Feb 19, 2014 - The Journey Home....

From Mommy & Grandma Pinwheel

Feb 19, 2014 - The Journey Home.... 
(Late entry written Feb 22, 2014)

For those who missed the first part of this story you can catch up here: Jan 24, 2014 - WOW!!!! Just WOW!!!

Going to get the balloon.

Jan 26th dawned bright and beautiful, quite a contrast to the miserable weather we had been enduring for most of January. 
Mommy & Grandma talked excitedly on the drive from Portland to Newberg where we arranged for the hand off. This was SO EXCITING! 

We actually got there early, so we killed a few minutes in the local grocery before going over to the restaurant meeting spot. We watched every truck that came in the parking lot in anticipation and it seemed like forever, but finally they arrived. Such big smiles, hugs, and pictures! 

Just after Brent gave Jayden's balloon back to Mommy!

Brent, Grandma & Mommy visiting. 

(Mommy is hugging the balloon so TIGHT!)

A stranger in the parking lot was kind 

enough to take all our picture together. :-)

The balloon before it's 9 month adventure...

And 9 months later...
Faded & well traveled, but all in all, 

not in too bad of shape!

Mommy brought thank you gifts & a card, and we gave them some info about CDH & Cherubs as well as pins & bracelets to hand out. 

Remember all the WOW's from the beginning of this story? One of Sandi's pastor friends KNOWS the family of CDH baby cherub Addie's who just went home from Randall a few days ago, and we got to meet Addie's mom & brother a few days before she was born, weeks before this balloon was found! Getting the shivers again yet? #SmallWorld

We didn't talk long as they had to head out to their son's house and were on a tight schedule, but those few moments were magical. I'm sure Jayden was very happy to see this! Good job Jayden for making sure Brent could see the balloon, thank you again to Brent for taking the time to check it out & bring it home, and thank you to Sandi & her friend Tami for working so hard to find out where it belonged. We hope to meet you too soon Tami!

The Balloon Comes Back to Portland

On the drive back the plan was to take the balloon to the cemetery to see Jayden, then head to Randall to complete the story of the balloon returning it's journey where it began and to maybe try & visit with baby Addie's family and another CDH cherub who we recently connected with, a baby boy named Ezrah who is still there even now & is having a tough way to go. :-(

We headed up to the cemetery, told Jayden about the meeting & showed him the balloon. I'm sure he liked it as we had a hard time getting pictures because he kept wanting to spin his pinwheels!

Mommy takes the balloon to see Jayden!

Regrettably we did not make it to Randall as Mommy spiked a fever on the way back from Newberg and was feeling really sick. Don't let the smile in the picture fool you. She was very happy but feeling pretty miserable as well. We had to postpone the trip to Randall. CDH babies are exceptional fragile (especially their lungs) and there was no way were going to chance getting anyone sick. We headed home. It was a good thing we did. Whatever it was, it was bad, and she was down for several days. :-(

The Balloon Finally Completes it's Journey

It was a few days before Mommy could shake the bug, then schedules kept getting in the way and before we knew it Jayden's 4th birthday was here. 

Grandma took the day off work so she could observe the day with Mommy. We went up to see Jayden first. 

Jayden was not the LEAST bit spoiled for his birthday!

After Mommy read her traditional letter to Jayden we did a single balloon release (no writing or logos, just plain blue), then sang "Happy Birthday" and spent some time tending to his & the other spots we normally help with that were pretty messy from the storm a couple days earlier. After that we headed to Randall to complete the balloon's journey.

Baby Addie had gone home earlier in the week (YEA!!) but baby Ezrah was still there. He had taken a worrisome turn a day or so before so although we really wanted to catch up with them, we totally understood when they were not up for visitors. PLEASE keep praying for him!

We did have some stuff to drop off for him and the security guard was kind enough to promise to get it up to them. After leaving the gifts, we took the balloon out to the front of the hospital, to where it all began... After the 175 mile journey, the balloon had returned!

The journey home is now complete. :-)

(Post Script) 
The 3rd Annual Parade of Cherubs is being planned for April 19, 2014. We know it is Easter weekend but we still think it has the potential to be the biggest ever! 

