Hiatus

Hi all. I have not forgotten you.

I realize that perhaps this time of year (coming into the holidays) is when An Angel's Grace would be most needed. I can truly relate to the hecticness of Oct-Jan. I can only imagine how that is compounded when your baby is in the NICU.

Unfortunately this year, it does not look like An Angel's Grace will be up and running to meet the needs of those parents. For this I do apologize.

I could list the reasons and excused but I will just tell you that right now we are having to spend more time pursuing money making idea's to help get the paperwork paid for to become a legitimate business.

Don't worry, An Angel's Grace is still our baby, my favorite project and in my thoughts constantly. As soon as there are any changes, I will post immediately.

Until then, you are always in our thoughts and prayers!

Sorry

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post and I feel awful about that. Yes, An Angel's Grace is still in the works process. While I haven't written about it and am currently not working on it 24/7 like I was, it is still very much on my mind and in my heart. This is an endeavor I will see through to completion. I still believe in this organization as much as ever. As we settle into a new school/sleep/nap schedule I will be better able to continue my research, write for grants and work on this project. To any/all faithful readers, hang in there. It will be worth it. We will be back full time soon! Until then . . . please place all parents with NICU babies in your thoughts/prayers . . . they need your love and support!

The beginning

In 2000 when our 1st son was born at 23 weeks we were informed even before his birth that if he was born alive and continued to live that he would spend months in the NICU. We both worked and I was finishing up my teaching degree and that was fine, we had plans laid for a full term healthy baby for babysitting, etc. What we never counted on was having to divide our time between work, school and the NICU. As it turns out, we never had to make those arrangements, Andrew passed away 3 hours after birth. We never had to figure out how to do it all. We spent the next few years, grieving and growing, both individually and as a family. We went on to have another son and a daughter. When I had to go on bed rest due to complications with my pregnancy with the twins, our son was 5 and in a half day preschool and our daughter was just 18 months old. Jim worked 60 miles from home, a 2 hour a day commute. We relied heavily on my mom, who worked very close, to pick up our son and prepare lunch for myself and the children. At the time, we couldn't know how much more we would come to rely on her, the rest of our families and friends. When the twins were born at 36 weeks, we thought every thing would be alright and we would be home in a couple days. The plans were laid, babysitting arranged a couple meals cooked, the house cleaned. What we didn’t plan on was Jason having Respiratory Distress Syndrome and being sent straight to the NICU. The first 36-48 hours were very touch and go and quite obvious that he wouldn’t be home in a couple days. Jason did begin to improve and Rebecca and I were sent home. The tricky part had just begun. We wanted and needed to go to the hospital 2x daily. But, there was still 2 older kids at home to be feed, a house to be cleaned, errands to run, bills to be paid...just life. But, life for us revolved around NICU hours, breathing stats, quality time with the older kids and trying to sleep a little. Our families babysit and cleaned up as often as they could and we were blessed to have our church family deliver dinners. However, we did feel like we were monopolizing all of our parents time. Yes, they gave it willingly, but even still it is an exhausting schedule for anyone to keep. Since they all work (Jim was off on paternity leave), we had to center our visiting hours around their work schedules and the NICU’s hours. We thank God daily that we only had to do this for 2 weeks. In that 2 week time frame (it does seems like forever when you are living it) we often remarked that we didn’t know how other people would do this if they had to work or didn’t have the expansive help we had. That laid the foundation for An Angel's Grace to be born. We wanted to be able to make it easier for parents to focus on the babies in the NICU and their other children if they had any and not have to worry so much about the details of life. So, with OUR angel's guidance and everyone's grace, we move forward and begin this chapter in our lives.

Elated

So, while it has only been a month since the thoughts truly began to come together as a cohesive form and not random atoms floating around in the black holes of our brains, we have accomplished a lot!!!! I couldn't be happier with the progress of the organization thus far. Yes, it has been time consuming (sorry kids for the extra TV you have so happily suffered throught the past couple weeks - I am setting limits for my time here as well as your time there, sorry:) and I have been overwhelmed with all the who, what when, where's, it has truly been a labor of love. Please do not misunderstand me, we are nowhere near done. We have not even filed the first piece of paperwork with the state, BUT we do have a name, rough by-laws, a "parked" domain, rough letter to businesses. I am being guided by an angel of my own. Someone I have never me has been emailing me and helping give me info on how to start. Thank you so much Nikki. She doesn't know it, but as a former special ed teacher, I wholeheartedly applaud what she is doing. (http://www.specialstudentsofhernando.com/) Perhaps, if life had turned out different, her's would be a road I would have pursued harder. Anyway, I just wanted to get a posting up to see in print how much we have accomplished. It is more gratifying to look at what I have done than what remains. I will not be deterred from this however, as my thoughts and energy for this advenure seem endless.