Georgia's Journey of Hope 2009

I thought that Georgia was going to be born on the third. 3 has always been my lucky number and I thought that it would be appropriate for my third child to be born on October 3rd. I even had contractions bad enough for several hours that we called the midwife. The contractions eventually eased up and spaced out. Georgia would not make her appearance for 3 more days.

It seems appropriate however that something big was meant to happen on the 3rd day of October. Perhaps my sixth sense was just off by a year. Today a community came together. There was no official head count but you definitely showed me that a bigger venue will be at the top of the list for next year! Many of you seemed surprised by the numbers. I can't say that I was. I realized a while back that Georgia's Journey of Hope was going to be bigger than I had originally thought.

When I first booked the hall I marched in telling myself that if I could make $1000.00 that I would be proud of myself. Surely $1000.00 could help make a difference and after all we are still reeling from the loss of Georgia. As preparations got under way the fundraiser seemed to take on an energy all unto itself. Many of you threw yourselves into it as if Georgie had been yours. All of you will never know how much it means to me to know that you continue to love our "Georgie Baby". She was always everyone's baby!

The initial counts taken home from the hall are over $7000.00. This does not include some cash donations as well as ticket and t-shirt money that Mike and I have already collected. Some people still have money to hand in. It will take a few days to get it all sorted by I am estimating we brought in approximately $8000.00!

I don't have a lot of pictures. I am expecting more and will post some of them as I receive them. For now please enjoy these.

This is Kristen. Our balloon maker extrodinare. She sat there for 4 hours doing balloon animals, flowers, hats etc

Here's Ginette painting Maya's face!

Here's my brother Kevin sitting at the Unite for the Cure Table with the amazing chocolate suckers that Tanya made. They say things like 'unite', 'hope' and 'Georgia'.

Here's Mike on the big bouncy slide. The kids loved this thing! Thank goodness that it fit. Thank you Funquest!!

I had an army of volunteers help me make today possible. Please know that I am grateful to each and everyone of you for sharing yourself with me. Thank you as well to all of our amazing sponsors and to all of you that came and had a great time.

At the end of the day as my friend Nat and I sat there alone waiting for the attendant to come and check everything out, a single pink balloon came floating down from the ceiling. It kind of danced around with the air currents as if saying, "Look at me!" I couldn't help but scoop up the one lone balloon and take it home. The signs that my daughter gives me are sometimes so obvious. I'd like to think that this time she was simply saying, "Thank you".

Love to you all,

Kristen