A Walk To Save Babies

So Sunday was the big day, we all did the WalkAmerica event to raise money for the March of Dimes. You may remember from a previous post that while we were in the hospital with Joseph, we received some support from the March of Dimes. We decided that we wanted to give something back in Joseph's memory, so that maybe other families would not have to go through the same things we did.

We formed a team with family and friends and did our best to raise a little money. Christa conservatively set our fundraising goal at $500, a goal we hoped we could achieve. We were a little nervous about our ability to achieve this goal, as we had already been asking people to donate money to the Ronald McDonald House Charities (another organization that did great things to help us in our time of need.) We sent out emails, posted messages at work, and you may remember when we collectively hit all of you (our faithful readers) up with a blog post in March and added our pledge link to this page.

I am happy to say that we managed to reach our $500 goal, plus a little more. As of this writing we have raised $1731.55 (yes, 55 cents, there are some really weird people out there, not mentioning any names **coughmomcough**), we more than tripled our goal!!!!!!! To say that we are excited would be a drastic understatement of the situation.

Once again we are bowled over by the generosity of our family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. If I could give each of you a hug, I would, and so would Christa & Emily. We are very proud to say that we are associated with people of your caliber & generosity, knowing that this was done for our little boy is a humbling experience.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

On a more serious note, let's talk about Sunday . . . We awoke just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, there was a slight chill in the air, but we were not to be deterred. We bravely hit the snooze button for just nine more minutes, let's face it, there was a lot of walking to be done and we needed our rest. After dragging Christa & Emily out of bed, I managed to get everyone into the car and we then headed to Grandma Kathy's house to pick up her and Auntie Mandy before continuing on to the walk site in Busse Woods. Thankfully, when we arrived at Grandma Kathy's house, she and Auntie Mandy were already up and ready to go. After arriving at the walk site, we did our final check-in's and then met up with the rest of our team. Some of us foolishly elected not to stretch out, "I walk everyday, who needs to stretch?", the crazy fools, they would pay the price, oh yes, they would pay. . .

Promptly at 9:00ish, the walk began. Emily was very excited to begin the walk, and to be sure that she would have enough energy to finish, she promptly took a nap in her stroller. It was a very easy walk, up the side of a flat mountain, into a zero mile an hour head wind, through zero feet of snow and ice. I had hoped that the return trip would be downhill, or at least down wind, but that was not to be, as we once again had to scale a flat mountain into a zero mile an hour head wind. The total elevation gain was so great that it could not be measured. Apart from our struggles with the terrain, the walk itself was uneventful, considering that this is quite an event, and there were a good number of participants. We consider ourselves lucky that we finished with all of the same people that we started with, and almost all of their parts . . . Although, we did almost have to give Aunt Susie & Carl to the gypsies to gain passage across the pedestrian bridge. Sometimes sacrifices must be made to help the team, however, we did manage to win their freedom with a hard fought game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I hope those scars may someday heal.

Anyway, I think that the rest of the story may be best told with the stunning photos that I took during the walk (with some help from Christa, albeit minor). It is like they say,"a picture is worth at least four or five of Steve's words."

The day started bright and early. We had to leave the house by 7 am, so we were up at the crack of dawn getting ourselves dressed. Emily didn't let the early hour spoil her good mood. She's such a morning person. Here she is modeling her new white jeans (with pink stitching, of course), her Joseph ribbon onesie, and her new walking shoes.

Emily's walking shoes were perfect for the occasion. They are white canvas sneakers with a pink and blue stripe around the side and sparkly flowers.

Here's the whole gang. First Row: Mommy (Christa), our friend Brandon Wolf & Brandon's dog "Lady". Second Row: our friend Michelle (aka, Chewski), Auntie Mandy, Grandma Kathy, Daddy (Steve), Emily (duh!), Carl (Aunt Susie's fiance), and Aunt Susie.

Daddy and Emily getting psyched up for the big walk.

Auntie Mandy and Grandma Kathy model the back and front of our team shirts. The backs are personalized with our team name "Pink 'N Blue Make Two" and then underneath "In Memory of Joseph Roy Bellock."

Chewski gets in a quick hug before chaos ensues.

Here's the walk Start/Ending point. Appropriately decorated with pink and blue balloons, as well as the Field of Hope pennants. Each pennant had a baby's name on it. There was a blue one for Joseph, a pink one for Emily, and then 6 white ones for Joseph's memory. Each member of our team carried a pennant during the walk. We picked them up as we passed them on our way down the path.

And the walk begins . . . Mommy and Emily take a quick, but very short-lived lead. We really didn't like feeling like we were being pushed forward by the crowd, so we lolly-gagged until we were left with a more isolated walk zone.

Brandon, Lady, Chewski, Carl and Susie march on.

Daddy, Chewski, Brandon and Lady have a good time catching up while walking forward.

The whole gang is here at the first check-point for a quick drink of water and a photo-op.

Daddy found a friendly face in the crowd . . . It's Mommy!

