Walk for Hope 2013

This past weekend, Patrick and I went to the Wisconsin Walk for Hope.

It's a walk organized by a family that lost their little girl, Hannah.  And it's for all families that have lost a child.  They survive 100% on donations, and this is even is free for the grieving families.  They have t-shirts for you to decorate (we write our children's names and a little something to them), Compassionate friends, another great org, makes buttons with your pictures, and a very moving balloon release before we walk along the lake.  It might all sound simple, but there's something about being surrounded by other people that know what you've gone through, that understand that loss.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Patrick forgetting to look at the camera ;)
while holding our balloons for our angels.

I LOVE this one.

All those balloons, for all those children...
They had notes to them attached

Lately

To follow up, I have started my poppy painting :) Still need to finish my thank you cards! And haven't started the baby book... but all in good time, right?

So holidays suck. I think they will forever now.  Even ones like the 4th of July and memorial day (as opposed to Thanksgiving and Christmas...the ones everyone thinks about).  It's a time to be with your family.  So it's just a reminder of what's missing.  NOT that I don't think about my children every second of every day, because I do.  It's seeing all the other families together, with their kids...the dads playing with their sons and the moms snuggling and kissing... it's hard.

But on the 3rd of July, I received a package.  Not just any package! It had Noah's Molly Bear inside!

Weighing 1# 13oz just like our boy did,  it was the best gift to come home to.

What are Molly Bears you ask?? They are a GREAT non-profit organization that makes bears for grieving families in the weight of their lost child.  They started because Molly's mom was given a teddy bear weighing what her precious Molly weighed when she passed away and it brought her so much comfort.  She was in support groups, like us, and started making them for those families and soon had so many requests that they started the organization.  They work and create bears solely on donations, so if you've got a spare $20, think about donating it to this amazing group!

Learn more about Molly Bears here


What did you do last night??

We ran in the Storm the Bastille event here in Milwaukee. It's a super fun 5K running through the downtown area.  I recently hurt my knee and had not been running much and the re-tweaked it on Monday night so I wasn't sure I was going to be up for it.  But I woke up thursday and felt great. I didn't run as hard as I wanted to, but I didn't want to re-injure myself!  But it was a lot of fun!

Are you going any fun runs this year??

Projects

So I, like many people (I HOPE!) have these great plans to make or do certain things :)

I WANT to do them! And I plan to!

Maybe if I tell you all about them, I WILL do them and you can help keep me in line and accountable! ;)

I'm only going to write a couple of my goals, as I've picked through them so I don't over whelm myself and give up! Do you do that?

ok here goes!

1. Finish all my business thank you's for their donations to our March of Dimes auction.  This is important for several reasons! One, I AM thankful that they donated! I want them to know that it meant something to me that they did. And maybe they will donate again, if I choose to continue with the kick off events. This is about 1/4-1/3 done as of today (7/2/13)

2. Paint my poppy painting for our kitchen.  The final color scheme of our kitchen is a terra cotta orange against wood cabinets and turquoise accents. So I wanted to paint orange poppies with a turquoise sky to sort of tie it all together.

a combo of these two pics :)

3. This is the big one and this one will take me more time, but someone needs to do this! I want to make a baby book for mama's out there like me. Who find out during their pregnancy that something might be wrong.  A book that focuses on helping moms remember the details about the pregnancy, etc. I wanted baby books for both boys, but they ALL have "Baby's first steps" , "Baby's first word" and so on...pages that would be left empty and hurt more because I know that I will never see Dylan's first steps or hear Noah's first word.  So I don't buy the books and no I have no baby books.

I don't think I'm alone here. I have a feeling there would be other mom's out there that would like these.

What do you think? and please feel free to ask how I'm doing on these!! ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday!