From Our Hearts

Quality Valentine Cards - A Thank You

Greetings from Afghanistan,

I just wanted to thank you for your ministry of cards. I went over to the Chaplain's Free-X today for the purpose of finding Valentine's Cards to send to my husband and family. I found your beautiful, handcrafted cards and was thrilled at the quality and originality of your cards. I am an occupational therapist, working with mTBI/Concussion for Soldiers on the battle line. I love crafty things by my nature and by my occupation. It was so nice to see the beautiful work that you guys do and offer them to us. I was able to find cards for my whole family and friends and had fun today writing out all my Valentines.

Thanks again,

v/r

CPT Jamie B, OTR/L, SP

OIC Concussion Care Center

We Appreciate Our Contributors!

It's been a while since cards received have been posted - and long overdue!  We want to share some pretty cards we recently received and have since mailed on - we did not delay as Valentine's Day will be here soon!

We mailed off not only Valentines, but supplemented the boxes with love you, miss you, thinking of you and more as we didn't have quite a full box of Valentines for each location.  The boxes have arrived and feedback being received - we appreciate all of our contributors who heard our request for more Valentines and responded so quickly!

Kathy S is first up - and Valentines are what she mailed - and they didn't have to travel far to reach us.  Kathy is from Independence, MO, just a short 2 hours from our home office!

 

Kathy sends boxes to us regularly - this time, 62 "box ready" cards - all made with love!  Thank you, Kathy!

Sandra W is from Clayton, WA and she writes: "Thanks again for the wonderful job you do of organizing and sending cards to the troops.  Our brave troops are so deserving of our support and your faitherfulness brings a measure of joy to those who serve us in so many, many ways."

What kind words!  We thank Sandy for all her support!  This time, 50 cards arrived in time for our shipment, and a check to help us with expenses, too.  WE appreciate your support!

Our next contributor is from Laingsburg, MI - her name is Jill B - and she mailed us 30 "box ready" cards (we sure appreciate the extra steps our contributors take!)

 

Not only Miss You and Thinking of You, but many other types of cards were found in her box, including Sympathy, Friendship, and yes, Valentines, too!  Thank you, Jill, your cards are helping to fill up our empty boxes on our shelves...!

From Duarte, CA, Roxie A contributes to our cause again - this time, 24 "box ready" Valentines, with envelopes, clear envelopes and ready to ship.

 

Lovely cards - we are amazed at the creativity and craftsmanship of our contributors - and cards such as these are typical of the GREAT cards we receive every day!!  Thank you, Roxie!!

Card fronts that have recently arrived have already been converted and mailed back to us by Mary M - Mary is from Peru, IN and is one of our newest volunteers, helping Regina out - and why?  Because the response to our request for card fronts has been tremendous - here are a few of the cards that Mary sent to us:

 

We like to keep our volunteers busy, so please keep the card fronts coming!  Note:  They do NOT have to be exclusively Stampin' Up!®   We appreciate cards made with other stamps and embellishments -and thank Mary for helping us out!  She does lovely work, donating card stock, adhesive and of course, her precious time to our effort!

 

Wish List - Easter and Mother's Day Cards

Whew!  We sure are keeping busy at the home office - it seems that we jump from one holiday to another - and we are in bit of a "lull" at the moment as far as shipping out cards - waiting for the next big push of cards to go overseas.  In the meanwhile, we are prepping cards for our local events and making cards to "fill in" when we just don't have enough to send over.  The supplies that are donated to us are so very much appreciated!

Feb 12 is our next due date - this is when we will want those Easter cards in - while not a big card holiday, we like to have some available to ship over.

Mother's Day is the second biggest card mailing holiday of the year - next to the Christmas holidays - and we are running short of cards (gee, we are sounding like a broken record!)  They will be mailed in March and that will be here before we know it!

Our list of chaplains/contacts keeps growing!  Just last week we received this note:

Martie,

It's me Chaplain Peter H.  I'm back in theatre.  You sent me many wonderful cards when I was the chaplain of SOTF-SE.  Now I am the chaplain for SOTF-S.  I am hoping that you may be able to send me some cards in time for Valentines Day.  I have about 700 Soldiers under my care here.  I hope you are doing well and I look forward to you receiving your cards again.

