Imagines...

Imagine - daring to try and have another baby after your first weighed less than 2 1/2 lbs at birth.

Imagine - the excitement and apprehension when you find out you are pregnant.

Imagine - the total fear when you find out it's twins because you really know the meaning behind "50% chance of preterm birth"

Imagine - your worst fears coming true and you end you in the hospital at 29wks with preterm labor.

Imagine - 100's of people you've never met reaching out to support you with cards, letters, phone calls, e-mail, flowers and offers of "if there is anything..."

Imagine - feeling closer to an e-mail group than to most of your "real" friends.

Imagine - a little glass heart sitting on a shelf.

Imagine - putting it to use as a symbol for a few close internet friends.

Imagine - it touches people so they tell others.

Imagine - getting a call from a doctor who has called every Ericson in the phone book looking for you. He wants hearts for all the nurses in his NICU for x-mas.

Imagine - that before you know it over 3000 hearts are spread all over the WORLD!!

Imagine - the tears you cry when a parent writes to you: we want 50 to pass out at our baby's funeral.

Imagine - the tears you cry when a parent writes to you: my 25-year-old ex-preemie daughter sent this to me on her birthday and it made me cry.

Imagine - the worst thing that ever happened in your life gives birth to the most wonderful thing that ever happened in you life.

Renea Ericson - Mom to Andrew, Maggie and Cora
The Preemie Purple Heart
http://www.preemie-hearts.com

Not everything that counts can be counted.
Not everything that can be counted counts.
-Albert Einstein