| Hi my Name is Linda and I wanted to take this chance
to let you know what we are doing here and why.
This could take a few minutes, so please be patient with
me ...LOL
In this past year I have had a couple of close calls I
guess you could call them wake up calls.
Last July I suffered a heart attack ... Big wake up call
I have to admit! I had been suffering from Diabetes for
a few years and was taking the meds that had been perscribed
for me but really had done nothing to change my diet, lose
the extra weight, or all of the other good things that come
with it.
Things had to change!
The diet was all changed, weight was lost ( about 80 Lbs
) and I knew in the future that I would have to have a gall
blabber surgery. Knowing I had just had the heart attack
all I could do was hope and pray that the gall bladder surgery
could be held off until I had a chance to get stronger from
the heart attack and lose some of the weight I needed to
lose and get the sugar under control.
I have always been a creative person and I love to make
things so I spent some of my healing time working on projects
and doing a lot of thinking.
I am a Wife, a Mother, a Grandmother, a big sister, and
I raise wonderful loving little angels (shih tzu) that no
matter what have so much love to offer.
I knew I had a lot of support and a lot of loving souls
here that wanted me to stick around for a while!
I thought about the present and a lot about the past and
the world around us. I guess normal thoughts but it seemed
that this had become a lot more important to me than it
had in the past.
I started wondering what I might be able to do at this
time in my life that could make a little difference. Well
the surgery finally came in Jan. and again it was touch
and go for a while. I remember the sugereon telling me in
the recovery room that things had gone a little wrong with
the surgery and they had removed the gall bladder and a
growth but we would have to wait for a while until tests
had been run to see if it was cancer or or not. I had hoped
I had not heard him right but taking one good look into
my husbands eyes I knew I had heard him right.
Gerald would never let me know how scared he was but after
this many years of being married I knew!
It was a long two weeks before we got the results back
but I had made a decision of what I could do to try and
make a little difference in this world around me. It came
fleating a little at a time but I knew what I needed to
do and started trying to figure out how I could do it. By
the time we finally got the results of the tests on the
growth I had started verbalizing what I wanted to do with
my family.
In looking at all the fears and that we had been through
I thought about all the kids out there, the innocent kids
that end up in bad situations through no fault of their
own. The battered kids the kids that are living in domestic
violence, the kids that have to face diseases that they
have or live through the diseases of a loved one.
We as adults can express our thoughts and feelings but
how can a child?
If he is living in the domestic violence situation he knows
he is not supposed to tell anyone!
If he or she has disease everyone is so busy doing what
needs to be done that who can they talk to that will listen?
I watched my kids during these past 10 months and know
the helplessness they felt. They didn't want to tell me
their fears as they felt that would only make it worse for
me and their Dad more stress to deal with. I was very grateful
that my Granddaughters had their Mom and Dad that they could
talk to and help them through this!
I thought of all the younger Kids going through this and
decided that maybe puppets could be the answer!
I remembered My kids growing up having puppets and and
being on the other side of the door listening to them talking
to their puppets and having conversations with the puppets
about how mean I might have been to them that day for grounding
them or what ever and thought if my kids had done this why
wouldn't other kids do this too.
A stuffed animal puppet was what I needed to make something
they could hold on to something they could hug and talk
to and maybe in some cases something that could tell a story
for them as Daddy or Mom might have told them that they
couldn't tell anyone what was happening. But they hadn't
told the puppet that and maybe just maybe through the puppet
their story could be told. Whether it be about abuse or
just about what was happening in their world.
So that is what I have been doing making stuffed animal
puppets and donating them to places like the Battered Womans
centers, Schools for handy capped Children, and others as
I come across them,
So far 50 have been placed with children and I am hoping
many more will be placed.
This is a labour of love and not just from me but all those
in my family, whether it be helping to stuff them or to
dress them up or just giving good ideas on how they can
be improved or where they could be placed, the whole family
has been involved and I can't tell you how proud I am of
all them! Not one of them have asked for anything but to
help in any way they can whether it be with their time and
work or spending their own money to deliver them where they
need to go.
My Daughter asked me not to long ago what it was that made
me happy, I told her watching my family be happy, watching
my puppies grow and play and the smile on a child's face.
If these puppets can bring just one smile to a childs face
then I feel I have succeeded in what I am trying to do.
If you would like to purchase a puppet for a child in your
life, please contact us. We do sell them on occassion to
help with the cost of materials for the ones we donate.
Light and Love to you and Yours!
Linda Larente
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