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| From march for babies 2011 |
Fortunately my Aunt Christine was able to use her connections to help get T-shirts printed asap. I had the design already created since it's my photog logo. I just changed the circle into text and sent it off to get printed. We're happy with how they turned out. We got to see lots of Sofia tootsies that day on our team members' shirts.
Since this was the first march for babies walk we had participated in we didn't know what to expect. I figured there would be a lot of people and there were- I believe over 3,000 attended the walk! It was pretty windy which made it a bit chilly but other than that the weather was nice. Sun was shining which helped warm us up by the end of the walk. Lots of dogs participated too (not ours though, they're a bit too high-strung around other dogs). It was fun to see them all.
Two of my nieces had balloons and before the walk told me that one was for Lily, one was for Lucy and the other one (the one with cute bugs on it) was for Sofia.
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| From march for babies 2011 |
Group photo with most of the walkers:
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| From march for babies 2011 |
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| From march for babies 2011 |
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| From march for babies 2011 |
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| From march for babies 2011 |
Saw this sign along the walk. It made me sad to read the number on the far right, knowing that our Sofia Rose was part of that statistic. Next to the number '12', it reads, "babies die before their first birthday". (although truly, stillborns are likely NOT included in this number)
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| From march for babies 2011 |
One of our Goddaughters, Gianna sporting her walk mini-T.
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| From march for babies 2011 |
At the end of the walk I ran into fellow BLM Betsy and we had Tim snap a quick photo of us together. We didn't have much time to chat (she was rounding up her fellow walkers for a photo op) but it was nice to actually meet. Betsy & I were paired up through the Faces of Loss gift exchange this past Christmas and hadn't yet met each other. It's strange how well you feel you know a person before you actually meet. Hopefully we'll have a chance to meet up again sometime soon.
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| From march for babies 2011 |
After the walk we hung out on the grass while we ate lunch. Our nieces played in the field and picked flowers. It was so cute seeing them out in the field then racing over to hand us the flowers. They stunk but it was sweet!
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| From march for babies 2011 |
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| From march for babies 2011 |
With my parents & sister after the walk
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| From march for babies 2011 |
With my sister-in-law, Sarah after the walk
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| From march for babies 2011 |
It was hard seeing some of the signs with photos along the walk. Many of them were before & after photos of when the baby/babies were premies and how well they're doing today. There were of course signs of the premies who didn't make it (including Betsy's Olivia: Too Beautiful For Earth). I couldn't help but feel a little out of place. We knew going into the walk that our type of loss didn't exactly fit here but we wanted to do something for babies in memory of Sofia Rose. It was a way to give back-to try and make something positive out of it all. I'd love to have a sign up - maybe next year - but I'm not sure it would make sense. Sofia wasn't born prematurely. She didn't get to take one single breath of air. She never went to a NICU. She never had a chance... We know we're not done trying to have a family, and we pray we never have another experience like we've endured, but I now realize the importance of this cause and providing support to families & their babies who need it so badly.
EDIT: Thank you Betsy for steering me right about MOD & stillbirths... I found THIS link that talks all about it. Why didn't find this sooner!? I feel a little less 'out of place' now and happy that MOD does support grants on research for things that contribute to stillbirths.
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| From march for babies 2011 |
As everyone left and we walked back to our car I started feeling sad. It's like I'm OK when there are people around ('safety in numbers' I guess), but when the party's over so to speak I'm left feeling sad. I think the hardest part for me - and why I started crying as we approached our car - was again feeling the harsh reality that we were walking to our car without our stroller, without our baby.
I don't want to end the post on a sad note, but honestly it's been hard the past few days. Time seems to be flying by yet I feel frozen because the life we anticipated isn't taking place. I'm thankful for the support we had on the walk and from donations but I still feel such emptiness. I know I've been pretty irritable lately and I can't seem to shake the anger over what has happened. It's strange because I didn't have this feeling until after the miscarriage. I guess I just feel like, Ok, enough pain already, please!! I'm ready for a happy chapter to begin, but I guess we'll just have to keep waiting for it for now.
Thank you again to everyone and we hope to have your support again next year.
Love,
Lia & Tim
Your posts always make me cry!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad we at least got a decent pic together :)
As much as I love doing the walk and plan on continuing the tradition every year... I don't think it will ever get easier to see those NICU survivor signs. Everytime I see one it just makes me think, "That's great that that baby made it, but why did mine have to be one of the ones that didn't!?". It's all so frustrating.
I just did a quick google search, "March of Dimes, Still birth", and found out that MOD has an entire still birth page. This is one of the things it said...
Does the March of Dimes support research on stillbirth?
The causes of stillbirth often are the same as the causes of birth defects, preterm birth and infant death. The March of Dimes supports many grants on genetic abnormalities, placental problems, maternal illnesses (including high blood pressure) and fetal infections, all of which can contribute to stillbirth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes. The ultimate goal of these grants is to develop new ways to prevent and treat these disorders, so they do not result in stillbirth, birth defects or
other pregnancy complications.
SO - I think you should definitely do a sign next year. It would absolutely make sense. There might be more NICU related stuff at the March for Babies itself, but MOD obviously does a lot of work in support of putting an end to stillbirths. So don't feel out of place :)
I might win the award for longest comment ever on your blog. Oops!