Unique Serving Platter

There are many different responsibilities that come with the different stages of our lives. It seems that we tend to surround ourselves with people that are going through similar stages. This begins when we are in school. We develop physically and mentally with our classmates. We all start our adult lives by graduating together and going out into the work force or on to higher education. Then we get married and have children and they begin in the same cycle of responsibilities that we had.

My daughters are at the age where they and their friends are having babies. My daughters were married one year apart and now they are both pregnant. My younger daughter is due to deliver her child in October and my oldest daughter is due in December. My younger daughter is thrilled that she gets to have the first grandchild. My daughters have always been very close to each other and so they share many of the same friends. They know six other women that are pregnant and due within the next four months. They know that they will be invited to many different baby showers so we were talking about unique baby gifts that they could give.

It is always so easy to find cute little outfits to give to the mom’s, however there are only so many things that a baby needs to wear and they grow out of them so quickly. My daughters wanted to think of something that they could purchase together to give as unique baby gifts. I told them to think about what they have bought for themselves and what they have left to get. They still could not come up with anything that would be different than clothing or a toy. I suggested that they could make a framed certificate for each of the children that would state that they were born into a group of friends within this certain time span and list all the mothers that knew each other. Then they could by the same outfit for each child and they could have their picture taken in the outfits. My daughters loved this idea. It would insure that they continued to get together once all the babies were born so that they could get the picture taken. These unique baby gifts would be a treasure for the mom’s as well as the children.

I am going to have a joint baby shower for my daughters and invite their aunts and cousins. We are calling it a female family reunion. It is being held in a party room of a local restaurant so I can just visit without having to play hostess. I am so looking forward to being a grandmother.

Little Souls Dolls look like folk art, each one with a unique and loving face that is sure to warm your heart. Upon looking at the collection of dolls available online, I immediately fell in love with the quaint toys that beckon the onlooker to another time and place. They reminded me of something my great-great grandmother would make by hand for a beloved child. When I read about the history to the Little Souls Dolls, I knew that I had to have one.

The concept behind the toys is as sweet and endearing as the faces themselves. Each doll is created by hand, just as you would suspect. The beauty lies in who makes the Little Souls Dolls and who benefits from the sales. These dolls are valuable and unique treasures created by children who are in need. Sales benefit those very children and part of the sales go to the Children’s Hope Foundation. The children create the dolls while staying in the hospital. Each child is given instructions and materials necessary to create the doll. They also make up a story about the Little Souls Dolls they build. Many of the children who make the dolls are quite ill and they find great joy in attending the doll making class and they find great joy in creating a new friend.

The Little Souls Dolls that you buy are not the same ones created by the children. Those stay with their makers, but the doll company takes photographs of the dolls and they write down the stories that accompany the toys. The photographs and stories are sent to Ardmore, Pennsylvania where they are duplicated by the employees of the Little Souls Doll Company.

Proceeds from each sale benefit the very children who make the precious toys. The concept behind the toys is quite brilliant and moving. It takes quite a bit of time and money for the company to send employees to various hospitals across the United States. The materials for the dolls are donated by the company as well. The stories, on the other hand are completely free. Perhaps the stories created by the children are of more value than the dolls themselves. I find the Little Souls Dolls to be of great importance. They represent the many lives of children who struggle with illness at such young ages. They are reminders of how very delicate our lives really are.