As many of you know, in April of this year we welcomed twin baby boys, Josh and Dylan, into our family. They were born premature, and Josh has Down Syndrome. Dylan made it home fairly quickly, but Josh has remained in the hospital since he was born.
In the more than five months since Josh was born, he has endured 3 1/2 months on a ventilator, heart surgery, six surgical scopes of his airway, sepsis, pneumonia, two urinary tract infections, a broken arm, and an oral aversion that is impeding his ability to feed from a bottle. Although we had expected to take Josh home a few weeks ago, he has remained at the hospital with therapists working to help him overcome his oral aversion, and we expect him to remain in the hospital for a few more weeks.
You can read my more detailed accounts of some Josh’s ordeals here, here, and here. (Dealing with these issues is the main reason that I haven’t posted much here at Bearing Drift in recent weeks.)
As I have previously written, our family and friends have formed a team to participate in this year’s Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads Buddy Walk on October 1st. Our team is called Baby Josh’s Mended Hearts Club Band, and our goal is to raise more funds for this wonderful organization than any other team!
These funds will benefit Josh specifically: All funds raised in the Buddy Walk will stay with the Hampton Roads organization to benefit people with Down Syndrome in our area, including Josh.
Our original goal was to raise at least $1,000, but thanks to the generosity of so many people, including many readers of Bearing Drift, we have raised over $1,500 to date!
We are still the top fundraising team out of over 100 fundraisers for this event, and we want to stay on top! If you have not yet done so, please go to the Baby Josh’s Mended Hearts Club Band Buddy Walk fundraising website and donate $100, $50, $25, $10, or any amount you can afford to support Josh and the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads.
The deadline to donate is this Friday, September 30th!
Donating through this website is simple, fast and secure, and your donation will be credited to Josh’s team.
The Bearing Drift community – contributors and readers across the political spectrum – have been wonderfully supportive of Josh and our entire family throughout this ordeal. I’m coming to you now to ask you to support a wonderful organization that will benefit Josh for his entire life and help him to realize his full potential.
Thank you for your support – and don’t forget to share this with anyone who you think might want to donate too!
