05/18/2026
Monday May 18
It’s been a while since our last update post… so this one will be a long one.
First off, we want to say thank you.
We had our first bachelorette party stop in for a bite to eat before carrying on elsewhere! Thank you to the Heitkamp family for being so supportive!
We also hosted a 90th birthday party that included two amazing homemade apple pies from Mad Sweets!
Thank you to Jay and Julia for an awesome night over a week ago.
We continue to see familiar faces returning to support us, and that means more than we can put into words. We also continue to see new faces walking through our doors, and we hope many of those become familiar ones in the future.
Last week was honestly one of the craziest weeks we’ve had.
Mad Sweets had an event at Honda Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. We hosted a wedding reception Wednesday evening, and we delivered dinners to Second Crossing in Rockford on Thursday. On top of that, we had a huge number of weekend orders scheduled for graduation parties, weddings, baby showers, and more.
We thought we had everything planned out.
That was our plan… not His plan.
Late Tuesday night, we received a call that our son Jacob had been severely burned in an accident at work. Instead of heading home to sleep, I met him at St. Rita’s in Lima, where we learned he would need to be transferred to the Burn Unit at OSU in Columbus.
Karen had already been helping Maddie at Honda and never got any sleep. I returned to the building to begin Wednesday’s orders, including the private party. Karen went to Columbus to stay with Jacob, and Maddie stayed at Honda through the event without sleeping either.
We all just pushed through and did what had to be done.
When you’re operating on little to no sleep, things don’t always go perfectly. I handled the Thursday event at Second Crossing without a hitch other than being a little late, and we are incredibly thankful for their understanding.
Maddie finally managed to get some sleep Wednesday night into Thursday, while Karen remained in Columbus with Jacob.
By the weekend, we were already behind.
Maddie worked through Thursday night without sleeping to complete orders. I grabbed what was basically just a nap. Karen stayed with Jacob while he underwent surgery for skin grafts on his third-degree burns.
Friday night was much of the same. Maddie once again stayed up all night finishing orders while I grabbed another short nap whenever possible.
Thankfully, Jacob’s surgery went well, and Karen was able to bring him home late Saturday afternoon.
And somehow, every single order was completed before it absolutely had to be done.
We just want to thank every customer who ordered from us this past week. Most of you had no idea what was happening behind the scenes, yet nearly everyone was incredibly gracious, patient, and understanding.
Some orders were delivered. Some were picked up. But every single one got done.
None of it could have been done without employees and volunteers coming in early, staying incredibly late, and helping to push us through.
This past week reminded us that sometimes things don’t go according to our plan.
But His plan carried us through.
Thank you all again for supporting our family, our business, and all of us here at The Deli Bar(n).