“Out of difficulties grow miracles”
- Jean de La Bruyere
As I’m sure most of you can imagine, the past few months have been nothing short of hellish for us as parents. An emotional roller coaster of sleepless nights and constant worries. Some days we have to dig down so deep to find the courage to keep going. When every stone is unturned, and we have nothing left to sustain us, we rely on a little sliver of hope. Hope that we can be the best parents for our boys. Hope that one day our boys can live the lives we have dreamed of for them. Hope that someday there will be a cure for Fragile X.
However, that glimmer of hope that we hold onto so dearly has gotten brighter thanks to the overwhelming support from all of you – our village. We have been so humbled by the outpouring of kindness, compassion and generosity from our families, friends and community. In terms of the numbers, our website has been viewed over 15,000 times and our video has reached over 1,000 people. In just two weeks, we have raised nearly $35,000! You have all be so charitable in both your words and your dollars during a time when we truly needed you. There is no thank you that could do any of this justice but we will continue to try to repay you with our sincere gratitude. It will take a village to cure Fragile X and, thanks to all of you, we are one step closer to that goal.
Mike and I would like to acknowledge a few people without which any of this would have been possible. These folks have played crucial roles in helping us launch our foundation and we will be forever indebted to them for what they have done for us. Our dear friend, Theresa Hahn, has overseen the production of the website for our foundation and has tolerated many hours of dealing with Mike and his quest for perfection. Her expertise and dedication knows no bounds and we are so thrilled with the final product that she worked tirelessly to deliver. Theresa has also been a huge help on the home front, often caring for the boys so that I can take them to their individual play groups at Early Intervention as well as to various appointments with specialists. We call her St. Theresa and now you know why! Another person who has played an integral role in our launch is Robert Doris, owner of Happy Wanderer Media. Robert is a graphic designer who partnered with us to create the logo for our foundation. He spent many hours going back and forth with us to make sure it hit exactly the right note in terms of the symbol that would represent our organization. We are so happy with the logo and everything it symbolizes and could not have done it without him. Lastly, we owe a huge thank you to Alan and Michele Fleury of MPD Video. They were the masterminds behind the production of our video. They took our thoughts and transformed them into a beautiful and heartfelt onscreen reality. They handled themselves with the utmost professionalism but also had such compassion for us and the difficult truth that we had to share. We are quite certain that our video will resonate with many people and help raise awareness for Fragile X.
Thank you to Theresa, Robert, Alan and Michele for your unwavering dedication and generosity. We know that your tireless efforts will have a huge positive impact on the Fragile X community. We will be forever grateful to your for all that you have done for us and for our boys.
Once again, thank you to everyone in our community who has supported our cause. Every single day we have been touched by your generosity and loving words of encouragement. Thanks to you, we continue to have hope. And hope is what will sustain us in our quest to find a cure for Fragile X.