Happy Birthday Sweet Angel Baby! You remain the light in our lives and our inspiration to carry on!

Almost 2

Dearest Georgie,

It has been 1 year, 5 months and 14 days since I held you in my arms and watched you take your last breath. When I close my eyes, I can still smell the sweet smell of your skin and feel your little hand curled around my fingers. While I am no longer pained by every breath, once in a while it still hurts to breathe. While I am no longer surprised by the beating of my own heart, sometimes when I think of you it feels like it is going to burst right out of my chest.

We threw a birthday party for you again. We had over 30 volunteers and hundreds of people showed up. Everybody had fun. It felt good to know that we are surrounded by such amazing people. It feels great to continue raising money and awareness for SMA but... it also leaves me exhausted and aching. I...we miss you every moment of every day.

The girls want to celebrate your birthday tomorrow. We will actually be on the road. I purposely planned it this way. I am not ready to share your birthday with others. I don't want to put on a happy face and pretend that it's okay. It will never be okay! Tomorrow, we will celebrate your second birthday in our own way... just us. I will make sure that your sisters are pleased however and one day I hope that I will be able smile on your birthday and not have to pretend.

Love Mommy

Georgia's Journey of Hope 2010

Well, some of you have been waiting patiently so see how Georgia's Journey of Hope 2010 went down. Well, let's just say that it was a big success. For those of you that didn't make it, let me help you to visualize it.

As you walked into the community hall you walked down a hall to the left where you were greeted by a collage of faces. The board read, "Look into the eyes of SMA" and featured the faces of several SMA angels and warriors. Thank you to all of the families involved and to my amazing friend Tanya who continually goes above and beyond, always behind the scenes and always with a creativity and determination that leaves me in awe. Many people stopped to look into the eyes of our inspirational people. Some were moved to tears, others just shook their heads in shock. How does something so devastating continue to not be heard of by the majority of the public?

As you handed your tickets in a the door the hall opened up and there stood our 24 prize packages worth thousands. We had an amazing response from our sponsors this year. Two children's bikes, a Kobo reader, sports tickets, the list went on and on. Our amazing volunteers stood there with 'tickets 4 sale' written on their cheeks collecting money and selling tickets. On the right hand side we had over 300 hand made beautiful cards for sale as well as last year's t'shirts, homemade knit beret style hats, beautifully decorated cupcakes, cinnamon buns and stunningly intricate chocolates. Thank you to all of the volunteers who made that possible.

As you continued to walk straight ahead you walked into the gym. On the right hand side stood the bounce house and the giant slide bouncer. These two items kept the kids busy for hours!! Thank you to Jaime Barr of Funquest who graciously donated them once again this year. They have become the main attraction and we don't know what we'd do without them.

To the right the tables were all set up where people could sit down to enjoy all of the free snacks. Thank you to Doug Park of Old Dutch for providing all of the chips and to Costco for the gift card. We had juice boxes, cheesestrings, cookies and popscicles. There was also cotton candy provided by Funquest that we charged $2 for. The fountain drinks were all provided by Glenwood Community Centre. Thank you Roxanne, Michelle and Adrienne for serving all of the food and drinks and making the cotton candy!

As you continued walking to the right you were greeted by Kristen, our 'balloon maker extraordinaire' . Kristen, we don't know what we'd do with you! As you walked through the doorway just past Kristen you ended up in the face painting area where there were no less than 4 face painters at any given moment. I am pretty sure that we have some of the best face painters around! : ) Thank you to everyone who took a turn and to Euro-Can for donating all of the paints.

Well that almost sums it up. We also had a coloring and play dough table and Lulubelle the clown came for a while too! Please ask yourself how many people it takes to make an event like this work. Did, I forget to mention the hundreds of people that came through the doors? Thank you, thank you, thank you! We are so blessed to have all of you in our lives. Your continued support leaves us humbled, sometimes surprised, and always, always, always so grateful!

I promise to post the pictures soon... In the meantime, we are very excited to report that thus far we have raised $13 452! For anybody still considering donating you can either donate online directly to FSMAC click here Don't forget about Betty's Hair Raiser that will be going on for a few more weeks!

On another note, today is Monday October 4th 2010 and Gwendolyn Strong is 3 years old! Happy birthday to a little princess that continues to inspire people all over the world!

End SMA!

Love to you all,

Kristen