So CLICK HERE to share and donate or grab the link below:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sing-a-brave-song

  We can totally do this!  Let’s keep singing this really brave song together.

Okay, I am still playing major catch up on documenting here in this space, but I also wanted to follow up on some questions or inquiries I have had about our Sing A Brave Song Fundraiser.  So I present to you questions answered & some information accompanied by our 4th of July pictures.  Makes so much sense.

WHO IS THE FAMILY?!?!?!?!  Wowzers.  I’ve been asked this one a lot.  I promise it’s not us and we’re not straight up hustling you into funding our adoption. 🙂  And if I was at liberty to say, I would.  These souls are near and dear to our hearts…we know them personally…and I promise promise promise this is absolutely worth the generosity & kindness.  I feel like I’ve been pretty honest and transparent throughout the years in this space and I wouldn’t start crossing you now.

ARE YOU SCAMMING US?!?!?!  We are not.  We actually do not touch any of the money…as in it never crosses our hands or our bank accounts.  We have the gofundme set up where all the money goes straight into the family’s account.  I promise we are not stealing your money to remodel our bathroom or buy ample amounts of foam cowboy hats, pinwheels, corndogs and nudie magazines.  Hahahaha.  Someone name that movie!

I don’t want to donate online because the interwebs will steal my identity.  How do I donate?  I got you.  No worries.  This is the moment when I will handle the money and you will just have to trust me that I will not go out and blow hundreds of dollars…you we’re donating $100’s right!?!…on Sweetart Ropes.  You can actually get me a check…in person or mail…or Venmo…or PayPal…me your donation and I will then send it directly to the family.  Easy as technology cash exchanging pie!

What is the money going towards or how will it be used?  International adoption is not cheap…and it shouldn’t be.  A child is leaving their homeland and re-locating to another part of the world and it needs to be done correctly and ethically. All the money will go towards adoption expenses. (homestudy, post placement, agency fees, in-country fees,  dossier fees, fingerprints, document expenses, Visas, child’s passport, travel, in-country documentation fees, etc.)

Why isn’t the family working to pay for their own adoption?  Or why aren’t we using the money so the child can stay with their birth family?  These can feel a bit snarky and very much one-sided as there is a lot of information that has not been shared, but I’ll address it.  First, they are, but also things are complicated and hard.  We know this very personally as we had to raise funds for Leo’s adoption completely solo and it was really really difficult.  We chose to that because we needed the space and room to breath and grieve and process.  We do not want that for someone else.  We want to support and love in this way so that’s what we are doing.

This very moment take a second to think of something that has been financially stressful on you or your family.  Now imagine a group of people came together…zero strings attached…you owe them nothing in return…and they helped ease that burden a little, a lot or even all of it!  Imagine how that would feel.  It personally makes me teary eyed because most of us carry financial burdens that are an honor to carry, but still heavy…adoption expenses, medical bills, therapy bills, PT & OT, special schooling, treatments, etc etc etc.  The list is long of what these could be.  Just imagine someone wanted to take care of it for you.  That’s what we want to do along with you!

And using the money to keep the child with their birth family is not an option.  This is a hot question in the adoption/foster care realm and is an important one, but we have to understand family preservation is not always an option.  When it’s a possibility or an option, I fully support that.

WILL WE EVER KNOW THE FAMILY?!?!?!  This is zero percent my call and I am perfectly fine with no one ever knowing who this went down for.  Sometimes kindness can be weirdly quiet….I know this isn’t exactly quiet…we’re actually raising a lot of noise…but in a way it is still quiet…and I like that.

Can we attend Nashville’s Heart Walk this Saturday at 8am?  But of course.  We will be there as well and if you are there and see us, please come say hi.  I will for sure A) Cry and B) Hug your neck.  You can check out all the Heart Walk details HERE.

Do you have a team set up for the heart walk?  And can I/we/my business join you?  Excellent question.  In the past we have set up a team, “Ace of Hearts”, but this year instead of raising funds directly for the American Heart Association we wanted to set up the gofundme page and Sing a Brave Song along with you.  We wanted to shoot for an outlandish goal this year…we wanted it to be really extra personal…so that’s what we’re doing.  You are more than welcome to join us by grabbing the link and sharing with your people and donating.

What is this week’s giveaway?  I will share all of this week’s giveaway tomorrow!  Every week’s giveaway has been carefully collected and it’s something I would genuinely be thrilled to receive in the mail.  And you will receive it quickly.  None of this waiting around for forever to get your goodies.  Last week’s Saturday giveaway was mailed out on Sunday!

We are 10 days in and over $12,000 raised.  Gosh!!!  It’s just so great and THANK YOU for donating and sharing.  To meet this goal for this family I’ve worked it out in my head that if we can get $1000 in donations every day and then hope like crazy for a few bigger donations along the way we’ll totally hit it by the end of September or we just need a ton of people to make a ton donations! I’m good with either way.  We still need $765 for today so head over HERE to donate and share.  You guys are amazing!

