Support Letter... Will you join us?

In December 2002, my friends Keith and Jessica’s little boy Aidan was born. Sadly, he only lived for 4 ½ hours. His life was shortened because of Trisomy 13, which is also called Patau Syndrome. A trisomy is a genetic disorder/syndrome, chromosome disorder or chromosomal anomaly. A trisomy means an extra chromosome is added to one of the normal pairs that are found in our body’s cells. This extra chromosome causes a pattern of birth defects and medical problems.

And now six years later, Aidan continues to impact my life. He was all I could think about when I started training for the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, Virginia on March 22, 2009.

I decided that I wanted this marathon to mean something more. I have teamed up with Noah’s Never Ending Rainbow to raise money and awareness of trisomy and chromosomal conditions as well as a way to honor Aidan.

As a little background, the mission of Noah's Never Ending Rainbow is to educate, advocate, raise public awareness, promote strategic alliances and assist families who have children with Trisomy and related chromosome disorders. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.

You are receiving this letter because I have a feeling that you too want to be a part of this effort. It is my hope that you will consider donating in honor of Aidan during this race to support Noah’s Never Ending Rainbow as they help families just like my friends, Keith and Jessica.

You can easily donate in two ways. You can write a check to Noah’s Never Ending Rainbow, with the words “Shamrock Marathon” in the memo line. You can also directly call their office at 262.605.3690 to make a donation by credit card.

If you write a check, it can be sent directly to the following address:

Noah's Never Ending Rainbow
7737 6th Avenue
Kenosha, Wisconsin 53143

I will also be mailing checks to their office, so if it is easier, you can also hand-deliver the check to me and I will forward it to their office. Your donation to Noah's Never Ending Rainbow is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law and you will receive a letter of acknowledgement from them for your generous donation.

I am excited that I can honor Aidan and bring awareness when I run on March 22. I know that Keith and Jessica, along with the two healthy boys they have had since Aidan, will be there when I cross the finish line. I hope you too will be a part of our finish line celebration through your generous donation.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Jodi Brock

P.S. You can check out these websites for more information.

Noah's Never Ending Rainbow: www.noahsneverendingrainbow.org.

Run4aidan blog: http://run4aidan.blogspot.com/ Shamrock Marathon: www.shamrockmarathon.com

Where have we been?

If you are following this blog, you may be wondering where we have been. While we haven't been posting much lately, we have been working on finding a foundation to work with as well as training for the marathon. We'll be posting more as the race gets closer!!

Posting on Facebook

Okay so I've told our family and friends about this blog. I guess the time is for me to tell my online friends in the Facebook world. Jodi has already posted the link in her facebook. I think I've been hesitating because I know that when it is posted, a lot of people who don't know our story will find out. Keith and I are typically very private people. So this is a huge step to just openly share our story with others. So I'll get it on my facebook. I really will. It just might take a day or two more for me to get to that point :) Jess

Researching Foundations

Just a quick update. We are narrowing down the foundations we are considering for the marathon. I must admit. It has been a little hard and emotional to research the foundations. I'm so thankful the support systems are out there. I don't remember hearing about any of these foundations when we went through all we did. So researching has brought back some more memories and tears. But I know it is all for a good reason. I'm working on making some phone calls and emails over the next couple of days so we can narrow down and find the right foundation/organization to work with in honoring Aidan.

Who is Aidan?

I guess I should introduce myself first and how I fit into this story of Aidan.

I am his mommy, Jessica. My husband, Keith, and I found out about Aidan’s trisomy 13 at a routine level 2 ultrasound. I was around 22 weeks pregnant. It was our first indication that anything was wrong.

Finding out that our son had a trisomy 13 was the hardest thing in our life. In our marriage. But we clung to each other and our faith in God to make it through our decision to continue to carry Aidan. A decision that we treasure and cherish.

So much happened in those weeks between finding out about his trisomy and his delivery. And while we believed in the supernatural for a miracle, we also knew we had to prepare for the natural.

To make it harder, Aidan is our first baby. So while we should have been having parties, and showers and excitement, we had questions, fear, and waiting. Instead of wondering what color to paint his nursery, we were wondering what measures we wanted to take after he was born.

Aidan was born 6 weeks early on December 27, 2002. He was 5 pounds 15 ounces. I can’t remember how long. I’ll have to look through his box of things at some point when I feel I can reopen the box of memories.

He was born early because I developed preclampsia –so much for a great first pregnancy huh! Aidan lived for about 4 ½ hours that night. And we cling to the memories of those 4 ½ hours. Every day of carrying him. Every moment of waiting. Every moment of facing the unknown was worth it for those very emotional and precious 4 ½ hours.

Even though that was almost 6 years ago, it is still very much of who we are. Since then, we have gone on to have 2 healthy (and very active) little boys who are now 4 ½ and 6 months old.

When Jodi and I talked about her running this marathon in Aidan’s honor, all I could do was sit and cry. I’ve been finding I’ve been sitting and crying a lot the last few months. Aidan has been on our minds so much lately. And to think that friends wanted to honor him this way was overwhelming.

We are so honored that Jodi and Bobby are running for Aidan. I thought today of the significance of the two of them running in this race. It takes a team to face the hard times.

I know training for this marathon will not be easy (we watched Bobby train for a marathon previously). But they will have each other. Going through our pregnancy, delivery, and death of Aidan was not easy. But Keith and I had each other. And I am so thankful for that. We were a team and depended on each other. We continue to be a team. Go Team Whitmore! :)

As the race comes closer, I know Jodi and Bobby will be sharing on this blog. And Keith and I will also be sharing. We have not been extremely open about Aidan previously. I mean, how do you exactly bring Aidan up in a conversation? It often doesn’t have a place to come into general conversation. And when it does, you often get “the look”.

I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be sharing, but I hope that you find some inspiration, courage, encouragement and hope from all of us. And please, feel free to comment or email with any questions. Sometimes talking about Aidan and our memories is very therapeutic for us.

So we’ll be here. Tissues nearby. Crying while we relive our memories. Crying while we share with others. Crying as Bobby and Jodi train for the marathon. Crying as we honor Aidan and all he has meant and continues to mean to us.

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...