A couple of months ago, we introduced you to our partnership with aTeam Ministries. aTeam was started a few years ago by our friends Jan and Andy Thrower. After their son went through pediatric cancer (and is now a happy, healthy six year old), Andy and Jan became aware of the unique and overwhelming challenges that pediatric cancer families endure. The horrendous experience of childhood leaves parents in emotional, spiritual, financial, and sometimes physical despair. aTeam seeks to minister to these families by providing services care bags when kids are unexpectedly hospitalized and parents haven’t packed a bag, family fun days at Alabama and Auburn (even meeting the team on some occasions), and financial aid with groceries, gas, medicine, and bills. They meet every week to pray for the children and their families. Their home away from home program provides a place to stay while families are in Birmingham for their children to receive treatment. That’s where we came in.
We were so happy to have the opportunity to help aTeam collect furnishings for the new place. We revealed the children’s bedroom to you a few weeks back. Today, we are ready to give you a look at the master bedroom and bathroom. We really tried to create a space that was not only beautiful, but also functional. We wanted parents to have a quiet, comfortable place to unwind after a long day at the clinic or hospital.
A generous donor gave us money for the master bedroom bedding. We definitely could not pull off a project like this without the financial support of private and corporate donors, and the friends of aTeam Ministries really came through for us.
Since most of the people staying in the aTeam apartment aren’t there for long, we wanted to give plenty of place to store luggage.
My sister-in-law Cecily Hill Lowe, who is a very talented artist, generously gave us two of her latest paintings for the master bedroom. They are calm and peaceful, and they looked perfect in the space.
Since the parents will not need the HUGE master closet in the apartment, we opted for turning it into a nursery. We have lots of families that have babies, and having a nursery allows parents and babies to stay with their regular sleeping arrangements instead of trying to sleep together in the same room. We all know how little sleep a parent gets with a small baby sleeping in the room.
And many thanks to the sweet folks at HomeRight for sending me a Finish Max paint sprayer, which I used on a fun little project for the nursery. Every nursery needs a rocker, right? I found a diamond in the rough at the thrift store that I knew would be perfect with just a little elbow grease.
The Finish Max sprayer
And finally, the master bathroom. The master bath is a large space that is already well decorated. It has lovely dark wood cabinets, great granite, and beautiful tile. It only took a few finishing touches to make it complete.
The shower curtain was a gift from a generous donor. The rug was a generous gift from Mohawk Flooring. They were so kind to donate several rugs for the apartment, including both of the bath rugs, and another special piece I’ll show you later.
Thanks so much to the major sponsors to these rooms: Cecily Hill Lowe, HomeRight, and Mohawk Flooring. We also thank the private donors who provided the bedding, shower curtains, and accessories. We definitely could not have provided such a nice place to pediatric cancer families without all of you chipping in!
First, I must say what your aTeam does in a wonderful thing…what a blessing your service must be to so many people in need.
I’m very aware what a diagnosis of ‘cancer’ for a child… can do to an entire family. One of my granddaughters had cancer when she was 5. She had to endure 8 months of chemo which took 3 weeks of every month being hospitalized….just to try to ensure when they did the surgery on her leg there was less chance the cancer would spread. She had osteosarcoma. Every day she was hospitalized she was never left alone…my son only left to go to work and then would go back immediately after work. My DIL was there 24 hours a day…and she was pregnant when my granddaughter was diagnosed. When she went into labor her ‘post’ was taken over by me until she could drive 2 weeks later….and my son relieved me when he got off work so I could go home to sleep and then return early the next morning. After the 8 months of chemo they did surgery to remove most of her femur bone, her knee and part of her tibia. She was fitted with a custom made internal prosthesis. That little girl is now 22 years old….and we feel blessed to have her as we were told she had only a 50% chance of making it.
Everything looks so lovely in the apartment….and I LOVE the chair you did. For not being a seamstress…you did a G R E A T job!! I hope to have one of those sprayers from HomeRIght some day…I’ve been wanting one for so long.
Thank you so much, Doris. Glad to hear your granddaughter is doing well.