Thursday, September 29, 2011

World Milksharing Week - Weston's Story

While all the mommas who chose to give us milk are incredible beings, for some, it is a more difficult thing to do. You may remember when I talked about this special momma who gave baby E some milk. This is her story...

Weston was born April 2, 2011. He came home 6 days later and he was a very healthy baby. He was very advanced for his age already lifting his head up and turning from his stomach to back all before 2 months. But sadly on June 12th, 2011 he passed away. That day will forever be the worst day of my life. Shortly after we got home from the hospital we got a phone calling asking if we wanted to donate his heart valves. I knew instantly that I wanted to donate them but I knew I needed to talk to my husband. After only a few minutes we knew we wanted to donate them.
For over a week we stayed with my parents because going into our house was too hard. When we finally went back to our house I opened the freezer and saw what was well over 100 oz’s of frozen breast milk. I just knew instantly I wanted to donate it and that Weston would want me to donate it. My husband thought it was a great idea but that I should wait till I was truly ready. I had no idea it would be a month before I was finally okay to let it go and to give it to another precious little boy.
The day Becky came she brought her son who would be getting Weston’s milk . He was so cute and sweet and I even got to hold him and that gave me the strength to do what needed to be done and to donate my milk (Weston’s Milk) so that this precious little boy could have the best nutrition he could possibly have. I hope that one day I can share my milk again but under better circumstances. And sometimes I even wish that after Weston passed I had continued pumping so I would have had even more milk to share. But in the end I did not do that but I am glad that I did have a lot of milk to share.

Rachael, Weston's amazing momma, is working so hard to honor Weston's memory (and she's doing it beautifully!). If you're interested in learning more about what she's doing (a 5k, a balloon release, and so much more!), check our HERE and HERE for more information and/or to donate.

Today's lesson - The human spirit is amazing. Always tragedy teaches us things about ourselves. Sometimes it gives us a new focus. Sometimes it allows us to become acquainted with a part of ourselves - a good part - that we didn't know was there. While we will likely always wish the tragedy had never happened, sometimes even so, good can come from it.

1 comment:

Emms said...

So heart wrenching yet so beautiful at the same time. Thank you, and her, for sharing his story.