Mary Grace was born February 6, 2008 in the Netherlands. Her American parents, Adam and Amber, invited a spiritually diverse circle to nurture Gracie as Godparents, including myself. The family are involved in a community in Amsterdam called the Netherlands Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. This past winter the NUUF decided as a church community to give Gracie a welcoming gift in the form of a donation to her favorite children's charity. Gracie's family chose Hands to Hearts International, a worthy cause for whom I volunteered in HHI's founding years. As a massage therapist herself, Amber is particularly inspired by the powerful effect of therapeutic touch for these babies who do not have such a loving circle of providers. And I think Gracie enjoys the massage techniques highlighted on the recently-created HHI DVD!
On June 1, NUUF announced the recipient of this special donation on behalf of Mary Grace. It so happens that on the same day, the church fellowship had special visitors from Portland: Mark and Carol from the First Unitarian Church in Portland. Mark and Carol are dear friends of mine and knew about my involvement with HHI. But perhaps they didn't know how HHI was being mentioned that day in the Netherlands: that it was my Godchild being honored with such a gift. What an incredible coincidence! We are so privileged and blessed to have such loving connections around the world: on that June day they were visiting Amsterdam, Gracie's family was vacationing in Greece with Godmother Elizabeth; Godmother Teresa was living in Japan; other Godparents were sending love from America; and the Netherlands Unitarian Universalist Fellowship was honoring Mary Grace with the gift of love for children in India!
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