C-sik: Samantha Faith Cronquist

First of all, thank GOD for saved sign ins and passwords or I never would have found my way back here. In my defense, there have been several times this past 9 months that I have wanted to blog sooooo badly but due to confidentiality and our awesome, sweet, incredible foster child- I can't. If you wait for a couple more months, I may be able to tell you more and add more.

At this point, I am sharing our other sweet baby. Samantha was only alive for 2 1/2 months... 10 weeks and 1 day... 71 days. Think about that. Think about what you were doing back at the beginning of January and all that has happened since and that is the amount of time that we had to love and hold and care for our baby. Thinking she would live. Thinking we would bring her home. Planning the medical care, planning her room, planning our lives around her and her needs. Then she died. How do you go on from there? What can you do to show people how important she was to us and our family? How much we loved her? How much my body physically ached to hold her? To kiss her? To tell her how much I loved her? When Samantha died, part of me died with her. Does that mean I don't feel happiness or joy or peace? No, absolutely not. I laugh. I enjoy life. I have peace. But I miss her every. single. day. I think about how old she would be. What she would be doing. What she would look like. I miss her. The best way I can think of to remember her is to pray that no other person goes through what we went through and to do my best to make that happen. The March of Dimes supports several of the treatments that gave us weeks with Samantha rather than days. Weeks. Months. Not days. Time that we can never get back yet time that was so precious. Time that we will never take for granted. Please help support us. Even $5. I know times are hard. Trust me, I know. But this is so incredibly important to so many families. Look at your child and think about how you would feel if they weren't around. If you hadn't been able to see them walk and talk and run and laugh. How much is that worth? Here is the link to donate. We will be walking in memory of our sweet baby- please support us. http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=769352&ct=4&w=6031846&u=ccronq

I feel like I have only ever shared Samantha in a picture or two so here is the life of my child in a few chosen pictures that share the love and joy that we had for the short time she was with us.

The first photos. Who knew that Saran Wrap would keep a preemie warm???