Emily knew how to do this whole WalkAmerica thing . . . she got herself all snuggled into her stroller, with "Cow", and took a nap for the first half of the walk. She didn't wake up until we got to the halfway point, where we needed to turn around and head back to the beginning. Smart Kid!

And we're walking, we're walking, we're still walking . . .

Chewski got a little silly with pennants. She had 2 of them tucked into her hat. Crazy Chewski.

Lady got into the spirit of things with a costume change at "the turn." She started the day with a pink bandanna for Emily and changed into a blue bandanna for Joseph.

Look who woke up for the second half of the walk. Just in time to get hugs from Mommy before we head back out.

And some hugs from Auntie Mandy.

Wearing her hat gangsta' style. Getting down with her bad self.

Because she had slept through the first half of the walk, Daddy made her get in a few steps before we put her in her Snugli for the second half of the walk. After all, this is WalkAmerica, not RideAmerica.

Now that Emily is safe in her Snugli, it's time to get a move on.

Walking back towards the finish line, Brandon, Lady, and Chewski are in the lead.

But Aunt Susie & Carl are not too far behind.

Mommy was afraid to walk too quickly and bounce Emily too much, so she was taking a much slower pace and was enjoying a leisurely walk with Grandma Kathy and Auntie Mandy.

I can see the finish line, we're almost there!

Back at the check-point, we stopped for another quick drink of H2O and Emily wanted to play with the flags for a bit. Everyone else had a turn, she wanted one too.

Yay!!! We made it!! Woo-Hoo!!

Emily gets a congratulatory hug from Auntie Mandy for a job well done.

She then retreats to Grandma Kathy's lap for some relaxing snuggles. Aaahhhh, what a workout!

Kissing Cousins (Part Two)

So, when I stopped writing the other day, we were nearing the crescendo of Emily's adventures. Well, crescendo they certainly did. While hanging out with her cousins at the mall, waiting for the pictures to be ready, Emily was telling them how much I have been bugging her to go out and look for work. Saramy, being the wonderful loving cousins they are, told her that they would help her look for something to do on Friday, their last day in town.

After some discussion with their mother they discovered a "Job Fair" at the children's museum. The pictures that follow do a great job of illustrating Emily's exhausting search, with the help of her cousins. I will say that despite all of their efforts Emily is still a jobless layabout. She appears to be taking what I call the "Goldilocks" approach to job hunting, too dirty, too hard, too...blah blah blah. I don't think that she is taking this very seriously.

Saramy had to leave very early on Saturday morning so Emily, who as a jobless layabout enjoys sleeping in, said her goodbye's on Friday night. She needed to drive back out to Midway to pick up her Auntie Mandy in the afternoon. Emily hadn't seen Mandy since Wednesday morning and was looking forward to seeing if she bought any presents while she was away. All in all Emily had a very busy week and was looking forward to getting some rest. She is looking forward to the WalkAmerica on Sunday, and has her outfit all picked out. So stay tuned for the details of Sunday's walk and more pictures of our favorite jobless layabout.

On Friday morning, Sarah generously offered to help Emily prepare her resume, so that she can begin her job search and get her Daddy off of her back. Their next stop was going to be a job fair at the Rockford Children's Museum.

Here, at a job fair, Emily tries out her hand at Super Hero work. She thought the flying was fun, and she definitely enjoyed saving her cousin Amy, but there are not a lot of Super Hero jobs with daytime hours. Daddy would definitely have a problem with her working nights.

Hmmmmm, maybe I could be a News Anchor. She thought she'd have trouble sitting at the desk, so she decided to sit on the desk. Is that too unprofessional?

She then decided to give operating a construction crane a shot. She had a lot of fun moving the heavy things around, but dismissed this job pretty quickly because she doesn't like to get her pretty clothes dirty.

Emily's next adventure brought her to the moon as an Astronaut. She liked the astronaut ice cream a lot, but the rest of the food you have to eat in space is kind of a drag, so she decided to continue with her search.

Sarah likes soccer, maybe I will too.

You get too many grass stains on your socks playing soccer, maybe I'll try out being a Fire Fighter. Well, the coat is really cute, but that hat is too big, and I don't think I'll like the heat and soot. I guess I'll have to try again another day. Hmmm, maybe I could product test swings and jumperoos . . .

On Saturday, Emily decided to spend a little time bouncing in her new jumperoo. Remember the jumperoo she test drove on Thursday? Well, it found its way to our car and to our house.

Auntie Mandy came home on Saturday afternoon after having spent a few days in Orlando at a Social Worker's conference. Emily was excited to see her and vice versa.

Auntie Mandy brought home presents. Emily got this fun Mini Minnie that has magnets in her arms and legs, so she can hold onto Emily's clothes.

Grandma Kathy and Mommy got really neat Minnie pens. Daddy got a Mickey pen.

Wow! Look at Mini Minnie hang! She's really strong.

On Monday, Daddy had the day off from work, so Emily got to have a "Daddy Day". They came to school to meet Mommy for lunch. Emily was dressed in a plethora of polka dots, we thought Aunt Sandy would be excited.

