Just relax...and help!

This post is for a brave fellow mom who I know from an online community, Jen of the blog Maybe If You Just Relax.

Like me, Jen is an infertility veteran. It took 3 years for Jen to get her successful IVF cycle that ended with the birth of her daughter Olivia on Valentine's Day 2009. Last year, she again went through treatments to add to her family and wound up pregnant with identical twin girls. She had a rough pregnancy where there were concerns about her Baby B while her Baby A thrived in utero. She ended up in the hospital towards the end, and received steroid shots with a planned c-section 48 hours later. The night before her c-section Jen and her husband received the devastating news that they had lost their precious Baby A. On December 30, 2010, beautiful baby Evelyn was born still and her sister Ainsley was equally beautiful but small and mighty and taken straight to the NICU.

Ainsley has proven to be a fighter. She has been in the NICU since the day she was born. She has been through multiple surgeries including one on her spine, her heart, g-tube surgery and most recently a traecheotomy. Her main issues seem to be eating and growing, and it may be months until she is home. In the meantime, her family has been adjusting to a new kind of normal, including work, spending time with Olivia and traveling back and forth to the NICU to be with Ainsley. A local group of moms had gotten together and organized help for her family as much as they can. They have done meal delivery, collected money for gas and grocery gift cards, paid for their parking at the hospital (their hospital does not offer free parking for NICU parents, even after 5 months of multiple trips a day!), etc. As a small group they've done what we can but now are now asking bloggers to reach out to the online community in a plea for help for this deserving family.

Friends of Jen and her family are asking for monetary donations and are also asking for raffle items for a "Reverse Raffle" event to be held in Jen's home town on July 23. All proceeds will benefit Jen's family, and donations of items and services would be greatly appreciated!

CLICK HERE for event details and how you can help!