Our Let’s Sing A Brave Song heart family fundraiser is moving right along.  We set this really lofty goal and I set smaller daily goals in my head.  It’s day 4 and so far we’ve hit those mental goals which is crazy exciting.  Each week all the donors from that week will be entered into a fun Saturday giveaway to celebrate what you guys have made happen that week.  This is not a goal that will be accomplished alone, but together.  We need all the help we can get donating and sharing…a whole bunch of people coming together and coming along side one another in love.  This is how this goal gets met.  Massive thank you to everyone who has given and shared already this week.

This week’s giveaway is made up of some of my personal favorites.  We wanted to make it special and something we would legitimately be excited to win ourselves.  We hope one of you will be pumped to win it as well.

Amon, our first heart warrior, painted this self-portrait last year and it’s been hanging on our wall ever since.  He was so proud of his artwork and I burst into tears upon him showing me it.  The way he saw himself and then transferring that onto paper with different medias will be one of my life’s most prized possessions.  And that little rainbow on his chest is the sweetest nod to his little brother Everett.  We carry him with us always.  This 16×20 print of Amon, our incredible heart warrior that changed the trajectory of our family, will be one of yours.

Bonus Win: Winter’s face…free of charge.  You’re welcome!

Along with Amon’s print, 2 of my most favorite & top used Young Living products…a Deep Relief roller and Citrus Fresh oil.  I use the Deep Relief roller every night and almost every morning.  I roll it onto my temples and across the back of my neck and also on my back.  Citrus Fresh is amazing and I use it 100 different ways from diffusing it in our diffuser to in our laundry detergent to spraying it around our house and over our laundry and so many other uses.  It smells great and is super versatile.

Josh Kelley is our coffee guy.  He drinks black coffee every single morning and sometimes treats himself to some Starbucks.  A day without a coffee is typically an off feeling kind of day for him.  A $25 Starbucks gift card would be a treat.  And you know our love for good candies.  These Sweetart Ropes are a new found summer love and I definitely wanted to include all the yummy flavors for one of you…Apple, Cherry Punch & Strawberry.  I have shared these more times than I can count because the world just needs to know how tasty and fun they are.

And the last thing wrapping us this Saturday’s giveaway is a set of 4 key fobs.  Key fobs are such a fun, practical gift and make finding and keeping up with your keys way easier.  This set of four carry meaningful words to our family…Amon’s name means “faithful”, Everett’s name means “Brave & Strong” and Leo’s name means “Lion; Brave People”.  And the 4th “Brave Will Be Our Song” because we know this truth and we know we are all singing a really brave song together this September to celebrate brave hearts and family.

All the donors for this week will be entered to win this fun giveaway and all the items will be mailed directly to the winner.  I love fun mail so you can rest assured it will be the cutest package you’ve ever received!  Please continue to help us spread the word.  Head over HERE to donate or grab the link below to share.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sing-a-brave-song

No donation is too big, no donation is too small and we do not believe in over-sharing.  This goal only gets reached together!

It’s September which means it’s a big heart month here in Nashville and across Tennessee.  On September 14th in Nashville the American Heart Association will host their heart walk to bring awareness to heart disease.  We’ll be there as we have many times before.  In the past we’ve set up fundraising pages for AHA & baked goods for bake sales & given blood & carried heart shaped balloons around with us on the years we couldn’t make it, but this year needed something different.  This year we thought harder about how we wanted to celebrate & remember & honor & bring awareness for the 3 brave hearted boys we’re lucky enough to call our sons.❤️

It’s been such a big year for our family as we’re still grieving the loss of Everett, Leo just coming off his successful heart surgery at Mott & still healing and Amon got another good report in August that his next surgery is still at least another year out. Such a mix of emotions, but still 3 precious hearts to find deep joy in & celebrate.

So we’re going big or going home all in the name of love.  We know a really beautiful family and we’re going to try…along with you…to fund their adoption process.  A sweet little CHD love with a beautifully broken heart has rocked a world and family has been formed yet again.  We want to join them as hope holders and help ease the financial burden.  It feels big. It feels audacious. It feels a tad outlandish, but what better reason to try.

We’re asking you to link arms and hearts with us and this family.  We’re asking you to share and/or give whatever you can. We’re asking you to see the value & worth in brave-hearted children who literally make us the luckiest.  We’re asking you to sing a really Brave Song with us.  We’re asking you to see how lucky we are in being able to come along side one another in love.

Every last detail about our heart behind this September and where to donate to this heart love is posted HERE.  We’re using September to love big & honor hearts.  And every Saturday we’ll be celebrating with a fun giveaway with all the donors from that week.  Can’t donate financially, no problem.  Helping us spread the word is just as important.  Grab this link and share away.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/sing-a-brave-song

We’ve got 4 weeks to do something a little crazy together, we need all the help we can get.  Help us spread the word!  So let’s get to it!  I have a feeling…no matter what…it’s going to be really good!