Giving -The heART of Gracious Living

Giving is at the heART of gracious living, and today, on Hadley Court, I’d like to share a story with you – that of 13 year old Thaylea Lee, a young girl living with leukemia -who used social media to reach out and request prayers from total strangers — and the compassionate hearts of a group of women who’ve never met her, yet have spent their own time this weekend to make something very special for Thaylea – as you will soon see.

{ A very special thank you to Patricia Von Essche who created the beautiful art above and offered to send you a gift, Thaylea, if it’s ok with your Mom and Dad to give her your home address.  See this message from Patricia to you, Thaylea, that Patricia sent to me this morning via Facebook:

Now, the backstory…before you meet Thaylea, below.

Some of you who know me, know I was given a very powerful dream 6 years ago to buy the domain name: http://messagesofhope.com. I told the story of that, here. I will be launching this site this year and Leslie Hendrix Wood has been, and continues to be, my biggest supporter for this dream of mine, for which I am – and will be – eternally grateful.

As part of beginning to form a community of people inspired to give and receive Messages of Hope,  I started a Community for it on G+ ,here. One of the categories in the Messages of Hope Community on Google + is for people who would like to leave a note if they need the community to pray for them. You can see that category, here. {Please use it, Hadley Court readers, if  YOU need all of us to say a prayer for you or a loved one, too. }

We all need others to pray for us from time to time.. as did 13 year old Thaylea..who somehow found the Messages of Hope community on G+ and left us a request to pray for her, as she was having a hard time being strong in her fight with leukemia. Can you imagine the courage it took for a 13 year old to reach out to a group of complete strangers?

Neither could we, but she did..and in so doing… allowed herself to be vulnerable, and allowed for an in-pouring of compassion…as you will see below her picture.. as the story continues. 

This is the beautiful Thaylea..in a picture she publicly posted to the Messages of Hope Community. 

This is what Thaylea said when she posted this picture of herself:

And this is what Thaylea said about herself on her G+ profile.

And thanks to the compassion of a group of women that use the site http://olioboard.com and the special compassion of one woman, Pamela Koudelka, who helps me moderate the Messages of Hope Community, many beautiful messages of hope were created this weekend for you, Thaylea, to let you know you’ve been heard and that you’re not alone. Click here, Thaylea and readers, to see the entire album and meet the wonderful women who created these beautiful images.

A few of them, larger. This one, below, was created for you by Heather Lee.

This one was created for you by Shelley Harcar.

This one was created for you by Connie Parker.

And this one was created for you by Adele Baumann Healey, who helped Pam initiate this wonderful outpouring of compassion from the members of the Olioboard Fan Room on Facebook, Thaylea.

I would like to say thank you to Pam, Adele, Tonya, Connie, Shelley, Michele, Eridania, Maria, Nanette, and Regina, {so far} for taking your time this weekend to show compassion and empathy for a little girl you don’t know – who reached out to us, complete strangers, for hope and prayer. You all exemplify the heART of gracious living.

This last share, created by Pamela Koudelka, who has created hundreds of beautiful e-cards for http://messagesofhope.com, expresses it all.

Thank you, Pam, for having a heART of gold.

Leslie Carothers

for

 Leslie Hendrix Wood

Decorator
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas

 Founder, Editor In Chief

Hadley Court

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 Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.

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 You’re invited to please subscribe to the Hadley Court blog,  here, and to follow Hadley Court on Pinterest, Facebook, G+ and Twitter, here, here, here and here 

and if you’d like to see more stories of GIVING, on Hadley Court, please click here. 

 and if you’d like to, please follow Messages of Hope on Facebook, here, G+ here and Twitter, here.

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For more information on the 1st 10 charities your purchases on http://messagesofhope.com will enable me to support upon my site’s launch this year, {including 3 that help childhood and adult cancer patients}, please watch this video with me, here, recently featured on Stationery Trends website, thanks to Sheaffer Pens and Mindy Knight Lockhard of The Gracious Girl. 

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