~Preparations for Sam's Day~

~ PREPARATIONS FOR SAM'S DAY ~

There was so very much planning and organising to do for Sam's Special Day, from choosing the right Hymns and Prayers for the Church service, to the arrangements of the Balloon Release. Everything had to be just right, and there was a lot of hard work and detailed planning months before the actual event. Listed below are just a few of the plans that we had to make, to prepare for this very special occasion!

The Balloons!

Oh where do I start! The beginning is along way before Sam's actual Birthday, in fact, it was months before Sam's Birthday... The first thing we had to think about was how we were going to actually honour Sam on this day, and remember him with his brother Jack, on this, his 1st Heavenly Birthday!

It wasn't too much of a difficult thing to think about though! We knew in our hearts that a Balloon Release ~ just like we did for our Jack's 1st Birthday ~ was a very important part of Sam's Day!

A 500 Balloon Release with Red & White Helium Filled Balloons, some with special tags attached, to be released at the time of our Sam's Birth, and sent high to heavens sky, was the first part of our preparations to organise...

We contacted Beverley who also provided the Balloons for our Jack's release and she was overwhelmed that we had asked her if she would do the honours on our Sam's day too. We arranged the colours of the balloons, 'red & white', the colours we always remembered our Sam by, and discussed the arrangements of dates and times etc... We also mentioned to Beverley that we would like a sculpture created from Balloons to be placed in the Church during the service also this time, maybe in the shape of a 'Heart', something that the children would be able to see and enjoy! This was a surprise for all of us on the actual day, as Beverley would be taking the 'Sculpture' to the Church, just before the Service was due to start so that no one would see it before...

The sculpture was made from 'a heart shaped frame' with over '200' balloons attached in a swirling pattern to the frame! The sculpture itself was around 6ft by 4ft in dimension! It was beautiful!

The next time that we would be seeing Beverley would be at the Beach, in the early afternoon, on the date set for Sam's Special Day ~ March 22nd 2003!

Here is this most beautiful sculpture that Beverley had created for our Sam! These photos were taken the days following our Sam's Birthday after we had bought the sculpture home from the Church. Sophie and Ben had much fun with this, and we took some photos of it in front of our Jack and Sam's 'Special Place', here at home! To see some photos of the Sculpture in the Church, please click on the 'Church Service' Link on the Update Page!

...with Sophie & Ben!

...in front of Jack & Sam's 'Place'.

The Church Service!

This was one of the hardest parts of Sam's Day to organise, (I remember feeling this exact way with the arrangements of our Jack's Services also), but as usual, our wonderful Vicar Chris Newlands was there to take any worries or concerns and lift them from us as we prepared the Order of the Service!

I once again created the 'Service Sheets', Andrew and I had to decide on which Hymns we would like and which special songs to be played! This was the hardest part I think! All we kept thinking about was that we should have been hearing and playing 'Happy Birthday' and been celebrating with a Birthday Cake and lots of toys for a little one year old to be playing with, but there we were, once again, arranging a Church Remembrance Service, and this was NOT the way it should be when you celebrate your Baby's 1st Birthday!

...but we knew we had to do this, so thought long and hard on the way we wanted the Service to be held and what we wanted to be included in it.

We chose our songs, our hymns & our prayers and organised an order of service! A week prior to Sam's Day, I created the Service Sheets, and compiled them into a little booklet with all the information required for the schedule for 'Sam's Day'!

I struggled many times with the creation of the Service Sheets, it just never seemed to be 'exactly what I wanted'... I made many different designs, spent hours and hours, night after night trying to get the service sheet 'perfect'... Finally, one day, it just happened... I came back to the PC, and it all seemed to fall in place... The design and the wording just flowed, finally, Sam's Service Remembrance booklet was completed!

We spoke to our vicar Chris on the phone at various points leading up to Sam's Day, and whatever we wished to have during the service was all agreed save! One of the things we needed to do for Sam on this day was to 'light' a candle during the service, and our final request was that we wished to hand out some special gifts to Sam's Cousins, Our Midwives and Our Special Friend Lynda!

A few days prior, we went to see our Vicar Chris and handed him a copy of the Order of Service and the songs on CD that we wished to be played at the start and ending of the Service!

Chris was fine with everything we had thought of and dearly wanted for Sam's day and we left, with peace in our hearts and the strength to face this day!

We had the Service arranged for 12.00 Midday on Saturday March 22nd 2003!

Raising Sponsorship Money!

There was so much organising to do around the raising of the sponsorship Fund. We decided this year to offer a 'Prize' and sell 'raffle tickets' at £1.00 each! To keep in with the theme of 'Balloons', we decided to offer the prize of a 'Virgin Hot Air Balloon Flight' for the winning ticket!

The only thing we found difficult this year was to decide whom to donate the funds raised too. We donated 'Jack's' Sponsorship to the Church and to the Midwifery Unit. This time we felt we wanted to offer it once again to a 'very important cause' and thought of the perfect way!

We finally made a decision to donate the funds raised this year to the 'Potters Syndrome Online Support Group & Forum'. We wanted to send at least $500 to help with the upkeep and the Potters Fund that they have already.

Our Online Support Group is funded mainly by it's Members. We each send a small amount of money per year to help pay for the Website costs each month! This amount of Sponsorship we know will be so welcomed by the Group!

Many family members helped out by selling as many raffle tickets as they could. We started to sell the tickets a few months before Sam's Day, only bringing in the Sponsorship Money and the 'Raffle tickets' a couple of days prior to Sams' Day, allowing us time to count it/bank it and prepare the tickets for the raffle draw!

When the money came in, it was banked and kept safe until we had the final amounts and knew exactly where every penny was going!

...and lastly, we had to order and collect one of the 'huge presentation cheque's, that are used when raising funds. I collected this from the Bank a few days earlier. This would be used to display where the money raised would be going to and how much.

Our Special Gifts/Book of Remembrance

Throughout the Church Service, Andrew and I decided that we would like to hand out some small gifts to Jack and Sam's Cousins, to our Midwives and to our Special Friend Lynda!

We just had to think 'what'? It took weeks of looking around and trying to find something so perfect, for everyone, in memory of Sam and of Jack! Then Sophie & I saw it! A beautiful 'glass photo frame', with 2 spaces for 2 tiny photographs, side by side!

We bought many, and printed out the portraits that we have of our Jack and Sam and placed one of each inside each frame. The night before Sam's Special Day, we wrapped these in 'Red Tissue Paper' with little 'Footprint' stickers on the top and were all taken to the Church first thing the following morning.

We had also had a Portrait Drawn of 'Elliott', Lynda Beaumont's little Potters angel Baby! We had this framed the week prior to Sam's Day, and carefully took this down to the Church also, hiding it inside so that Lynda would not see it before we presented it to her.

We also wished to have another Remembrance Book, that friends and family could sign for us in memory of Sam's Day! This we had to take to the Church on the Morning of Sam's Day, along with the gifts!

The Evening Before Sam's Day!

The evening prior to Sam's day was hectic! We were wrapping gifts up, completing the Sponsorship Presentation Cheque, popping over to see our Vicar, going through final arrangements with Beverley about the Balloon Release and contacting friends and family to make sure everything was ok for the following day!

Late this evening, I had to make sure everything was ready to be taken to the church in the morning and that nothing was forgotten! It was a busy night but I think everything that needed to be arranged, had been.

We couldn't believe that we were about to celebrate our Sam's very 1st Heavenly Birthday! It still only felt like yesterday!