Don't 'cha just love this crooked smile?

After Mommy came home from work, it was time to run some errands. One of these errands was to visit Grandma Roberta at church for a little while. While we were there, the Holy Spirit landed on Emily's head. That crazy Holy Spirit.

Kissing Cousins (Part One)

So like I said in the last post, Emily's cousin's, Sarah and Amy stopped by last week for a visit. Emily had a whirlwind week, which was so much fun that we will have to split it into two separate posts. This will be the first of those posts, I had considered doing the second one first, but I felt that might be more than a little confusing.

The week started very early on Monday morning with the arrival of Sarah and Amy. Emily was not able to meet them at the airport so she waited at work with Grandma, while Grandpa picked the girls up. When they finally made it to Grandma's office, there was much joy to be had by all. Emily thought Sarah tasted great and loved the fact that she provided such excellent handles on the side of her head in the form of braids. After having her braids tasted, and held hostage, Sarah quickly learned to keep her hair in the back when around Emily.

After celebrating the girls arrival they all went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to take naps. The girls also spent some time attempting to teach Emily how to roll over and finally named the bunny that she received on Easter, it was dubbed with the name "bunny".

Tuesday meant a trip to the park to play in the creek, and Emily's favorite activity...SHOPPING! Everyone was having their picture taken on Thursday and Sarah and Amy wanted new outfits. While out shopping Amy discovered a lovely trench coat which everyone loved, and proved to become a key element in being sneaky so as to kidnap Emily. You just can't sneak around without a trench coat.

Wednesday was spent apart, as Emily spent the day with her Grandma Kathy and the girls went to Coco Key, a new water park in Arlington Heights. A good time was had by all. Emily loves her Grandma Kathy and could not fathom spending a whole week without seeing her. She spent the morning driving her Aunt Mandy to the airport for her boondoggle to Orlando. Sarah and Amy (heretofore called Saramy cuz it's easier to type) had the run of Coco Key as everyone in Illinois was in school. Saramy spent seven hours in the water and were difficult to recognize later in the evening as they were understandably pruny.

Thursday was the big day. The morning was spent visiting two of Emily's favorite people, her Great Grandpa Bob and Great Grandpa Ray. I think that it is the "Great" that she finds fascinating (Have I mentioned that Emily has NINE grandparents! Four "regular" and Five "Greats.") After a "Great" morning it was time to get our picture taken. Everyone went to the mall and started posing. Saramy and Emily were all very cute together, and the photographer was really impressed with how well everyone got along. After posing with Emily, Saramy took a couple shots together as we needed a more updated shot of the two of them. They were last photographed many many years ago.

I will let the pictures tell the rest of today's story. The second part will come soon as Emily adventures were about to reach a crescendo!!!

(PS: Thanks to all who donated to our WalkAmerica Team, we more than doubled our goal!)

After having woken up on Monday, before the crack of dawn, to board their airplane during the Nor'easter that hit the East coast, Sarah and Amy were exhausted!!! Emily did not oppose the nap with her cousins, and her green cow.

Feeling refreshed after their nap, a little tummy time was in order. Amy and Sarah tried to "coach" Emily to roll over.

After a good workout with her cousins, Emily had worked up a powerful hunger. Mmmmmm, milk, it does a body good!

On Thursday, Emily paid a visit to "the Grandpas" with her cousins, and Aunt Kristi. Before leaving the house, it is always necessary to check that Emily is safely in her seat.

Great Grandpa Bob was the first stop of the day. All of the Great Granddaughters greeted him with a "Great" big hug.

Emily loves her Great Grandpa Bob, he always gets the best smiles from her.

Emily had an unexpected event while visiting her Great Grandpa Bob. She spontaneously rolled over. This was her first time rolling over, but we are not counting it since she did not purposely propel herself.

After her accidental roll, Sarah got down on the floor to demonstrate to Emily how to repeat this exciting feat. It didn't take.

Before leaving to go visit Great Grandpa Ray, everyone got together for a group picture with Great Grandpa Bob. Amy, Grandpa, Emily, Sarah & Kristi.

Amy tried to make a break for it with Emily. She thought that no one would see her sneaking into the elevator with such precious cargo.

Both Emily and Sarah decided that a nap was in order upon arriving at Great Grandpa Ray's. We're not sure if Sarah knocked Emily out, or vice versa.

Great Grandpa Ray finally got in on the Great Granddaughter hugging action, however, Emily was still a little groggy from her nap and her lunch. She wasn't really smiling for the camera.

Thursday night, we went to Burlington Coat Factory to visit their Baby Depot. Emily wanted to test drive the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo that we have been checking out recently.

She seems to like it . . .

Yep, I'd say that she likes it, she really really likes it!

Emily in all of her Jumperoo glory.

When we got home, Emily needed a little snuggle time with her green cow. Like her new bunny named "bunny", this cow has an equally impressive name, "cow".

This is our favorite picture of the day. Emily chomping on her cow's ear. She made this maneuver just as the photographer was snapping the smile that she had been making just moments before.