Why We Walk

On Sunday, Eddie, our friend Jeanette and I participated in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica, although Eddie seemed to feel it was the "Carry Me America" and spent about half the three mile trip insisting he had to be in my arms.

It was a perfect day for walking, sunny and just warm enough without being too hot. There were families and groups of all sizes and colors. Eddie scammed an Eat-n-Park Smiley Cookie off a group of women by batting his eyes at them and looking longingly at the cookie. Jeanette and I had our best time ever, most likely because we didn't stop at the rest stations, just powered on through.

I took the picture below of Eddie and Jeanette sitting behind some of the flags along the route. The flags are in honor or memory of babies born before their full gestation (36 weeks or less); from what I can tell, it's just for the past year. Babies that survived get a pink or blue flag; the white flags are in memory of those that didn't. This year, some of the parents were carrying the flags at the end, after picking them up en route. Either they hadn't done that before or I didn't notice, but this year I saw several couples carrying two white flags. It's heart-breaking. Last year we walked with Team Gavin - Gavin is now a healthy happy one-year-old who seemed to have a good time on the walk. This year, we walked in memory of Brennan Mark Hayes, who didn't get to take his first breath on this earth. We walk so there will be more stories like Gavin's.

Preterm labor/birth is the biggest killer of newborns, and shockingly, on the rise in the US. 1 in 8 pregnancies will end in preterm delivery and it can cause lifelong health problems for the child. There are some videos people have made about why we do the WalkAmerica, and you can check them out here, but be warned, it made me all teary, so don't watch it if you're supposed to be working or writing a paper or something.

Tomorrow I'll go back to being funny, as I tell you about the vicious cold-blooded killer side of me. No, really.

Eddie, Jeanette and a few of the far too many flags


BTW - Thanks to our generous family and friends, Eddie and I raised over $550! That's enough to support 10 families going through the ordeal of having an infant in the NICU and fund prenatal care classes for 10 women in high risk groups! The money also goes to fund immunizations for infants/children in low-income families, research into the causes of and prevention of preterm labor and even special training for nurses working with preterm infants.