Clovers for Collins

When I first found out I was pregnant, I went to babycenter.com daily to check the status of what was going on with my pregnancy, as well as finding out what was normal and not normal, since I had no clue.  I found the community section on the website, and joined the board for the moms of May 2011 babies.  This was a great place to go and talk to other people going exactly through what I was going through, and it provided a group of people to talk to outside of work and home, since we had decided not to spill the beans until I was out of my first trimester.  


There were thousands of people and so many posts everyday that it was hard to keep up.  One day I saw a post for the start of a spinoff group of moms that were sarcastic.  I of course signed up immediately.  We became a close knit group of ladies, and eventually the group moved to Facebook.  We went from talking about our pregnancies to one by one, to welcoming our babies into the world.  


Of the 27 women in the group, one of the ladies was not able to bring her son home with her.  He had a disease called ACD, which a rare lung disease that strikes newborns.  It has no cure and is always fatal.  There was no way of knowing that he had this disease, and the night we all found out, we hugged our babies tight and prayed for strength and comfort for this fellow May mama.  


One of the services that was provided to family in their loss was a photo session of her dear son by a group called "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" (NILMDTS).  This group brings in a photographer to hospitals to do a photo session for families to have a keepsake of of their babies that have gone to be with the Lord.  She has told us many times how she treasures these photos and how great it is to have something so beautiful to remember him by.


With all that being said, our group decided, that in celebration of his life, we would do a fundraiser in which for a $5 donation, people could purchase a 4 leaf clover (her symbol for Collins) of their choice that was handcrafted by a member of our group.  The fundraiser is called Clovers for Collins and all proceeds will be donated to NILMDTS in Collins' name.  We have started a Facebook page, which you can access by clicking the button on the right hand side of my blog.  Please take a look and consider donating to this great organization.  I know that they have done a great service for my friends' family, and hopefully they can continue their work in the future for more families.