Our story started with our daughter, Lilian Hope, who was born 7 weeks premature, only 2 lbs. 12 oz. She was born early because of preeclampsia and a placental abruption, but small for her 33 weeks because of intrauterine growth restriction. After going into fetal distress, Lily was born by emergency c-section. She almost didn’t make it through her first day of life, but thanks to the amazing doctors and nurses at Lehigh Valley Hospital, they saved her life. She was on a ventilator and oscillator for 7 days, had a chest tube, and spent almost 1 month in the NICU. Later she had speech and physical therapies. Lily struggled with gastrointestinal issues and had a surgery and saw specialists at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Lily just turned 6 ½ years old on January 25th! She is an amazing, smart girl with a beautiful, outgoing personality. Lily is in 1st grade at Lower Milford and takes swim lessons. Just this past October we had our son, Aidan Patrick, who was born 3 weeks premature at 5 lbs. 2 oz and 18 1/2 inches long. He was labeled a high risk pregnancy very early. At 33 weeks I was on bed rest for preeclampsia and a placental abruption, the same timing as with Lily. I stayed pregnant 4 weeks longer, rather than 2 days! Aidan went into fetal distress and was born by emergency c-section also, but miraculously, didn’t have to go to the NICU! He has pulmonary and gastrointestinal issues like Lily due to his prematurity and sees specialists at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Aidan still isn’t on the growth chart yet, but is starting to catch up! Lily had a very rough beginning, but with her strength, wonderful doctors, hope & prayers, she was able to rise above it all. We see this same strength and fieriness in Aidan, and look to doctors & prayers to get him through these hurdles. We remain forever grateful to the great doctors and nurses for saving Lily and Aidan, and would like to help other babies now that have, or will share their experiences. Immediately upon Lily’s birth, we felt compelled to give back for what we had been blessed with. Immediately we became in involved with the March of Dimes. This year we are walking for our 7th year in a row. We are heavily involved with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chapter. Justin and I sit on the Board of Directors. We are also involved in the Family Teams Committee and the Executive Leadership Committee. Lily was the local Ambassador child 2 years ago for the Lehigh Valley walks. You can see pictures and newspaper articles from all of these events on our website. Given the surprise and inability to anticipate premature birth, we saw a need to help families like us that didn’t have the time or resources to prepare for their child’s early arrival. Additionally, premature babies may have special needs such as car seats for infants under 5 pounds, special clothing with buttons and Velcro for cords and IV’s, and much more. These additional needs can be hard to find and very expensive in a short amount of time. As we reflected on the needs of families who shared experiences like ours, we wanted to establish the Lily’s Hope Foundation to provide resources for premature babies and their families. We became even more inspired because of the response and embracing of Lily from the staff, faculty and students at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. This year they will be helping us run the 5th annual “Lily’s Loop” walk. The walk specifically for Lily, the outpouring of support and growing participation proved to us that there is concern for premature babies and their families. Officially in 2013, the Lily’s Hope Foundation became a 501(c)3. We have been able to use the money raised to help families that have children that were born prematurely. Just this past weekend we helped a family that had twins in the NICU twice within the past month by providing them with diapers, wipes and a baby bag. At the beginning of January we helped a family who had a preemie born in 2012 who is seeing specialists in Pittsburgh, so we provided them with diapers, wipes, gas cards to travel out there as well as food gift cards. Another family we helped in late October had a baby born at 31 weeks old that we provided them with a car seat and stroller just so they could take the baby home, since they had not had their baby shower yet. We are thrilled to be able to help families just like these to help make the transition home a little easier.
