Climbing Out of the Darkness

Dear Bex,

Oh my goodness, Baby Girl, mama's been on a mission!  We have been kicking some booty over here raising money for Postpartum Progress' Climb Out of the Darkness fundraiser.  When I first read about it, I thought, "Wow, what a great idea.  That would be cool."  Then I opened my next email and went on with my day.  But I couldn't stop thinking about what I could do to participate - so I researched hikes in our area, but there are none close enough to where we live to make it easy for people to join us.  So I put it out of my mind. But it just kept creeping back in, and I knew I had to join up!  What a great way to raise money for this amazing cause, and to DO SOMETHING after what I went through during The Dark Days that I so often reference here.  So, I set up a fundraising page and decided to do less of a climb and more of a walk right in Hoboken.  Easy, right down and then back up the waterfront, a walk you and I have done together countless times.  We will have a picnic dinner on the pier with everyone right after, and in my mind it's a perfect Summer evening with friends, family, babies and even dogs running all around us as we celebrate how far you and I have come in the exactly two years and five months since you were born.

Of course, something will go wrong - it may rain, or there won't be room for us all in the park (doubtful, but you never know), or FreshDirect's truck will break down and the picnic won't make it to us... but I can't control any of that, so I'm focused on what I can control - getting my message and Postpartum Progress' message out there, and asking friends and family to support their amazing cause.

I first sent out a note and a Facebook status update on Tuesday.  Daddy put it on Facebook too, because he is an awesome Daddy.  I said I'd raise $500, and we surpassed that pretty quickly.  Then I said $1,000, and we passed that too.  I upped it to $2,000 on Wednesday, and Baby Girl, we're at $2035 as of noon on Thursday.  That is unbelievable.  The goal of the entire fundraiser is $25,000, and we're almost 10% of that already! So that is my new goal - $2500 - fingers crossed that we get there.

So thank you thank you thank you to all of our donors (I will update this as more come in!):

The Feuerring Foundation

Evan and Rebecca (The Stinkface) Neadel (that's you!)
Grandma and Grumpa Neadel
Lauren, Jason, Amanda and Ryan Baker

Grandma Thel

Aunt Judy

Uncle Bob and Aunt June
Jen and Jason Adel
The Adler Family
Denae Bard
Lauren and Chad Blank

Meredith Campbell
Rachel Cohen and Yael Ralston

Bill & Marion Cullen
Gail and Jerry Ellstein
Valerie Fernandez

Mr. and Mrs. Ed Filusch
Joan and Barry Galkin

Laura and Dave Goldstein

Anne Green

Gabi and Drew Greenspan
Katy and Cuyler Hendricks
Tracy, Lilly and Jon Jacobs
Heather, Lil and Charlie Katz
Ellen and Ralph Katz
Lauren, Sean and Colin Kennedy
Dave, Ruth, Dylan and #2 Kim
Carrie and Adam Kipnis
Barry Kraver
Matt and Erica Lakind

Maria Martinez
Leslie, Marc, Sydney and Hayden Meunier

Erica, Dave and Avery Peltz
Marc Penziner

Emily Pontelandolfo

Kathleen Reynolds

Charlie Ricciardelli
The Salinas Family
Rachael Lerner-Schachter and Jesse Schachter
Aly, Jordan and Lexie Schwartz
Bette and Alan Schwartz
Jeff Shooman
The Silberman Family

Dorothy Sonnenburg
Leslie Stahl

Meredith Topalanchik

Abby and Elliot Trexler
Jordyn, Dan and Brooks Vinish

Emily Weiner
Camille Priselac and Brendan Whelan

Lea Woods

And thank you to you too, Bex, because without you being born, I wouldn't have gone through what I did - and wouldn't have found a cause I am so passionate about.  One that I can feel so intensely down to my core, and one that I know will fuel who I am for the rest of my life.  

Love always,

Mommy