We are a professional blog site that may receive compensation or free samples from the companies whose products and topics we write about. We are independently owned, and the opinions expressed here are of the writer. To read the full disclosure click here.
______________________________
Katherine is a merchant sailor, deployed overseas an average of 50 out of 52 weeks every year. She keeps in touch with her family via Facebook. She stays pretty close to her sister Ann, niece Laura, Laura’s husband Mike, and their seven year old daughter Kayden. This last year, Laura and Mike were blessed with a second pregnancy and found out it was a boy. Laura and Mike involved their daughter with the oncoming birth of their son from the very beginning, establishing that sibling love and bond almost immediately.
While on Facebook, Katherine saw an advertisement for Budsies and decided to check it out. Once she discovered the possibility to turn art into a huggable custom stuffed animal, she wrote to her sister Ann asking her to have Kayden draw a picture of a toy that she would like to have for her soon-to-be baby brother Bryce. Ann happily obliged and Kayden immediately got to work.
Kayden drew her then-unborn brother a turquoise bear with blue belly and black hockey stick to represent their avid fandom for the Arizona State University Sun Devils hockey team (Kayden plays hockey and their family attends all the games), which Katherine fired off to Budsies.
The bear, when completed, was mailed off to Ann’s house. She took it over to Kayden so that she could give it to her now two-month-old baby brother, Bryce.
Ann has told Katherine how Kayden is immensely proud of the bear that she created for her brother. The photo below shows Kayden with Bryce and his new Budsie — which then promptly went into his mouth so he could chew on it. This is something he’ll be able to play with for years and cherish for decades. It’ll always be a reminder of his sister’s love, which is one of the most beautiful things to capture in life.
“I’m absolutely tickled that I was able to continue to increase the bond between sister and brother that Mike and Laura worked so hard to establish,” said Katherine. “This was a perfect way for me to become involved from the other side of the world.”