To learn more about the 2014 International Day of CDH Awareness in Portland and around the world, check out all the news over the next few weeks at: www.cdhawarenessday.org/ 

Jan 24, 2014 - WOW!!!! Just WOW!!!

(Mommy Alicia & Grandma Shelly)

Sometimes things happen we can't explain. And sometimes they happen at just the right time. We think today is one of those days....

It is coming up on 4 years since Jayden was born & passed into Heaven not long after that. Having just come through the holidays (which are always emotional), we approach Valentine's Day (another emotional point) and immediately after that his birth date & angelversary. 

After 4 years the pain is still deep. Perhaps it always will be. We busy ourselves with activities, responsibilities and distractions, but when it's quiet and it's just ourselves, the pain is still there. This last couple of weeks have seemed to reinforce that pain. It comes in waves, and lately those waves have seemed particularly high, so it seems just the time Alicia's "Lil' Man" would pull something that we feel is nothing other than miraculous!

Grandma had a particularly bad day yesterday (Thursday) and Alicia has been having a rough week with her ongoing medical issues, so by last night we were pretty wiped out, physically & emotionally. Grandma checked her email one more time before bed and found an email that changed everything. Back to that in a minute....

Last year we helped plan the CHERUBS 2nd annual Parade of Cherubs in Portland, Oregon at Legacy Emanuel / Randall Children's Hospital. During that time we met with other CDH families, held an Information Fair, and gathered with our Cherub survivors and fellow angel families, paraded around the hospital grounds to raise CDH awareness.

Here is the video of the event:
2nd Annual "Parade of Cherubs" in Portland, Oregon 
April 19, 2013

If you watch in the last few frames, we "sent" balloons to our Cherubs who were lost to CDH. Each angel family like ours got their own balloon to label and the rest went to survivors to write on (although we can't remember if a couple of the survivors had to share putting their names on a balloon or two). 

Here is a picture of the one Alicia did for Jayden...

Remember, this was April 19th, 2013... :-)

>>> Fast forward to last night (Thursday)...

The email that turned our frown into smiles, & kept it there all day today...

Grandma was very tired, but went to check her email 1 more time before bed. In her inbox was the usual, except for 1 item, a comment notification from YouTube on Jayden's memorial video from 3 years ago. 

Shock, disbelief, amazement! Immediately grandma went to show it to Alicia & they were in shock together! WOW! Just WOW!!! Of COURSE Mommy would like it back!

Grandma couldn't reply on mobile & had to wait until morning, and as soon as were able to get online we replied, and were amazed again!

We'd pretty much figured out by then it had to be the balloon from the parade, but how far had it gone??? Neither had ever heard of Post, Oregon, so we had to look it up on the map... 174 miles (give or take) from Portland! There was a steady wind that day, so it likely hit an updraft pretty quickly & sailed on an upper air current. 

When we finally started talking to Sandy we found out her husband was in the middle of nowhere hunting, in a place where normally no one would go, so for it to be there & cross Brent's path... well apparently powers beyond us decided it was time for it to be found! She said it is also in remarkably good shape. It was her & her friend Tami who searched the web in hopes of finding who it belonged too. THANK YOU to all 3 of them!!

But the story doesn't end here. All this is transpiring on Jayden's great-grandpa's birthday. When we called to wish him Happy Birthday & told them the story they were amazed too!

And even more! Brent, Sandy's husband SHARES the same birth date as Jayden...and one of Sandy's children was born in the same hospital one of Alicia's siblings were in Billings, MT, many years before... Getting the shivers yet?!? 

#TwilghtZoneMusicPlays

We have set up a time & will bring the balloon home this weekend, and if all goes well, hopefully get to visit this weekend with 2 families at Randall who's babies are fighting the same battle Jayden fought so bravely almost 4 years ago... <3

Jayden, in a sense, is coming home to Mommy... :-)

Looking forward to the rest of the weekend!

(P.S.) If you are an Oregon or SW Washington CDH family and have suggestions for this year's CDH Awareness events for April, please let us know as we are meeting on Sunday with our fellow planners to firm things up. 

If you are a CDH family in other areas & want to see what is going on in your area (and this is worldwide) keep checking back with CHERUBS!

CHERUBS Main page: http://www.cdhsupport.org

CHERUBS Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/cdhsupport