A week and a half ago I shared a little video introduction of our friend Claire. So many of you immediately opened your hearts (and your wallets!) and offered love, compassion, letters, packages, and support for the Fuchs (“fewks”) family. I can’t thank you enough for your kindness, willingness to serve, and sweet gestures. I know Karlee + Chris (Claire’s parents) + Jacob (her brother) feel incredibly blessed through this whole experience. Karlee + Claire have been working on many, many handmade thank you cards lately.
Guess what? Claire Bear is now HOME from the hospital! I will fill this blog post with pictures from our visit yesterday but first … have you noticed the sidebar on my blog? Looks a little different, right? When I introduced Claire, I also announced an Ads for Claire campaign to help raise dollars for Claire’s newly-acquired needs. We were completely blown away by the number of individuals and companies that contacted us. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much to all of these sponsors! 100% of what they paid to have ad space on my blog went straight to the Fuchs family.
Everyone: Please click refresh to ensure these ads show up the way they’re supposed to. : )
Readers: Please take time to click on the ads and see what fun things each sponsor has to share with you as far as inspiration, products, or services. These ads will be here for just this month of February … and then they go away.
Advertisers: If you notice anything at all that needs to be adjusted with your ad, please email karolyn@beckyhiggins.com so we can fix it straight away. This is our first time placing ads on my site and it’s definitely a new experience for us.
Note: Because of the nature of this fundraiser and the need to keep the entire process very, very simple – we are not taking any more sponsors at this time. Anyone who wants to reach out to the Fuchs family with a note of encouragement, or a letter in the mail, or even a cash donation, can find that information HERE.
Special thank-yous: In addition to the sponsors, I am so very grateful to Karolyn + Brandi – two of my very dearest friends who managed this whirlwind project – Ads for Claire. They are amazing. I am eternally grateful to my brother Andrew who constantly works his magic on my website, and especially for staying up super late last night to get all of the ads in place in time for today. And a huge, huge thank-you to David. He is always thinking inside the box, outside the box, on top of the box … he’s seriously genius. As we were brainstorming how we could help the Fuchs and pull off some sort of fundraising effort, it was David that thought of doing the ads. Smarty pants.
…..
Before Claire returned home, there was so much work to do to make their home wheelchair accessible. There is still work to do, and it’s not quite finished yet, but so much progress has been made – thanks to many volunteers in our community. Her bed/bath area is nearly done.
I wish I had a before picture, but their driveway used to be pavers and now they have a beautiful concrete driveway that makes it easy to get Claire safely between the front door and the car safely in her wheelchair. So many people (adults + youth) worked hard to remove + stack all the pavers in preparation for the cement to be poured over the weekend.
You can imagine my delight when Karlee busted out Claire’s baby album and some old scrapbook pages she made. I am loving the pictures of little Claire! And I am loving that Karlee is ready + motivated to pick up where she left off. As soon as the dust settles in their home, she’ll be getting loads of pictures into a Project Life album.
Love, love, love this girl. Oh – and this family picture? This is the MOST RECENT family picture they have had taken. (Not including the very impromptu picture I snapped yesterday, at the top of this blog post.)
Um. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Yeah. I totally know that we are so going to make sure that this darling, amazing family has a darling, amazing photographer in Arizona take pictures of their family soon. Are you with me on this? I’m giddy about the idea, actually.
Tags: ads for claire
So great to hear about Claire. It put a huge smile on my face that everything is working out so well for her. Her and her family will be in my prayers.
Becky, I love seeing the Ads and knowing what they represent to this family. I actually don’t mind looking through the Ads either.
Maybe you should consider running them and featuring a new charity to benefit from them every month?
Good Luck & Good Wishes Claire
I sent what I could, and I so wish it could have been more. But the feeling I got when I read about Claire, and what you were doing for her, and what her community did for her and for her family, THAT was the real benefit of donating to help her. To see the love and support that was sent their way… to hear the beating of all those wonderful hearts who helped any way they could…
It was not only a gift for Claire and her family, it was a gift for all of us…
We really are a wonderful world, aren’t we?
I’ll be browsing through your ads this afternoon, as well. Great idea, David!
So glad that Claire is HOME!!! Surely hope that she will continue to improve in spite of what the doctors have said. Prayers are with Claire and her family:)
Love the ads…so awesome of them all to do that for the Fuchs. And for me! I love to find cool new things. So thanks Becky and all of the sponsors!
What WONDERFUL news! I have perma-grin on my face after reading this post
I will continue praying for Claire and her family. Going to browse the ads now 
To see a bunch of people coming together – people the Fuchs know and those they don’t – is always heartwarming. Love the outpouring of support. And yes – they need and deserve beautiful pictures taken of their family!
Becky, This was such a wonderful idea and I am so happy to be a part of it. It is wonderful to see their home coming together, to see old scrapbook pages, and if I were in AZ, I’d take their family pics tomorrow! Can’t wait to see who does;)
Praise God Claire’s home! I’m so happy for that and will continue praying for her recovery. Thank you for making us all aware of this special young woman!
SO happy to see so many awesome folks supporting Claire and her family! I’m so excited that it is such a big success! Sending you BIG hugs, Becky! Great job!
Wow!!!Look at all of those ads!
Wow so great to see that Claire is home and to see how many ads were able to help out as well! I’m an aspiring photographer right near Claire and wish I was a pro like Kristen Duke so I could take them!!
I’m so happy to hear that Claire is home! What an amazing young lady she must be and what a great community. I’m super excited to be one of the ad sponsors for such a great cause. Thanks for making all of this happen Becky & crew. Off to click on all of the other ads!
What you and the community are doing is so wonderful. It’s great that Claire is home and that her home is not providing any further struggles.
I have an 8 year old daughter with Special Needs – and can’t imagine piling something like this on top of the current everyday struggles. Claire looks so sad, it breaks my heart. It’s really great that you can help them out like this, as they will need support just to get through all of the day to day things that most people take for granted.
my heart is so full reading about the love poured out for sweet Claire…
She reminds me of my sister. My baby sister that was born with lots of different things all together making her very unique, but she & Claire have the exact same smile!! Its crazy to me-I’ve never said that before.
Anyway..I say DEFINITELY need that crazy talented photographer that you have to snap some current photos of this family. If I could, I’d be down there in a heartbeat to do it myself!!
I adore the goodness that comes out of this blog community, bless this whole thing!
Becky I have to say I looked back at all the posts about Claire and watched the videos and am so touched by this family and your outpouring of love and friendship. My 9 year old came in as tears were streaming down my face and watched much of the video with me. I have bought bags from Karla in the past and they always just make me smile whenever I use them (weird, I know)…now they have even more special meaning. Thank you for introducing us to this precious child and lovely family. Many prayers to all of them for the days ahead.
[...] home from the hospital, but there are loads of things that need to be dealt with now. Becky has placed some ads on her blog, in order to help out the family. Click that link and go check it [...]
Keeping Claire and her family in my thoughts!
Awesome! What?
Awesome that Claire Bear is home.
Awesome that the driveway is concrete.
Awesome that so many wanted to help via ads.
Awesome that I have so many new sources of stuff to check out.
Awesome that the Fuchs have such supportive friends and neighbors.
Awesome that everything is so awesome!