Birthday Bucks, and Band-Aids

Hi all. This September 4th marks five years since our sweet tiny warrior Peyton’s birth. It’s hard to imagine how different life would be if we had our little girl here, preparing for Kindergarten.

To honor what would have been Peyton’s 5th Birthday (9/4) and the 5th Anniversary of her passing (10/2), we are once again Doing Good in Her Name.

We are super excited to announce that Doing Good in Her Name has teamed up this year with the Kacey Rose Foundation, an amazing non-profit formed in the memory of Kacey Rose Mitchell, that provides assistance to families affected by childhood cancer.

This year’s drive is called: BIRTHDAY BUCKS AND BAND-AIDS

Why Band-Aids?

We are collecting boxes of LATEX FREE BAND-AIDS with FUN DESIGNS to be given to the children’s oncology floor at Yale-New Haven Hospital. The hospital only uses plain, brown Band-Aids, and the ones with fun pictures, cartoon characters, footballs etc. really brighten up the day for the kids fighting cancer.

This is an easy and inexpensive way to spread some love, smiles and sunshine to these amazing little warriors, and to help us pay tribute to our sweet Peyton’s memory.

You can purchase and ship the Band-Aids to the address below yourself, or order them online and have them shipped directly through sites such as Amazon.com, CVS.com etc.

Why Bucks?

We are also collecting cash donations to benefit the Kacey Rose Foundation. Depending on the amount raised, the Kacey Rose Foundation will be providing kids who are fighting cancer at Yale-New Haven Hospital with a fun ice cream party, and/or a lucky patient (or patients hopefully!) will receive a cool new gadget i.e. an iPod, Kindle, etc.

Please donate what you can to help us make these kids’ stay in the hospital a little easier.

*Please make your TAX DEDUCTIBLE checks payable to Kacey Rose Foundation and put “Peyton” in the memo field.

In her short time here, Peyton gave us the gift of her unconditional love. Thank you in advance for helping us honor her memory.

Send your BIRTHDAY BUCKS and BANDAIDS (Latex-Free) through October 2nd to the following address:

Happy 5th Birthday Peyton/DGIHN
c/o the Kacey Rose Foundation
P.O. Box 4412 Wallingford, CT 06492

About Peyton:

Peyton Elizabeth Binder was born Sept. 4th 2008 to Andrew and Kristin Binder. Unbeknownst to anyone, our “beautiful, perfect little baby girl,” was born with infant leukemia (ALL w/ MLL rearrangement) the odds of which fall somewhere in the range of 1 in 50 million.

Peyton fought with the heart of a prize fighter through chemo, spinal taps and multiple surgeries, until sadly, on Oct. 2nd, she left this world from her mother’s arms.

During our daughter’s too-short life, we were the recipients of many acts of kindness and compassion, and this is why we strive to give back in her memory. Our goal is to honor Peyton’s life by Doing Good in Her Name.

**The Kacey Rose Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

A Community Of Good

Last November I was in a pretty low place. We had just made it through the first anniversary of Peyton's birth and death, and were facing another tough round of Holidays before us. Hubs and I had been trying without success for months to conceive, and my doctor was still giving me the "you are grieving too hard to get pregnant" runaround. 


Being surrounded by so much loss had left me at a loss.


I was desperate for something good to come out of this. 
Out of any of it.
Something good to come out of all Peyton had suffered through and endured.
Something good to come out of all that we had lost as a family.


It is from that desperation that Doing Good In Her Name was born with these words:

"I feel such a strong desire to honor her, to have her name be synonymous with something other than the sadness and the grief.  This idea, well,  I like to think of it is her way of asking us to help out the little friends she has here... the ones who are still fighting the good fight."

This past weekend marked one year since we set Doing Good In Her Name into motion. At the time, we never could have foreseen all that it would become. We had created a basic website (thank goodness Franchesca has since come through to beautify it for us) purchased a few rubbermaid tubs to house any goodies that might come in, and waited - not really sure what, if anything, would arrive. I remember telling hubs that if we could just fill those bins once, I would feel like we had made some sort of a difference. 


What followed has been nothing short of a miracle - an outpouring of generosity, primarily from this community, like I never could have imagined. Fellow bloggers and readers began sending package after package to our P.O. Box to help us help families with critically ill infants being treated at the hospital where our Peyton spent her entire life. Those tubs, that we had once hoped to fill, have been filled and filled and filled several times over.


