March for Babies 4/25

I know this is late, but I had other things on my mind to blog about. :-)  I barely slept 3 hours the night before the walk. This is the first big thing that I’ve organized and I was nervous about how the day would turn out.  A few people cancelled on me because of the weather, but we had a huge turn out.  I told everyone to be there around 9:15. I was going to get signed in and take a quick lap of the area, but almost everyone arrived before 9:10.

There are couple of people missing from the picture. The walk was getting ready to start and they were still in line registering.

My family got gold beads and I was jealous of everyone that had the other colored beads. My beads meant that my baby didn’t survive.  Yes I obviously know that, but the beads were just another reminder. I fell into Erin’s arms to cry when I got my beads. We headed towards the starting line and the guy on the microphone started a chant. He did the “When I say healthy you say babies!”  I lost it again! I mean I’m all for healthy babies, but I was surrounded by NICU graduates and healthy babies and all I wanted was to have Aidan be a part of that group.  Thankful my co-worker Carrie was right there for me to cry on.  We didn’t start the walk as a group because I wanted to stay back with Carrie. She was 37/38 weeks pregnant and I wanted to make sure she was okay.  Along the way I could see our bright blue design on people’s backs.  It was really cool. My girlfriends stopped along the way and joined Carrie and I.

The walk was shortened from 3.1 miles down to a mile and a half due to the rain.  Speaking of the rain, the weather didn’t keep everyone away….. There were a lot of people Marching for Babies.  After the walk some of our group met back up to figure out what we were doing for lunch.  While we were standing around I saw a familiar face. I saw, Ingrid, one of Aidan’s NICU nurses! I love this lady and I’m so glad she’s in my life! Here are the rest of the Community North NICU nurses that marched.  I didn’t know most of them, but they all knew me because of our special little boy. A group of 11 of us went out to eat after the walk and that was a lot of fun! (My best friends Nicki and Erin)

I’m glad that we did the walk and that we had so many people walking with us.  I have friends all over the country that walked as a part of Team Aidan Christopher. It means so much to us to get his name out there. My friend Megan and her husband walked in Seattle Washington last weekend.  He wasn’t supposed to be able to walk because he’s in the military and was going to be gone for a month, but that got pushed back.  While they were walking he carved Aidan’s name in a piece of wood.  

My friend Tonya walked last weekend as well in Cleveland, OH. She wore her team Aidan Christopher shirt as well, but I forgot to download the picture she sent. Oops.  There were a few other walkers last week, but they haven’t sent me any pictures yet.

Thank you all so much for your support. We’ll be walking every year for the rest of lives to continue Aidan’s story and I’m excited to see who all makes it out next year.

I love you Aidan Christopher!

Maggie