I would just like to thank everyone who helped us out during this time.
Whether it was by bringing food, magazines, hugs, gifts, a phone call, an e-mail, a prayer said, a candle lit-you all have
touched our lives in a very special way which I'm not sure we could ever repay.
To sit at a child's hospital bedside, even knowing he is going to be allright,
is not something I want any parent to have to go through, but the harsh reality is that many have, do and will.
Congential heart defects affect 1 in 100 babies! That number is so scary! CHD's are the #1 birth
defect, and #1 of infant related deaths. We have been the lucky parents, as many parents of heart babies, many I have
had the recent pleasure of getting to know, will not see their child grow up, will never again hold that baby in their arms.
Many of these children endure numerous surgeries and hospital stays often before the age of 3.
Because we have been so fortunate to be able to keep Ethan here with us, my goal is to raise awareness of
this horrible birth defect, and maybe with more awareness, we can get people to be more proactive in fighting it, and changing
those statistics. The funding for childhood cancer is many times more than that of CHD's, yet CHD's will kill more children
yearly than childhood cancer.
As friends and family, and even strangers who have found their way into Ethan's website, please help me
fight this battle by pushing more money into better research and better screening of newborns than just a "quick listen" with
a stethoscope. I have been fortunate to find a support group here in the KC area, called CHD Families. It was
started a few years ago by two very amazing heart moms, and it has grown leaps and bounds by the dedication these women have
to helping out Moms like me.
Please visit our website www.chdfamilies.org and read their inspiring stories, and get to know some of the families I have spoken of, and admire so much.
There are products for purchase, and an area to make donations if you so desire. We are a non-profit
organization, and the money raised is used to help out families like Xavier's-who spent many weeks away from home waiting
for his new heart, make heart blankets for kids facing their first heart surgery, and to bring better awareness
to our community.
1 in 100 kids are born with a congenital heart defect.....
what if that 1 were yours?
