Just one year ago…

I’ve been meaning to write this post for the past week. It’s now December 11th… last year at this time I was hugely pregnant and expecting a baby before Christmas (12.18 due date). I was fighting with doctors over an induction date. I was mourning the loss of my grandpa.

I was driving around the other day and started thinking about the holiday season and going through our first Christmas without my grandpa. And then it hit me… this will be the SECOND Christmas without him. He died last year on December 5th. Three weeks before Christmas, 3 weeks before his first great-grandchild was born. The holiday season slipped past me… partly (mainly) because I was busy having a baby. I spent Christmas Day last year at home with Steve–in labor. I wasn’t thinking of much else.

But it’s the second Christmas. Where does the time go?

It’s also the second Christmas without sweet, little Cora. She turned one on Nov 30th and to celebrate her life, her parents created 50 breastfeeding bags and donated them to their local hospital for new moms. Shari Criso donated 100 of her Simply Breastfeeding DVDs (which is what kept me going.. is the reason for my breastfeeding success) and Simplisse donated 50 kits filled with breast milk storage bags, nipple cream, breast pads and informational brochures. I’m amazed and deeply touched by their kindness and generosity. Both companies have checked in with me multiple times just to ask about Cora and Kristine. Very, very kind people and I’m thrilled for the new moms that get to receive these breastfeeding bags!

My students celebrated too, as they do every month. Some random acts of kindness: paying tolls for the car behind them, leaving quarters in shopping carts, bringing in neighbor’s trash cans from the street, raking leaves, running errands for grandparents, sponsoring a child that’s in need, buying Christmas gifts for children in need, lighting a candle on the 30th at the time of Cora’s birth, and of course–spreading the word about CHD and wearing lots of pink!!! One of my students has a baby due on Christmas Eve and he asked a nurse for a pulse ox after his baby is born… she had no idea why and didn’t understand the CHD connection, but he explained–because of what he learned from class (from Cora)–and the nurse said she would do it. <3

<3 One year ago... a lot was going on. So much time has passed, but it feels like it went by in a flash and that my grandpa was here just the other day. Still thinking of you all the time, grandpa, when I watch the moon, get Ryan a toy train, have a quarter in my pocket, see a coconut ;) and look at Ryan's blue eyes. We miss you! We love you lots! Hope you're driving a fancy old fashion car, rowing Lake Laverne (and the fjords in Norway), and dancing with the senoritas. <3

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