Offering hope through difficult times for more than 15 years

About Our Nonprofit Organization

For more than 15 years, we have been working to make a difference in the lives of heart patients and their families who are spending Christmas in the hospital. What began on the day of my first heart surgery has grown into an annual mission to bring hope, comfort, and joy to families during one of the most difficult times in their lives.

To identify the families we serve, we work closely with social workers at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. With the patient and family’s approval, we have the opportunity to “adopt” their family for Christmas.

Before a family can participate in our program, they must meet certain requirements:

They must have a child who is a heart patient currently in the hospital.
The family must demonstrate financial need.
The family creates a list of wants and needs. We first focus on providing the family’s essential needs and then work to fulfill items from their wish list.
We raise funds and gather donations throughout the year to provide the gifts and support requested by each family.
Around December 15, we deliver the gifts directly to the families we have adopted for Christmas.

Our goal is simple: to make sure heart families know they are not forgotten. During a season when most families are celebrating together at home, these families may be spending Christmas in a hospital room, facing fear and uncertainty. We want to bring them a joy, comfort, and hope and remind them that their community cares.

About our founder

My journey with congenital heart disease began when I was just four months old, when I underwent my first open-heart surgery. For most of my childhood, I lived a relatively normal life, managed with yearly cardiology checkups. However, shortly after my 16th birthday, my world changed when I learned that my heart valve was failing.

In October 2025, I underwent a valve replacement procedure. What was supposed to be a straightforward recovery quickly turned into a series of life-threatening complications, including a severe bleeding emergency and, just a few months later, two unexpected strokes. By a miracle, I recovered from the strokes with no permanent damage. But the physical and emotional toll left me searching for purpose in my pain.

The answer came at 3:00 AM in a hospital room, shortly after my third heart procedure. Standing over my bed was Tommy, a nurse who had survived five heart surgeries, a heart transplant, and cancer in that very same unit. Fourteen years earlier, Tommy’s story had inspired my family to start a small holiday mission (informally called Share Your Heart for the Holidays): delivering Christmas gifts to families spending the holidays in the pediatric cardiac unit.

We began that mission because we wanted to give back to the heart families who stayed in the hospital while we were fortunate enough to go home. It never felt right leaving while so many other families remained behind, facing fear, uncertainty, and difficult days. We wanted to offer those families the same warmth, encouragement, and sense of normalcy that had helped our own family through some of our hardest moments.

Meeting Tommy as my own caregiver was a profound moment of clarity. I realized that perhaps my challenges were not a punishment, but a preparation. What began as a family response to gratitude and empathy had become a calling to serve others facing similar fears and uncertainty.

As of the end of 2025, our mission has supported more than 60 heart families during some of their darkest times, bringing them hope, gifts, and the comfort of knowing they are not alone. While my medical journey is far from over—and future surgeries are likely—my purpose is clear.

Guided by my faith, my family, and an incredible community of doctors and nurses, I am dedicated to expanding this mission. I want to ensure that every child facing congenital heart disease and every family walking beside them has the support they need to fight, heal, and live a life full of possibility.

Work With Us

Our Purpose

Mission Statement

Wrapped with Hope exists to share the love of Christ by bringing hope, comfort, and joy to children receiving heart care and the families walking beside them. Inspired by our own family’s heart journey, we partner with hospital social workers each Christmas season to provide thoughtfully selected gifts to heart families experiencing financial hardship. Through generosity, compassion, and faith, we strive to remind every family that they are seen, deeply loved, and never alone.

Vision Statement

We envision a future where every family facing a child’s heart condition experiences hope, compassion, and the love of a caring community. Our prayer is that no heart family spends the Christmas season feeling forgotten or alone, and that every gift delivered serves as a reminder that even in life’s most difficult moments, there is hope.

Our Purpose

Wrapped with Hope exists to encourage and support heart families during one of the most emotionally and financially challenging seasons of their lives. By partnering with hospital social workers, generous donors, churches, businesses, and volunteers, we provide meaningful Christmas gifts that bring comfort, joy, and encouragement to children receiving heart care and the families who love them.

Core Values

Faith
We are guided by the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in all we do.

Hope
We believe hope has the power to bring light, even in the darkest circumstances.

Compassion
We serve every family with kindness, dignity, empathy, and respect.

Generosity
We believe every act of giving has the power to change a life.

Integrity
We are committed to being faithful stewards of every donation entrusted to us.

Community
We believe lives are changed when people come together to serve others.

Joy
We strive to create moments of happiness and lasting memories for families during the Christmas season.

Five-Year Goals

Program Growth

Serve an increasing number of heart families at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital each Christmas.
Build a sustainable volunteer program to support annual gift preparation and delivery.
Establish strong relationships with hospital staff and social workers.

Community Engagement

Partner with churches, schools, civic groups, and local businesses throughout Michigan.
Recruit year-round volunteers and ambassadors who share the mission.
Develop an annual December community-wide giving campaign.

Financial Sustainability

Build a diverse base of individual donors and corporate sponsors.
Secure grants that support the ministry’s mission.
Create a reserve fund to help ensure the ministry can continue serving families each year.

Organizational Excellence

Maintain full transparency and strong financial stewardship.
Build an active, engaged board of directors with diverse skills and perspectives.
Develop clear policies and procedures to support long-term growth.

Long-Term Vision

As God provides opportunities, expand beyond serving one hospital by partnering with additional children’s hospitals and pediatric heart programs, while remaining faithful to our mission of serving heart families with compassion, dignity, and hope.