How It All Began...

Wow! Where do we start. My name is Jodi and my husband Bobby and I are very close friends of Keith and Jessica's. Keith always says, about Jessica and I, "You two should have been roomates!" We agree. We've been freinds for years. Now we're more like family. Recently I started to run for exercise on a regular basis, just to shape up. My neighbor, who I run with occassionally, invited me to join her on a half marathon in March. I thought, "By then, I could probably handle that. It might be good for me. A new goal to achieve." I began getting very excited about this goal and was sharing my ambition with all of my friends, including Jessica. We chatted a bit about it. She of course thought it was a great idea and was very supportive. A few days passed and I got to thinking about how much running a half marathon really consists of (13.1 miles to be exact). I was searching for training schedules and thought to myself "I really don't think I want to do this just for myself. I wonder if there's a charity or organization I could run for to help raise awareness and monetary support." My next thought was, "Where do I begin?" There are a million charities that I can be passionate about, but none that effect me closely. I paused and suddenly I found myself thinking about Jessica and the things we did together when I visited recently. We redecorated a little in her home, but one part stood out to me the most. The part... we almost... didn't do. Jessica decided to go ahead with the idea of adding shelves to her stairwell. One for each of her children. The shelves had a photo of each child and a few tidbits from their baby stage. This idea stemmed from wanting to take things collected for Aidan and place them out in the open. When we finished, it was so beautiful, we couldn't stop starring. Together, we were so thankful we did it. As I was remembering this, I began to cry and said to myself "I wonder if Aiden was diagnosed with anything? That could be my charity!" It took a day or two for Jessica and I to touch base. When we did, I first asked if Aidan was diagnosed with something and that's when I found out about Trisomy 13. I then went on to ask if she and Keith would mind if I ran in honor of Aidan. Maybe together we could find a charity or organization that we could team up with, support and make this a group effort. Once I had Keith and Jessica's blessing, I was so excited, I said "I can't just run a half if we go through all of this together!" I decided at that point to run the whole marathon. Now the countdown is on, the clock is running and so am I...