Happy Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day!

Today is Valentines Day and I was never really big on this "holiday" but this year has been different. It is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day as well. I never knew there was such a thing and never payed attention to CHD Awareness before we knew we were having a baby with one. This time about a year ago, we were just finding out that our baby would be very special. She had only half a heart and would need to have more surgeries in the first three years of her life than most people have in a lifetime. I have made it my goal to share and spread Gracie's story around and to make some really special kids very happy with Cakes From Grace. If you haven't already, please find our page on Facebook, like and share it with your friends. I have a lot of smiles that I want to put on these kids' faces so keep those orders coming!

Here is my Mission and Vision for Cakes From Grace...

Cakes From Grace "Cakes to warm every broken heart - in loving memory of Gracia Lorraine, born with half a heart."

Vision Statement:
To be a leader in taste, customer satisfaction, and artistic design while putting smiles on faces of kids with broken hearts.

Mission Statement:
At Cakes From Grace, we make all our own recipes from scratch with the freshest and purest of ingredients. We use classic and cutting edge techniques to create each individual cake that is truly unique and superior in quality. Our ultimate goal is to be a leader in taste, customer satisfaction, and artistic design. Cakes From Grace also donates cakes to organizations raising awareness about Congenital Heart Defects and to families effected by CHD's. We want to bring a little bit of happiness into their hearts, and put smiles on their faces through each cake we donate.

Quality
Our recipes are made completely from scratch, we use fresh, whole strawberries, bricks of dark chocolate and even that cookie on top of your cupcake is made from scratch, nothing is store bought! Our cakes are always freshly baked and iced and never touch a fridge or a freezer!

Customer Satisfaction
"Describe it - we'll make it!" Here at Cakes From Grace, when it comes to design and flavor, anything is possible. We love coming up with new flavors, so whatever your inspiration is, we will work with you to make it possible.

Value
You'll find that our prices are very generic and you won't find anywhere else that puts as much time and detail into every part of your cake. Since we do make everything little thing that goes on and into your cake from scratch, you should expect only the best from us.

Donating
Part of our Mission is to put smiles on faces of kids born with Congenital Heart Defects through the cakes we donate to CHD organizations such as "Lasting Imprint" and " Parents for Heart." We also discount our prices for any "Heart" family. To find out more on why we support Congenital Heart Defect Awareness and "Heart Families" please read our story at www.cakesfromgrace.com (coming soon.)

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Yes, a website is in the works and Shawn and I are building it from scratch. Mine as well keep the "scratch" thing going, huh? :-)

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Last weekend I did my first event for Lasting Imprint. I donated lots of Cupcakes for their CHD Awareness week bowling event and everyone loved the cupcakes. A couple people even said my cupcakes are "life changing" maybe I should work that into my vision, eh? Parents For Heart also had an event last weekend, although I couldn't be there since we were out of town, I did donate a cake for their fundraiser.

I did want to also mention another event coming up on April 20. A lady contacted me this week that had heard about Cakes From Grace asked if I could be a part of the event.

The parents of another beautiful Grace created this organization after she passed away in the summer of 2009. Her CHD diagnosis was hypoplastic right ventricle with tripcuspid atresia, pulmonary atresia, and aortic transposition. They, like myself, hope that Grace will never be forgotten so this organization was established in her memory.

This will be the 4th Annual Hope in Grace Fun Run/Walk in Blaine, MN. Last year there were over 300 participants and 50 volunteers. They have raised more than $53,000 to support pediatric cardiology research and reward excellence in children’s intensive care nursing.

I wanted to share this with you all because I will not only be donating a whole bunch of my specialty cupcakes to the event but I will also be participating with my family. We would like to have another Team Gracie there and maybe even make t-shirts. I wanted to invite you all to join our team as well. If you feel you are up to the challenge please contact me, it's for a great cause! Beckyahunt@hotmail.com

Here is the site... http://www.hopeingrace.org/

Today I will leave you with a picture of one of my Valentine cakes and a few facts for you all to get a little more Aware. :-) Happy Valentines Day!

1 in 100 children are born with a Congential Heart Defect, and annually 100,000 babies worldwide will sadly not reach their first birthday, all because of CHDs.
Did you know that annually CHD’s take the lives of more little one’s than all the childhood cancers combined?
It’s a pretty taboo subject, and children’s heart defects desperately need more awareness, funding and research.
Also a new bill is being worked on to get passed by a friend of mine for a really important baby screening. If you missed the news last night, check this out...
http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2931035.shtml?cat=1