2014 has been a challenging year for my little family. We moved. Twice. We adjusted our lives and then adjusted again. We've gone through a lot of changes in a short period of time. We had a tragic and unexpected death in our family. There have been many difficult trials for our loved ones, and for us.
Parenting, during times of change, is especially challenging for us. My son Clyde, who has autism, struggles with change. Even minor change, like our brand of turkey bacon, can give him stress and anxiety. He notices emotional upheaval, and he can sense tension and stress. His reaction to change is to become very rigid and inflexible. Sameness and uniformity become synonymous with comfort and peace.
That's why, when Clyde's precious "snuggly" blanket, got a long tear in it, it was a BIG deal. He cried about it for a long time. Over the years, my friends and I have patched, sewn, and tied together the tattered pieces of Clyde's "snuggly" blanket too many times to count. Every time I put in a repair stitch, I said a prayer that I could salvage it for another year, or even another month. You can imagine my distress when I realized that the blanket tear could not be mended.
Clyde came up with the perfect solution. I almost didn't catch it. At school, he wrote a wish list for Santa. The only item on the list was, "a new snuggly blanket with monkeys on moons". I found the list in a crumpled ball at the bottom of his back pack. Of course, I had to try. I had to. It's every Mom's job to do their best to make their kids Christmas dreams come true, right?
I searched everywhere for the fabric. I think I went to every fabric store in Grand Junction. I searched online. I called all the sewing enthusiasts and crafty people I knew. Everyone in my family was looking for the fabric, but nothing came up. The fabric was ten years old. It was out of print. It was impossible to find. I felt so discouraged. So, I did the only thing left to do when you get really really stuck. I knelt and said a prayer. I asked Heavenly Father to help me.
Maybe, to some, monkey fabric seems like a silly thing to pray for, but it didn't seem silly to me. Clyde needed that fabric for his sanity. He's had the "snuggly" blanket since he was born. We've tried a dozen other replacement blankets, but for some reason, that's the one that stuck. Then, the idea came to me to turn it over to my friends- all of the amazing, incredible people I've gotten to know over the years. I put up a facebook post of the fabric online, and for the first time, I made a personal post, (gulp) public.
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| The very faded fabric of the "Snuggly". |
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| The original fabric. |
And then...
Success. A stranger named Louise Young (thank you Louise, whoever you are!), shared my post on a quilting site, and Kristy Monk, owner of Monk's Corner in West Virginia, found the fabric in her stash. The fabric was in hand the next week, exactly the same as the original. When I unfolded it, I burst into tears. It was inch by inch the exact size of Clyde's original "snuggly" blanket. I couldn't believe it!
My sister-in-law Kate and I finished sewing the night of December 23rd. Quite a feat for me since I haven't tried to sew anything in a decade....but, we made it in time for Christmas! Here are the results in video -!
As you can see, we have one very happy little boy.
Thank you so much. I can't say it enough. Thanks to everyone who shared my post, who looked online, who looked through their fabric stashes, who called a quilter or a seamstress in their family for advice, or even those who just said a prayer for us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really don't have words to express how uplifting this experience was for me, or how special. I needed it so much. My whole family needed it. We felt the love of our Savior through you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Merry Christmas! Thanks for helping our Snuggly Christmas miracle come true!