Peyton, in her own special little way, had given us this idea, and in spreading the goodwill and donations around to other families with children in the NICU, it was like spreading a bit of her love, and the love of this community, and there are no words for what that has meant to me. 


I rarely, if ever, post about it DGIHN here because this is my outlet, the place for my grief. This is where I come, to cry and to celebrate, to share and be heard, to grieve and to honor. That being said, your outpouring of love has been so immense that I feel it deserves recognition, so that's why I am writing this post, to honor you, the members of this community, who have come through in helping this initiative grow.


So many of the amazing readers of this blog have come through with donations over the course of the year. I don't feel comfortable in listing those names here individually because I have not gained permission, and I know that some of you who read here are on your own loss or infertility journeys and do so in confidence and might not want your name connected with this site. I also assumed that anyone who wrote that they know me from this blog, but didn't include their own blog site in their cards, might want their privacy protected. That being said, every donor's name is listed on the front page of the Doing Good In Her Name website, and should be celebrated.


And then there are my fellow ALI bloggers who have sent so many beautiful and caring gifts to assist other families with critically ill babies. Since you share openly in this community, I feel comfortable posting your links. Thank you so much ladies (and gentlemen) your generosity amazes me!


Catherine W
Salma
Margaret
Angie
Jenni
Jeannette
Bobbie
Holly
Paige
Lisette
Susan and Jeff
Sally
Malory
Sarita
Jill
Jane
Marissa Finn


And this is what that generosity has turned into - so much support for NICU families over the course of this past year... AMAZING!


Cash: $1890 -Gift Cards: 12- Infant Clothing: 555-Infant Shoes/Socks/Accessories:146 Bibs: 50 - Hats: 124 - Bottles: 102 - Bottle Accessories: 368 - Cans of Formula -15 Pacifiers: 89 - Pacifier Clips: 3  Infant Rattles/Teethers: 51 - Books: 116 - CD's:41 - DVD's: 7 - Posters: 1 - Toys: 32 Mobiles/Crib Toys: 6 - Blankets: 61 - Hooded Towels: 4- Baby Washcloths: 16 - Crib Sheets: 7 Tummy Time Mats: 1 - Diapers: 240 - Diaper Baggies/Accessories: 101 - Other Room Items: 6 - Digital Photo Keychains: 2 - Prayer Squares/Items of Encouragement for Families: 40 - Rubber Interlocking Foam Tiles: 1


So, from the bottom of my heart, to all those who have helped us honor Peyton's memory through supporting  Doing Good In Her Name, whether it be through donations, prayers, or just helping to spread the word - THANK YOU!


**If you have donated and don't see your link listed above, or you don't have a link but donated and would like your name listed here, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it :) 


Also, anyone who wishes to follow DGIHN's blog, please do so by clicking the DGIHN blog here. When we updated the site, our google followers were attached to the homepage and for some reason got lost.

Thank you ANGIE at Still Life with Circles

Just a quick note here. I wanted to send out a huge Thank You to Angie for the beautiful donations she sent to Doing Good In Her Name. Check them out here. Angie, your generosity humbles me, and has touched my heart. I am so grateful. Thank you!

Mish Mosh

First, I must apologize to my dear bloggy friends. I have fallen a bit behind in my reading. We are in the process of trying to fight infertility, deal with this loss, adopt a sweet puppy, receive items for www.doinggoodinhername.com, welcome a new nephew, prepare for the holiday, maintain some level of sanity, undergo hormone treatments for infertility, deal with an annoying heart problem, well, as I am sure is true with all of us from time to time, the list goes on and on, and unfortunately both my reading and writing have sort of fallen by the wayside. Please know my thoughts and prayers are with you all, even when my comments are absent.

On a happy note, here is a picture of my beautiful Christmas Tree that I posted about yesterday.

DAYTIME

NIGHT TIME

We didn't put up a tree last year, (we were still very raw in our grief and boycotting all things that normal non-babyloss people do), so this year, well I will take the fact that the tree is up as a sign that things are moving in the right direction. S-L-O-W-L-Y, but getting there nonetheless.

I also want to extend a huge THANK YOU, to the following fellow babyloss momma bloggers for their generous donations to Doing Good In Her Name. Please hop over here and read about the amazing items and donations that these women have provided to help us honor Peyton's memory by assisting other critically ill infants at the hospital where our baby spent her life.

