The Faces of CHD: Pinterest Awareness Challenge

When Caden was born, I knew little to nothing about congenital heart defects. After his birth, diagnosis and surgery, I was blown away by the number of people who contacted me and said they, too, had a son or daughter with a chd. One of those people was my new friend Ruth from A Trip to Holland. She has put together something cool for Congenital Heart Awareness week, coming up February 7-12, and I'm excited to be a part of it. Her story, and how you can help is below . . . You can send your stories & pictures to me at Becca1612 at hotmail dot com if you want to participate. I'm looking forward to hearing all your stories and meeting your special heart babies (or kids or adults!)

As many of you know, I am the mother of two little girls born with congenital heart defects, known here as Superkid and Lily. I'm also an avid Pinterest pinner--I love collecting ideas and inspiration via Pinterest. Those two elements of my life had absolutely nothing in common...until today! With your help, I'd like to help promote awareness of and advocacy for children (and adults) with congenital heart defects by founding a Pinterest board devoted to sharing the stories of families affect by the #1 Birth Defect. The board is titled, "The Faces of CHD - Congenital Heart Awareness Week Feb 7-12, 2012."

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board, where people can "pin" pictures with captions to be viewed and shared by others. Because pinned items can be viewed by thousands of people, pinning pictures and brief stories about your experiences with CHD will bring awareness to many people who might not otherwise have an opportunity to personally meet anyone with a congenital heart defect. If we start pinning now, we'll have a thriving board by CHD Awareness Week, Feb. 7-12, 2012. If you already have a Pinterest account, you can find The Faces of CHD board here. If you would like an invitation to join Pinterest (it's free!), please email me: triptoholland {at} gmail {dot} com. For those of you who have been affected by congenital heart defects, here is how you can participate, with or without a Pinterest account.

Create a blog post that tells about your experiences with CHD. (Or you are free to use one that you already published.) Please make sure there is a picture of the heart child/adult in the post. Please link to the CHD Pinterest board in your post. (http://pinterest.com/ruth_h/the-faces-of-chd-congenital-heart-awareness-week-f/)
Send me a link to that post, either in the comments below or in an email (Becca1612{at} gmail {dot} com). Please include a brief (10 sentences or less) description of your experiences with CHD when you do. Make sure that description includes the heart warrior's name, age, and heart diagnosis. You could also include number of surgeries, favorite hospital, etc. As the founder of this board, I reserve the right to edit your description if necessary.
I will add one of the pictures from your post and your description to The Faces of CHD board. Pinterest members will be able to click on the picture and be directly linked to your blog post to learn more about living with CHD.
If you do not have a blog, but would like to be included on The Faces of CHD board, please email me and I'll provide an alternate means for you to participate. (Becca1612 {at} gmail {dot} com.
Feel free to grab a button below to add to your blog, so that your blog readers will learn about our awareness challenge and be able to participate.