The Heart Walk was an amazing success for Team Ryan! Thanks to our amazing family and friends, we raised $550 to support local CHD research. Our team of walkers is shown in the bottom right hand corner and includes our family, Grandma, Aunt Ashlie, Uncle Anthony, Lilly and let's not forget Dexter. The weather was great, Kyle was so disappointed that he had to leave early with Grandma for a baseball game, but he did come for the pre-walk activities. Jason and I wanted our donors to get their money's worth, so we took the long route (4 miles) with Grant and Ryan in tow. Grant did really well and walked for quite a bit. Ryan enjoyed people watching for awhile and then crashed. Every time I tried to recline his seat, he sat up and woke up, so that is why he looks so uncomfortable. I made the collage into cards on Winkflash to send to our donors. We are so grateful to:Wray and Jerrian Renfro, my sister's in-laws
Russ and Georgena Hayes, Jason's Aunt and Uncle
Rich and Marla Byrne, former client and friend
Toni and Bob Spradling, clients of Mom's
Grandma and Pop
Regina Ward, preschool teacher extraordinaire
Karen McDonald, my best friend from college and new mom herself
Lisa Chism, preschool mom (also of 3 boys)
Susan Guicheteau, my manager from Shaw and longtime friend
Jon Stratamn, Jason's cousin
Donna Pierce, my aunt
Stacie Hopkins, my cousin
Renee Cumpton, my cousin
Aunt Ashlie and Uncle Anthony
This is a picture of Ryan (and Grant) with his new heart friend, Natalie. Natalie was also born with TGA and had her surgery on June 24th of last year, just one day after Ryan. They were in the PICU at the exact same time, directly across the hall from each other in fact and it was so good to meet her and her family and see how well she was doing. Her parents and big sister were super cool and could not have been nicer. I noticed them with shirts that had "Natalie, TGA w/ VSDs" embroidered on the back and when I saw the baby hanging onto the stroller that looked to be around 1, I knew immediately that they were the family I remember seeing that week in the PICU. They always looked so worried, I never said anything to them at the time, but I knew somehow that Natalie was dealing with TGA as well and I always wondered how she was doing and how things turned out for them. I didn't say anything to them last year because a)I didn't know what to say b)I knew that there wasn't anything to say really and c)what with the pumping and waiting for rounds and walking to the cafeteria and pumping and pumping and pumping, none of us had much time to chat but I am so thankful said something this year. I think we could have talked for hours if we had had the chance, but unfortunately things were wrapping up, we did find some shade and Jenna and Grant enjoyed some time on the big inflatable slide with no lines and we were able to exchange info and I can now follow her story on CarePages. Meeting them was a very special end to a very special day.
Special Edition Heart Walk Not Me's: We did not let our 3 year old pee in Brush Creek during the walk using the excuse that it was full of duck poop anyways. Had we have done this, we wouldn't have used the big stroller as cover. We also did not eat at McDonald's after the Heart Walk since we listened so closely to all of the healthy living tips so closely.
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