Happy CHD Awareness Week!!

That's right, everyone!  It's that time of year again. February 7th-14th is National CHD Awareness Week.  And, obviously, if you're reading this blog, you might have guessed by now that CHD is kinda important to me.  :)

There are a lot of statistics out there. A lot are surprising, especially if you don't know that much about CHD.  So I'm going to rattle off a few facts about Congenital Heart Defects. 

--CHD is the #1 birth defect

--CHD strikes roughly 1 in every 100 live births. (Some sources say 1 in 110.)

--CHD kills more children each year than all forms of childhood cancer combined. Yet it receives a fraction of the funding. 

--There is NO CURE FOR CHD. 

--There are roughly 40 different types of CHD. (Atticus has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.)

--Raising awareness is one way to fight back against CHD. Because with awareness comes funding, and with funding (God willing), comes a cure.  

There are so many more statistics that I could share, but I'll leave it there for now. I would like to share two more things though. One is a song. I found this song last year, and it is a great description of what its like being a Heart Mom.  Take a few minutes right now to go listen and watch the video. I'll wait.......

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9qxE_1_6TC8

Done wiping those tears now?  I know. Its a great video. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so that video spoke volumes. CHD Awareness is not just knowing statistics like I listed above. Its knowing that these are real kids, real parents, real families going through this struggle. These are people like anyone else. CHD doesn't discriminate between black, white, asian, rich, poor, middle class, etc. CHD is a battle that so many children face, yet so little is known about it.

The other thing I wanted to share with you all is a great poem called "Welcome to Holland". Its a poem written about what its like to have a child born with a disability.  I think the author does a great job of conveying the feelings. 

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." 

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I'll leave you with a few awesome CHD Memes. Remember to spread awareness, and as always, keep on prayin'!