“I wanted to set aside a time in all the busyness of caring for her siblings to prepare my heart for her.”
She remembers praying for her unborn daughter while stitching together the gown.
“ Sometimes, it was just simple prayers like ‘Lead her heart to Yours, Lord,’ and sometimes I prayed the Hail Mary for her … the gown became more of a spiritual gift for my daughter than a physical one, and now it my favorite project that I have ever sewn.”
Bonjour has also been able to share her gift with other women. She has hosted sewing and crafting nights for mom’s groups in her area, and she offers sewing lessons to daughters of friends.
“My favorite part of teaching is seeing (my students) succeed at something they thought they couldn't, and hearing the pride in their voice when they say ‘I made that!’”
There is, however, just one catch.
Jodi, her husband Andy, and their four young children share a modest 1,000 sq. foot home, bursting at the seams with love, but with precious little room to spare.
While innovative uses of space and impeccable organization have made their living space both pleasant and functional, the same cannot be said for her ‘sewing room,’ a dark corner of their unfinished basement, tucked between the laundry area and an overflow pantry.
For a mom who ministers to her family and to so many others through her craft, a space to truly call her own would be an incomparable blessing.
Which is why she and her husband jumped at the opportunity to enter a contest whose grand prize seems custom-made for Jodi: a $5,000 ‘makeover’ of the winner’s sewing space, Courtesy of the Home Depot and Bernina USA.
A prize like that would be an answer to prayer, and the answer could come as early as tomorrow, May 25, when voting for the contestants closes.
(Story continues below)
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Voting for contestants is done through the company’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/berninausa, under the "Win a Makeover" link.