This post is long, but well worth the read.  Jon & I will be participating in March for Babies this year in support of our friends Erica & Adam. You may remember Erica from last year’s post where she told her tragic story of her precious baby, Logan.   I encourage you to read her touching updated story below, and if you’d like to help us out visit our donation page.  Also, I’ll be announcing a super special SALE tomorrow that will benefit our team, so check back to see what it is!

It’s March for Babies time again, and we are looking forward to another successful year of helping to bring healthy babies into the world in Logan’s memory. Team Remembering Logan raised over $7,000 last year and was the #1 family team in Winchester, and the #2 family team in the state of Virginia - second by only $10. We can’t even explain what an amazing feeling it was to help keep other families from knowing this type of pain, and we could never have done it without all of our wonderful teammates and donors. This year we need your support again. If you want to walk and fundraise with us we would love to have you on the team. But if not, a donation would be greatly appreciated. We know there has been a lot of need in the world this year, especially with the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. But as we learned last year, it doesn’t take a large donation to make a difference. Every $10 gets us closer to being the #1 team in Virginia and saving another baby.

As Adam and I always say, the past two years have been both the worst and the best years of our lives. We lost our beautiful baby boy, and brought our beautiful baby girl into the world about one year and one week later. We think of Logan every single day, and especially on those “anniversaries”. It’s fitting that this walk takes place in May - In May of 2008 Adam and I found out that we were expecting our first baby. We had so many fears, expectations and dreams for Logan from the first day we found about about him. By the time we got to about 20 weeks most of the fear was gone and we were just anxious to have him here. We were so excited and couldn’t wait to meet him. We spent our evenings and weekends working on the nursery and we were getting ready for my first baby shower with my side of the family. That was supposed to take place in Lancaster on Thanksgiving weekend 2008. As most of you know, that shower never happened. Instead we spent most of the week of Thanksgiving in the hospital, and on Thanksgiving Day we had to say hello and goodbye to Logan in what could never have been enough time. I would never go back and erase those 7 months of being pregnant with Logan, and holding him in my arms for the short time that we had with him.  I never had the chance to look Logan in the eyes and tell him how much I love him, I never got to hear him cry and try to figure out how to make him smile, but he will always be our first baby, the one who showed us that the statement, “You don’t know what love is until you hold your baby in your arms” is so true.

Since that day our lives have changed more than I could have ever imagined. Having Kyla has done so much to help us heal and has brought so much joy back into our hearts. She is the most amazing gift and every day that we have with her is such a blessing. Sometimes when she’s asleep on my chest I look at her and see Logan’s face in hers and wonder what he would look like now. When she throws a temper tantrum or giggles at us we wonder what Logan’s personality would have been like. These are things we will never know, but we find some peace in knowing that Kyla will always have the most amazing guardian angel in her big brother.

This year we have decided to name our team Remembering Logan and Cannon, in memory of Logan and the son of two very special friends. Mandy and Daniel came into our lives shortly after losing Logan, thanks to one of our favorite Labor & Delivery nurses. They had lost their first baby Cannon to stillbirth, in November of 2007 when Mandy was 9 months pregnant. They were pregnant with their second son, Cade (who turned 1 in February!) when we met them. Getting to know Mandy and Daniel, hearing their story and seeing them go through their second pregnancy was exactly what Adam and I needed. They probably don’t even realize how much they have helped us in the grieving process, but it just doesn’t seem right to do this walk in Logan’s name and not include Cannon. We hate to have met such a wonderful couple this way, but we are so happy to call them friends.

Before Logan and Kyla, we never truly understood what a miracle it is to bring a healthy baby into the world. Although the March of Dimes doesn’t focus specifically on stillbirth, any research that leads to healthier pregnancies and a decrease in prematurity and infant mortality can only help get us closer to preventing this type of tragedy.

If you would like to help Jon & I reach our goal towards helping Erica’s team, just click the box below and you will go right to our donation page! Also, don’t forget to check back tomorrow to learn about the awesome SALE that we are having to help us reach our goal!

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