Wednesday, March 21, 2007

We're Walkin for Preemies!

My wonderful sister is part of a Tampa Bay area team that is walking in the March of Dimes: WalkAmerica Walk. She is raising money to help other families, like her own, that go through the difficulties of pre-mature child births.

Her personal goal is to raise $1000.00 and her team is shooting for $5000.00. Please click on the link at the end of this post to donate and support other babies like my nephew and the March of Dimes!

You probably already knew this, but our little Poops was an earlybird. He was born 6 weeks premature, which may or may not have had something to do with the preeclampsia I developed at the end of my second trimester. For those of you who are new here, you can read my story here. Well this April, the March of Dimes is holding its WalkAmerica walk, which also happens to coincide with Poops' first birthday! How fitting, right? Even though ten months has passed, his prematurity is still very fresh to me and so is our experience in the NICU. I have a very dear friend who is going through it all right now with her baby boy who was born just a couple of weeks ago, at 30 weeks. So this walk is very near and dear to my heart. If I could spare any baby and any parent from the experience of an early delivery, I would do it. It's scary as shit. But for now, this is what I can do. I can raise awareness and raise money for an organization who can help figure out why this happens to our babies and fix it. The funny thing is, when I was in middle school and high school, we always used to walk in this walk because it started at the elementary school right down the block from our house, and the route wound right through my neighborhood. And even though I walked every year, I never got it. It was just a fun walk to me. But there were probably mothers and fathers and babies who walked the walk because prematurity touched their lives, and many of those may not have been as lucky as we were with Poops. He came out virtually unscathed! I know everyone has a cause that they blog about and you all have to read about, and this one is mine. Mostly because I never though this would happen to us and I would give anything for it not to happen to anyone else. But also partly because being proactive in this fight will help me heal. So, if you're in the Tampa Bay area and you'd like to join our team, please, join us! But if you'd like to sponsor us instead, I would so love you forever! I have set up a lofty goal for myself ($1,000) and for our team ($5,000). The button on my sidebar will take you straight to our team's web site so you can donate or join our team, The NICU Vets. Everyone who donates will be placed on my sidebar.

Christie

To donate, click here! Walking for Preemies!

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