CHD Awareness Week

It turns out that this week is CHD Awareness week. Some of y'all might remember that last year I helped put together a Pinterest Board to share stories and raise awareness. I haven't had the wherewithal to plan anything yet this year. I keep saving all my heart-momma-friends' posts and reading them and vowing to put something up to commemorate Congenital Heart Defects and to draw attention to something that has had such a profound impact on our lives here at the Stanley Clan. Unfortunately, life hasn't even slowed down enough this week to allow me time to READ all those posts, let alone write one of my own. So instead, I'm pointing y'all in the direction of some of my friends' whose stories and posts are far more poignant than mine right now. We feel really passionately about congenital heart defects and awareness and pulse-ox screenings. And we know that, as well as Caden is doing right now, there will be more surgeries and his heart will always, always, play a huge role in our family's path and in bringing us to our knees before a God who loves and crafted Caden into the beautiful little boy who is snuggled in my arms right now.

If you dont know Caden's story, you can read it all right here. 

Before Caden was born, there was so much we didn't know about congenital heart defects, starting with the fact that it was even something we should begin to think or worry about. Or ask about. Or that 1 in 100 babies is born with a congenital heart defect. I've concluded recently, that it is hard to be truly passionate or even to have a complete thought and opinion about something until you have personally encountered it in some way. Poverty, homosexuality, death, pain, illness, sick children . . . Face-to-face feels and shapes and hones our hearts and minds about a thing far differently than reading about something or vaguely knowing it. So if experiencing Caden's story and joining in our lives, even a little bit on this little corner of the interwebs, can be that for you and CHD, then we will be grateful and honored to be a stepping stone on that journey. Because congenital heart defects matter, and babies like Caden matter, and for people to be aware and funding money to be there for research and places like Children's Healthcare of Atlanta . . . all of it matters profoundly, and we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasnt for those things. So I'd love for you to read, share, give, and otherwise contribute to this cause in any way you feel led.

You can also visit any of these fellow heart family's blogs, they are all sharing stories and facts and helping raise awareness about congenital heart defects this week.

Stefanie at When Life Hands You a Broken Heart

Laurie at Through the Lens of Motherhood

 

Kristine at Cora's Story  

Ruth at Corbin's Story

Dawn at Queen of Hearts

Joye at Signs of Life

Brandi at Madison Gandy

Czarina at Accidental Purpose

Tara at Little Johnson Heartbeat

Melissa at Straight from the Heart

Baby Claire's Blog

Xtra Special Heart

**As a side note, we'd appreciate prayers for our little Caden . . . He just got over pneumonia and woke up at 4am covered in diarrhea (sorry, no warning on the gross there. What can I say? I've been married to Adam so long that I've become callous to gross apparently) and burning up with fever. Adam's taking him to the doctor right now, and I'm going to pick Zack up from school, and then we need to make him a cardiologist appointment within the next month, so we would appreciate prayers for health and strength for our weary family. Because also? As it turns out, living with a teenager (even the best teenager ever), is not for the faint of heart. Please and thank-you.