A Stitch of my time...

As you know, once you have kids your previous hobbies usually get pushed to the back burner. Well mine certainly did. Last fall I started a quilt for a very special person to me, Cheryl Denz. She is a social worker that I started seeing with Evan while he was in early intervention. She specializes in behavior therapy and working through issues that come up when you are raising special needs children. The state pays for the therapy services and charges you a fee on a scale based on your income every month. Way less than the typical therapy costs for sure.

When Evan aged out of early intervention at the age of three Cheryl offered to continue seeing me at no charge until the end of the year. Remember, his birthday is in the middle of March so this was a huge burden taken away from me since paying for speech and OT weekly was going to be a huge burden for Doug and I. I was going to have to put my needs aside again with out her help. What a blessing she has been to me it's difficult to put into words. Adopting Evan and raising him has been the most difficult thing that I have ever done in my life. Cheryl has helped to make daily life a lot easier for me with her helpful suggestions and wisdom but mostly just listening to me express my feelings and telling me that they are normal and excepting them.

In March when I got laid off, I did have to quit seeing Cheryl. I am still at her office twice a week for Evan's music therapy and his music and play group. I also know that she is only a phone call a way. That is just the kind of person that she is and I am so lucky to know her.

So, back to last fall. I started a quilt for her to try to express my gratitude for her kindness. My sewing machine broke and needed several hundred dollars to repair it. Which we did. Then time got away from me and needless to say my free time evaporated when we added four additional therapies a week for Evan. Cheryl's quilt was not finished in time for Christmas, or in March when I had to stop seeing her. Finally last month, when Doug was on vacation, I took a vacation from driving Evan to school, picking him up from school, driving him to therapy appointments and driving Emma to gymnastics. You cannot believe how much time I had on my hands! I was able to spend hours each day working on the quilt. Below you will see the finished project. I actually had to quilt it as well since paying for someone else to do that is very expensive. This this date I have only quilted table runners. It was quite a challenge but I am so happy with the final product.

Cheryl liked it too. I am so glad. I hope that it show her just how much her kindness has meant to me and my family. Thank you Cheryl. We love you!!!

Sue