KAJ Foundation

Some of you know about the following information already, most of you do not, so I am telling you now. 

It is the KAJ Foundation! 

We have some great friends here in Longview that we have known for almost 3 years.  They moved here from Kansas.  We have mutual friends so we knew they were going to be moving to Longview and were excited about building a friendship with them.  They ended up here about 3 months sooner than they expected.  The weekend they were in town closing on their house and moving a few of their things in, Holly ended up having an emergency C-Section at 28 weeks gestation.  Their daughter Addison weighed 1 lb. 11 oz.  Though she was three weeks older than our twins, she was very tiny like them.  Needless to say, I got a call from our mutual friend and our friendship with Patrick and Holly went into fast forward.  The NICU does that to you.  Kanyon had been home for a year by the time Addison was born, so in some ways we, and all our friends at church,  relived it again with Addison.  She spent about 80 days in the hospital and is now a spunky, sweet, talkative, CUTE CUTE little girl.  We have become close friends with the Briscoes, and not JUST because of the NICU thing.  But the connection we have with these micro preemies is a unique bond.  About 2 years ago, Patrick had the idea to start the KAJ Foundation in honor of our premature babies. (KAJ stands for Kanyon, Addison, & Jayde).

It is because of our experiences, our awareness, and our extreme gratitude towards the facilities, technology & staff that cared for our babies that we have started this foundation. It has become our passion & our goal to give back to GSMC's NICU and help make it the most advanced unit in the region. They gave our babies a fighting chance at life and we want to be able to help do that for hundreds of other premature infants born at GSMC each year. As with any hospital, GSMC has budgets & funding criteria and while their NICU is a level 3 unit, there are still things that they are not able to afford, things that they "go without" and equipment that they need to care for these precious babies in the best way possible. Often these items, although imperative and extremely helpful in insuring proper growth & development for preemies, get pushed to the back of the list or even left off because of budgets or funding situations within the hospital. Because our families know & experienced just how important these things are, we want to make sure that other preemies have the same fighting chance at life that our babies had.  We have such a desire to help this NICU because they went above and beyond for us.  I experienced other hospitals with Kanyon, and the feel of "home" that they created here in Longview, the personal touch they gave our whole family, and their investment in our lives was unmatched. The nurses here were SOOO knowledgeable and Dr. Chris went above and beyond to keep us informed as well as educate us and involve us in Jayde and Kanyon's care.  

Thus the KAJ Foundation has been born! Through our foundation and the funds we raise, we hope to help provide these babies with the important tools, supplies, & equipment that they need. We hope to be able to help GSMC's NICU & staff continue to grow & advance. We hope to keep it the most advanced unit in our region! As you can tell it is something that is very near & dear to our hearts. Something that we hope will be able to last thru our life times and beyond. Something that we pray will help a lot of babies, touch many lives, and Glorify our God! 

Since the Foundation was set up, we have done a few small things at the NICU with the money we had.  The funds were coming mostly from family and people that heard about it, but I personally, hadn't even told very many people about it.  I know there are people we are really close to that are hearing about this for the very first time.  

Well, this weekend the KAJ Foundation had our first fundraiser and lets just say that we are now ON THE MAP!!  I'll tell you all about it in the next post, because it is too much to add to with this blog. 

I just wanted to "introduce" everyone to our Foundation and let you know its there.  We are working on things like a website, etc. but we've been quite occupied as you'll learn in my next post.  Thanks for reading this.  Feel free to spread the word and remember us!  We pray that GOD will work through this foundation.  

Here  are Addison and Kanyon playing on a trailer back in the fall.  They are sweet little friends.  

Here is our "set up".  We use it when we go to places like March of Dimes Walk, NICU Reunion, etc.  

Here we are at last years NICU reunion.  

I have more pictures and way fun stuff to share, so stay tuned.  

(if you are friends with Holly and read her blog/email and parts of this sound familiar its because I copied and pasted some of hers!!!)