March for Babies 2010

First, the weather was horrendous! Let me tell you that I woke up yesterday to thunder and lightening! My plan was to still go to the walk to turn in our donations and see where it went from there...we proceeded on with the walk with rain periodically coming at us from all directions. No worries about Cooper, he was all bundled up and had a raincover on his stroller and SLEPT almost the entire walk!

As we waited at the starting line there was one sentence in the speech that started my crying "we walk for children that will never know their brother or sister...." My heart broke not just for myself but for Cooper...

At one point, we stopped because Cooper needed to eat and have a diaper change (seriously, little man was a blow-out necessary when mommy's concentrating on not dying during this 5.5 mile walk???) and when we started back on our walk we saw that we were literally the LAST people in line...there were no other walkers to be seen...literally, one of the drink stations had already packed up their waters! (luckily, the bottom of Coop's stroller was loaded down with waters and carbs!) We marched on (although, I was tempted to take Mar.ta back and pretend that we finished the walk without even breaking a sweat!) and caught up with the group! It ended up taking us about two and a half hours to complete the walk but this included the diaper blow-out and feeding time for Cooper :)

It was a miracle to see other preemies being pushed in their strollers or being pulled in wagons. A lot of families had t-shirts made and carried little flags showing their preemies gestation and birthweight (I will be stealing this flag idea for next year!) and to see these babies healthy and thriving just shows you what a great cause the MARCH OF DIMES really is...I know, I count myself as one of the mommies that will be eternally grateful for their work in neonatal medicine...

On a sad note, my balloon was dead when I woke up on Saturday morning and the weather wouldn't have allowed it to go far anyways..so, instead when we finished the walk our entire group yelled "WE LOVE YOU, LILY!"

Here is just a few pics from our walk~

My neice, Madycait, with Cooper...can you see him under his stroller cover? :)

Lily's sign on Cooper's stroller

Just a pic to show you the unhappy sky!

Team Lily Angeline (next year, I'll have to modify or team name!)

Lily,

You're always missed and always loved beyond measure. I grieve that you and your brother won't grow up together...but, I promise that he will always know you. I talk about you all the time with him but I'll have a real talk with him about you when the time is right...until then, know that I think of you everyday...

My love never dies...a mommy loves forever,

Momma