Marine Corps Marathon 2013!!

Not sure if you remember me saying last year when we were doing a local event for March of Dimes, that if I ever were to actively raise money for a group it would be the Fisher House.

A lot of people haven’t heard of Fisher House Foundation. Understandably so, as they serve military families so if you’re not military you might not ever cross paths with them.

We, fortunately, were able to take advantage of the house in Tacoma, WA near Madigan Army Medical Center. Located only 1 mile away from the hospital (and therefore the NICU), our social worker in the hospital kept in touch with them during my hospital stay. We had actually looked into a room there for Steven and Aiden, but as we didn’t have childcare set up down in Tacoma, it didn’t work out for them to stay closer to me when they’d have to commute back to Bangor each and every day.

Once we delivered, though, we called and they had a room available for us. The great thing is that, had they not, they would have put our family up in a hotel near by until they had a room open up, so either way they would have helped us get our family closer together.

So after being discharged from the hospital, instead of having to drive an hour away to our house, we merely drove a mile down the road. I could see the hospital from the yard if I tried, and it was so comforting to know that while I was leaving my sweet little babies at the hospital, I could be back in a matter of minutes should the doctors call me.

We stayed there for over two weeks. There was food in the kitchen, girl scout cookies on the counter, toys for Aiden to play with, a great play yard outside, and the staff was incredible. They were kind, provided a new toy and blankets for the kids, and it was so nice to know that we were taken care of.

Once Jace came home, I was even able to walk back and forth, which was so much easier than trying to drive at the time!

And did I tell you the best, most amazing part, of this whole thing? IT WAS FREE. You read that right. FREE. They did not ask a single penny for any of it. And while a couple weeks doesn’t seem that big of deal, you have to remember the 4 weeks prior Steven was driving an hour a day each way to come see me. Add up those gasoline charges. And imagine how much a hotel would have been so we could stay down near the babies. Not a pretty picture is it???

I swore that should I ever run a race that Team Fisher House (a fundraising group for Fisher House to run races around the country) was a fundraiser for, I’d sign up in a heartbeat. And we did. We’re actually scheduling our lives in October around the opportunity to run Marine Corps Marathon in DC. Steven and I are both running, and have a family fundraiser page.

http://www.teamfisherhouse.org/goto/huntfamily

 

We are asking you for your help. Fisher House helps thousands of families across the nation every day. Not every story is as happy as ours, or with as good of an outcome. Wounded warriors and their families are taken care of for months at a time (one of the families we met in WA had been staying there for over a year while their service member was treated!), they are often helped so much more than we were. But we cannot say thanks enough. What they did for us took the worry out of our NICU stay in regards to logistics and our family and let us focus on what mattered: our babies and each other. And for that we want to try to repay them at least a little.

We’ll keep you updated as begin training, the plans for the race, and the results afterwards.

Thank you in advance for your support!