Thank you so much to Salma at The Room She Owns, Margaret at She's Come Undone, and Catherine W. at Between the Snow and the Huge Roses.

I am amazed that these women, in the midst of their own grief, have still opened their hearts to this initiative. Let me just tell you many tears have been shed over this incredible generosity. I am truly humbled and know that their gestures will have a huge impact on the little ones fighting for life at CCMC, and the parents who love them.

****

Okay,  now I am REALLY feeling emotional. I have started to make my way through my Google Reader, and the first few blogs I read, mentioned Doing Good In Her Name. Lisette had the button posted at Sami's blog. And Angie wrote about putting a package together in a post she wrote at Still Life With Circles. And Deb, over at deborahsteinberg.com gave her a mention too! I have chills, I am so moved by this. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to everyone who is helping us to get the word out.

Thanks(for)Giving-Mel's 80th Show & Tell

I know my posts have been a little blah lately, the lack of BFP's has had me really down, among other things, but today is Thanksgiving, and so I am gonna change it up a bit and highlight some of the good things in my life.

This Thanksgiving, I am extremely thankful for my good health, my loving husband, my wonderful family, the fact that I have survived this year, and of course the support of great friends both IRL and here in this community. Even during those times where I have fallen deeply into the crevasses of grief, I have felt all your hands of support on me, and for this I feel a depth of gratitude that knows no words.

For the last week I have had something new to feel thankful for too, and it is that which I am going to focus on today for Mel's Show & Tell. Today I am thankful for the outpouring of generosity and encouragement that we have received in regards to our Doing Good In Her Name initiative.

For those of you who don't know, we have set up a new site in Peyton's honor at www.doinggoodinhername.com to assist critically ill infants and their families at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, the hospital where our sweet Peyton spent her life. It has only been a week, and Doing Good In Her Name is off to a great start.

A very close friend was the first to make a donation to our collection. I was floored when she gave us a check for $100 to be used to purchase food and parking vouchers to help the families with sick infants at the hospital. The parking is very costly at Peyton's hospital, and the expense can really add up. I know from experience how appreciated this gift will be. 

Next we received a beautiful batch of items for our CCMC drive from a girl I went to high school with. We haven't seen each other since graduation (*gulp* 12 years), and she reached out to me last week to let me know that she had put some items together for our collection. I was blown away by her generosity. Take a peek at these wonderful things that she donated.

Then, earlier this week, I found two goodies in the Doing Good In Her Name P.O. Box. First was a $20 donation from my cousin. She has really been there for me through this last year, and her generous donation really touched my heart. Then, on the same day, another box came, sent to us by the mother of the woman who donated the above items. She too had heard about what we were doing for the little warriors at CCMC, and wanted to help. Take a look at all of the wonderful things she sent. So many children will benefit from her generosity.

The blessings continued. Today one of my bloggy pals from the U.K. added two wonderful Baby Einstein CD's to the collection. She was so smart, she ordered them from Amazon.com's U.S. site and therefore didn't have to pay overseas shipping, which I thought was just wonderful. I wish I had pictures of the CD's, but I didn't get a chance to take any yet. I will add them as soon as I do.

And then there were all the beautiful messages from so many of you about donations that you are planning to make to honor Peyton's memory. Words cannot express just how much these messages, too, have meant to me.

As members of this babyloss community, I know that you can truly understand just how desperately I need to feel something good come out of all of this grief and loss. Whether your help comes to us through donations, or by simply saying a prayer or sending up good thoughts on behalf of this initiative, from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU. You all are helping us make this dream of helping other little warriors like Peyton a reality.

****

I know how difficult this holiday is going to be for us all, and I am praying for each of you to feel some sense of peace, despite the pain of facing this day without your little angels. Tomorrow I will be thinking of all of you, and of each of your sweet little ones who have become so important to me through your blogs.  I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

To see what others are showing and telling, visit Mel's blog here.

Doing Good In Her Name

Because I desperately need

 some good to come out of this loss...

Please check out the site that has been set up to honor Peyton's memory by helping others. I won't be writing on that site the way I do here, this is my outlet, and the content that  gets posted here really wouldn't be appropriate for that site, but it will be updated from time to time, so feel free to follow over there as well. I really need something good to come out of all this. I feel such a strong desire to honor her, to have her name be synonymous with something other than the sadness and the grief.  This idea, well,  I like to think of it is her way of asking us to help out the little friends she has here... the ones who are still fighting the good fight.

www.doinggoodinhername.com