Miracles

Soon, I will be sharing a story of how Grandma was saved by a very new procedure that is used after a stroke.

Seven years ago my nephew was born a few weeks early. He had to spend about a week in the NICU. He was the tiniest baby I've ever seen - weighing just over or under five pounds. My memory of this is fading. I do remember my sister-in-law used to have to undress him to wake him up every three hours to be sure he kept eating on schedule. Now, he's in first grade and amazes me every time I see him.

A few years ago at work a fellow teacher and I were amazed that a girl in her class weighed only 1 pound at birth. One pound, people! That is amazing.

Tuesday morning I met a little girl, Evelyn, who at four months old had just doubled her birth weight and weighed *almost* 10 pounds! She was tiny. She was adorable! And her parents were in awe of her abilities.

Almost 17 months ago a little girl was born. The pregnancy was complicated, the delivery an emergency c-section, and the outlook was dim. Maddie survived. She lived! Her parents celebrated her milestones, enjoyed her company, and documented it all. Sadly, on Tuesday, Maddie passed away.

Life is full of miracles.

And today there are countless posts written about Maddie, people offering donations and services to Maddie's family, and walking in her honor.

A few months ago I was upset with myself for not walking for a charity event in 2008. It was one of my resolutions, but I couldn't decide what charity to walk for, after having done the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. What was I waiting for?

Since February I've been sitting on a post card from the March of Dimes. I even went over to the website a few times to check things out, but never did anything. What was I waiting for?

I suppose I needed a good kick in the butt to get things going. I've decided to walk in Naperville, on April 26th, in memory of Maddie and in honor of all those children I've met, at an older age, that I just couldn't believe they were born "too early".

If you'd like to make a donation go here. If you'd like to join me and walk with me, please join my team. I'd love to have some sort of post-walk celebration.