"Dear NICU Baby"

Last year at Christmas time, the girls were in the NICU. It was very hard to have to leave them there and try to go enjoy the holidays. It's difficult to have a child in the hospital at any time, but that time of year, well, it's hard to feel festive and easy to feel sorry for yourself.

One of the things that helps the most is knowing you are not alone, that others have walked into the tunnel and found the light at the other side. But they haven't forgotten. These wonderful parents would put together little gift bags for those of us still struggling through. These bags could include notes of encouragement, current photos of their beautiful children and loads of candy. I remember one little bag that had these darling headbands and they looked HUGE and I thought "they are never going to fit these". The note even said "We know it's hard for you to imagine your baby wearing this, but believe us, she will!". One year later, they are just about too tight. I still smile every time I think about it.

We decided this year we would pay it forward. So Lonny and I sat down and assembled 45 gift bags for the parents who were facing a NICU Christmas. We included a letter, a picture of our beautiful babies and See's suckers. It was a labor of love and we so enjoyed it. It made us feel so good to hope that we would lift the spirits of parents just like us.

Connor and I delivered them to the NICU. I was so excited to see two of our nurses, Tiffany and Ramona (some of you may remember my stories about Ramona and how she talked me off the ledge more than once!). Even the front desk staff remembered us. Pretty soon a small crowd of NICU personnel were there oohing and aaahing over the babies pictures. They listened as I told them all about their personalities, their progress and just basically bragged for 15 minutes. They just loved it and one of them gave me a squeeze and said "this is exactly why we do what we do". I was overwhelmed with emotion and I found it difficult to speak. I was awash with gratitude. Then it was time for them to get back to "their" babies. They thanked us and told us how much the parents would love our gift bags.

On the way out I gave Connor a hug and explained that we had done a very good thing, that we were helping the parents of sick babies, just like someone helped us. We talked about how good, truly truly GOOD it feels to perform an act of service. We decided we will definitely do it again this year.


Here is one of our little bags:


This is the letter we included:

Dear NICU Baby:
　
Our names are Abby & Ella and we were born on December 12, 2010. Because we were 10 weeks early we had to spend six weeks in the NICU, right here at IMC. This meant we were in the hospital during the holiday season and our parents were very sad. They knew though, that we were in the best possible care! We had wonderful nurses and doctors who took such good care of us, that we got to go home even earlier than expected!
When we were born, Abby weighed 2 lbs. 14 oz. and Ella 3 lbs. 3 oz. We had to have lots of help with our breathing, struggled with jaundice, had lots of ultrasounds, and endured all kinds of pokes and prods. Today we are beautiful, happy, healthy babies who bring so much joy to our family. Abby weighs 18 lbs. 12 oz. and Ella is 19 lbs. even. We just celebrated our first birthday and had a wonderful party. We are eating all kinds of new foods, we chatter all the time, and we are trying real hard to walk. Life is good! Please know that you are in the best possible care and will be doing all these great things soon, too!
We have enclosed treats, but they are for your parents, as we are sure they are going through a lot right now also. Happy Holidays! We are cheering for you and hope you will be home soon!!!
Love, Abby & Ella

This Christmas, we will take the girls with us so they can be a part of the fun!