Counting the Days

January 9, 2010
VFW Hall
9075 Mason Dr
Newaygo, MI 49337

Doors will open at 4:30pm
A welcome will happen at 5:30pm
Dinner immediately following the welcome 6pm-7pm eat dinner
7pm introduction and about the event
715pm introduction of a speaker
745 faces of CHD video
8pm a formal waltz in memory of Ethin Twigg
805pm a thank you and enjoy the rest of our evening dancing

Dinner will be donated and catered by CSK Catering. There will be things to drink with a tip jug donation.
There will be a silent auction and dancing after the thank you
Tickets are $75 for one or $125 for two please make checks payable for the tickets to Jessica Twigg and in the memo line write Heart Ball
This is a black tie event so dig out your tuxes and formal gowns for a great cause that will help the Hearts of many!!!
All proceeds from this event will be donated to the University of Michigan Mott's Children's Hospital Congenital Heart Center in Memory of Ethin RaiLuc Twigg 1/9/09-6/27/09
R.S.V.P. to Jessica Twigg
513 Sunset Dr.
Newaygo, MI 49337
chdhlhs09@yahoo.com
616-634-3029
In other news I am still in desperate need of blankets. Our Cuddles From The Heart Program in MI is off to a good start and we have about 210 so we only need about another 90. I think that this is very doable. I also think that if we get more than that would be even better as it would allow the kids and the families to really have a choice. You can mail me your new store bought or homemade blanket to Jessica Twigg 513 Sunset Dr. Newaygo, MI 49337
We will be handing these blankets out in Feb. at Mott's where Ethin spent his life. The comfort of our own blankets during his life was just enough to make the hospital feel more like our home than a hospital. The nurses liked putting them on his bed and I liked knowing there were some areas where comfort was attainable. So let's get these blankets!!!
I also still have Ethin's Bracelets. They are $2 each and I can mail them to you if you mail me the money to the above address also. All the money from these bracelets are funding the heart ball. I am also in desperate need of more pictures for my Faces of CHD video. I need pictures of people and children with CHD's emailed to me at chdhlhs09@yahoo.com with the picture I also need the name of the child and the CHD they have. I also need more CHD Angel pictures with those pictures I need their first name and last name if you wish as well as their birth date, Angel date, and CHD. Spread this around please as I am trying to make this video a good one to show at the heart ball.

Well I took a the weekend off from writing and I am back to it! Lots to share I guess or a head full of thoughts that run my life! Thoughts are controlling. Sometimes in my head I feel like I am in a circle room and I am frantically trying to find a corner to hide in. Not gonna happen right?! Anyhow before I get to into all this I want to share a few things with you that I got this week.

This amazing collage was made by Abiding Hope Collages.

I sent them Ethin's name and the things that remind me of him or that describe him. Joshua 1:9 is his birth verse and it says this...."Be strong and courageous do not be terrified do not be afraid for the Lord your God will be with where ever you are." That may be the one thing that when I think about I still just see that to be so fitting for Ethin.

Also I have this picture of Ethin's Angel wings. The wings were made by Angel Wings Memorial Boutique. I should be getting these in the mail I believe.

I love the wings. They are so beautiful. makes me think he really does have wings up there. Oh how much I miss him and wish he would use those wings to fly down to my arms!

This past week really was a rough one for me. Ethin would have been 10 months old. Our heart family celebrated their Ethan's 9th birthday at the cemetery with a balloon release for him. Another Heart Warrior one her fight and went to Heaven. I am just so over taken by the thoughts. How none of this is fair.
10 months ago I was Heart Mom and now I am a Mom with a child in Heaven. I did not ask for this. I did not want this. My heart just aches for Ethin and my heart aches for Sandy as I know this week was so hard on her with Ethan's birthday. Ya know I have some thoughts that are hard as I look forward to January 9, 2010 as then I will stop counting the 9th of every month as a birthday. Then I will begin my count of years. Kinda that same thing for June 27th of next year. It will be at that point I will stop counting the months and count the years too. I am not counting now but if I was he has been gone now for 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 2 hours, and 17 minutes.
The amount of time Ethin has been gone will soon be more than he was alive for. This thought scares me. I hate that in a month he will be gone longer than he was alive. If I was counting his length of life he lived 5 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days. So there will come a time here in a few weeks that he has been gone longer than he was here.
I know I have talked about this a lot lately, but Thanksgiving is on the 26th of the month. How am I supposed to eat turkey and be happy knowing the next day is 5 months since my sweet boy has been gone? Not to mention it would have been his first Thanksgiving and he will not be there!! Oh I HATE this I HATE not having him.
My head has so many thoughts and I just can not even get them out right now, but I thought I would share this poem I wrote the other day when Amelia earned her wings and went to Heaven. I wrote it for my Stef when she posted about Amelia and her Blog title made me write this as I know how very sad we all are over the loss of another child due to CHD's.

RIVER OF TEARS
Tears falling from our faces and forming a river we all have come to know to well.
Our lives are all so connected and this river is proof of the stories we share and tell.
This river flows but many will never have a clue thankfully they will never know
The water in this river gets higher every time our heart family takes a blow.
It may rise do to surgery another day of waiting to read words of a page
When things are bad the storm is hard the river water rages
Some tears that form this river are ones of pure joy
Ones that are happy when our Heart families bring home their girl or boy
But nothing quite compares to the flood that we all feel tonight
As the river rises and our tears we can not fight
Rise river you take theses tears that we all cry
Because you gain tears the most when we all must say goodbye.
Life seems unkind, unjust, and simply not quite fair.
For miles separate so many of us when life seems not to care
We all have found each other and in this river we all wade
We cry as we know a life is gone it is the price paid
A CHD has taken another life to the heavens up above
The river of tears is raging on as another one is gone one we all love.

Jessica Twigg
11-12-09

Thank you for the prayers for Andrew keep praying as we have to wait till tomorrow for results!!!
The Delorey family as Rick is coming home from the hospital on Hospice they are saying about 45 days.

Heart Ball, My family, and me please I need to start to find some peace.

Blessings,