Kids with Heart Christmas Party

We had the Kids with Heart Christmas Party today (my daughters are the two in the front, one in a red corduroy dress and the other in an orange corduroy dress. It is such a great time being able to hang out with other families of kids with heart defects. The woman who runs it has an adult son, but continues to participate and help us with the support group. She funds all of this with proceeds from the Kids With Heart website - the books sold, the bears, etc...

We each bring a dish to pass, Pepsi provides the beverages, and one of the local bakeries provided the buns and cookies. Each child got 3 gifts...that's right - ALL of the children. Granted, there were probably only 25 or so, but that is still a nice chunk of money being spent. They don't get anything too expensive, but it brings such a light to their eyes to get anything.

They also have all sorts of craft project set up - cookies to decorate, pine cones to decorate for ornaments, little mice to make out of felt, etc...the girls had a blast. At the end of the day we met a woman who is actually going to start having support group meeting once a month - this will be fantastic and I for one can't wait. Her little girl (who is 2) has an ASD but it hasn't been operated on - they are hopeful that it will close and no surgery will be necessary. She was telling us that her and her husband tried for 8 years to get pregnant (they had a 10 year old) and after they sold all of the baby stuff they found out they were. When the baby was 4 months old she got pneumonia and that is when they noticed she had a heart murmur and that she may need surgery at some point for her heart. Two weeks later, her husband collapsed at work. He was conscious, but had hit his head and it was mandatory that he be taken to the hospital to be checked. When she got to the hospital, she was waiting for the doctor with here daughter when they heard a Code Blue. 30 minutes later she was met by the clergy - her husbands aorta had burst and he was dead...at 40. So, not only was she worried about her 5 month old daughter with possible heart issues, she then lost her husband due to a ruptured aorta. Just when you think life is rough and you get down, you meet someone like this and it truly makes you realize how good you have it.

Well, off to take care of the rugrats - hope you all had a nice Sunday!