What a surprise to hear from one of our chaplains who had done his tour, returned to the states and his family, and now, he has returned back to Afghanistan.  Fortunately, we had a couple dozen valentines on hand (card front conversions and others that we had made, locally) and shipped off a box of mixed cards - and he is now in our rotation to receive our cards, once more.  Our contact list is approaching 40 again, and that is a lot of cards that is needed every 6 weeks!

YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED!

Wenksville United Methodist Church's Card Made a Birthday Special!

We discovered one of the birthday cards made by the ladies at Wenksville United Methodist Church in Wenksville, PA.

The birthday girl really appreciated the card!

MARTIN  S, Major, USAF

New Kabul Compound

Sending Our Cards to Outposts

Ma'am,

      I wanted to send you this simple note of thanks.  We received another box of cards from you recently here in Afghanistan.  We put together smaller boxes with cards, toiletries, sheets, etc. to send out to the smaller, more austere outposts where our soldiers are. 

      You are true ministers to our soldiers, and we hope and pray that God continues to bless you in your work.

Very Respectfully,

Ken B

Chaplain (Major), US Army

Task Force Spartan

A Much Needed Break - Why... And a Special Request

From Our Hearts took a much need break from posting on the blog - as those who follow us regularly have undoubtedly noticed...

Our reason?  A road trip... and a welcome home from Iraq celebration!  From Our Hearts' founder Martie and husband Tom traveled to North Carolina to welcome home their daughter from her tour in the war zone - and a much needed vacation for the two of them... much welcomed family time, to include many grandchildren!  We are so happy to have all of our children home and safe...

And an eyeopener of us - as our daughter was one of our recipients of our many boxes of cards while deployed.  Her words to us ... "if I can tell you what I noticed while observing the many who went through the boxes of cards that you sent to me ... You need to send us more MASCULINE cards.  So many of the cards are...well... frilly."

So from the mouth of "my babe" - and one in the know!

While we know that many of our cards are made and will be mailed to girlfriends, wives, mothers, and other females . . .  our daughter's observation is that we just don't sent many masculine cards.

So, this is our request, as a first hand observer of those who access our boxes - we need more MASCULINE cards!

Staying Connected To Family

Greetings from Afghanistan.  I wanted to thank you for the box of cards you sent to us here.  Since we are in locations such as these, finding a greeting card to send home for birthdays or holidays can be virtually impossible.  I took some out of the box to send to my babies while I’m here.  They are five and eight years old.  As much as we love to get mail here, I know my children love it even more when they get mail from me.

I passed the box around in my area and then passed it along to other places here, so all can benefit from your gift.  Thank you so much.  We get many care packages here, but something that keeps us connected to family is the best gift. 

Very Respectfully,

MSgt Kathryn M

Superintendent, Chapel Operations

USO Kandahar Receives Valentines

Hi Martie,

I just had to send you an email this morning and thank you for the wonderful, gorgeous, amazing box of cards that I received this morning when I came in to work.  You literally saved us here at USO Kandahar.  I had already put out a display of Valentine's Day cards thinking I would be getting plenty more in before the guys were able to go through the 500 I put out......I was wrong!  The boys snapped up the cards almost as quick as I had put them out.  I had about 5 cards left when I opened your box. 

I just wanted to say thank you for thinking of us and again tell you how gorgeous your cards are!  If you have not had a chance you can like us on Facebook at USO Kandahar.  I gave you guys a shout out this morning on our page. 

Thank you so much!

Until Every One Comes Home,

Erin M

USO

Request: Keep'em Coming!!

Good Afternoon, 

We received your package today.  I am thanking you on behalf of my 379 EMDG Commander and everyone here for taking time out of your lives to create something so thoughtful and beautiful that we are able to share with our families back home.  This gesture really does have a way of taking our minds off of the things that we deal with daily and providing a measure of peace within.  So again thanks and keep’em coming!! 

Respectfully,

SENECA W, TSgt, USAF

A Great Touch - Our Cards

Just in, an e-mail from Bagram:

I just wanted to send an email and say thank you for all the wonderful cards that were sent. I work casualties for our soldiers so there is never anything that brightens the day. Your cards did just that. I loved looking through everyone of them. They were all so beautiful. I pick one out at least once a month and send home to my kids just to say hello. It adds a great touch to that long awaited letter from mom. Just wanted you guys to know that we appreciate you supporting us over here. Thank you.

SSgt Abigail R