The Essentials of Setting Up a Nonprofit: If you want to give back to your community and help others in need, then starting a nonprofit is a wonderful way to do it. But setting up and managing a nonprofit organization can be complex. Along with exercising exceptional grit and determination, you’ll need to understand how to prepare for the financial, logistical, and managerial aspects of running a nonprofit. Here are some tips and resources from Silvie Bells for how you can get going in the right direction:  The Financials:  Let’s start with some financial practices and principles you ..read more

I don’t have a traditional NICU parenting story. Well I do, one from 13 ½ years ago when I had my twins, they were born at 34 weeks due to growth complications with Kesler. My son was in NICU for 3 weeks, my daughter came home with me at 4 days old. My son needed to have oxygen during feedings, and had difficulty with coordinating suck, swallow, breathing having a vasovagal response each time he was fed. At first he had a feeding tube while learning how to coordinate with feedings. My daughter, you wouldn’t know was a NICU kiddo for 4 days. She conquered milestones with ease and didn’t need ag ..read more

My husband TJ and I knew we wanted a family from the very beginning. Our story seemed fairly cliche at first. You know, small town boy meets small town girl...they had lived in close proximity to one another most their lives, but like all great love stories, timing was everything. Both had been through some tough times in their personal lives, just as they were reaching the pivotal ages to be graduating and starting careers and moving away from home. He worked in agriculture and then became a firefighter, she a hairstylist. They met, became fast friends whom each needed at the time...and unexp ..read more

Arianna was my 34 weeker 5.13 lbs 17 days in nicu  Julia was my 24 weeker 1.15 pounds 97 days in nicu  Maliyah was my 28 weeker 2.12 pounds - 6 brain surgeries. 80 days in nicu.  For Julia at 19 weeks I was told I had no fluid and she would not come. That she will die and will not survive due to no fluid. At 21 weeks I started bleeding every night. They said my body was aborting the baby. She was born at 27 weeks. She has been a sick baby with bad preemie lungs. Cronic lung disease they say. She gets bronchiolitis and pneumonia alot. Coughing so much and needing oxygen. She ..read more

I can picture it like it was yesterday. I was standing alongside the isolette, with my arms through the portholes. I remember the puff…puff…puff of the flow-inflating bag as I raced against the clock, bringing breath after breath to the tiny baby in front of me. I remember the rush of anxiety as the monitor alarmed and a flood of nurses arrived quickly at my side. We didn’t give up, and neither did she. Slowly, her heart rate started rising, her oxygen saturations improving. I took a deep breath and looked up, spotting the baby’s mother from across the room. She was pale, leaning forward with ..read more

This is my son Lincoln  On September 6,2018 my water broke at home at 10:45am in my home town of Chatham I was only 25 weeks I had contractions really and called 911 went to the hospital and at 11:35 I had Lincoln wow that was scary I just had my little 1lb 13 oz baby and didn’t know what was going to happen my midwife explained that they had to intubate him and that a team from London was going to come get him and he was very stable I got to see him before he left for about 2 hours and was told that I had to stay in Chatham hospital the night, so London came and packed him up and asked i ..read more

Dear NICU Dad,  It’s your first Father’s Day and you never expected to be spending it here, in the NICU, but here you are…  Here you are, wearing a brave face when inside you’re crumbling.  Here you are, advocating for your child in ways you never could have imagined.  Here you are, wiping tears from the mother of your child, while holding your tears back.  Here you are, changing leads, suctioning tubes, listening to alarms and staring at monitors.  Here you are, praying that soon you can hold your baby for the first time.  Here you are, telling yourself to d ..read more

My journey to parenthood was a long one. After 3.5 years of unexplained infertility, countless  interventions, and a failed round of IVF, I was pregnant. Not only was I expecting one baby, but it  was twins. I was overjoyed and terrified. I had been dreaming of that moment for so long, and yet it  was hard to relax and enjoy a high-risk pregnancy. The majority of my pregnancy was uneventful  until around 27 weeks. At a routine appointment, signs of pre-term labor were noticed and I was  sent across the street to the hospital for an IV and monitoring. Several hours late ..read more

After being cleared medically by my OB/GYN, Chris and I decided to take a baby moon in the form of a cruise to the Caribbean, May , 2014. It was three full months before baby Jackson was due, so we should have been good to have a relaxing time full of sunshine and floating in the ocean!   Our cruise left Sunday afternoon, and after two days at sea and a port of call day in Jamaica, we were getting ready to spend our Thursday in grand Cayman on a snorkel tour and i was really looking forward to a pregnancy massage that evening back on the ship. After a low-key day in Jamaica, we heade ..read more

“Don’t let anyone leave. I should be back around 10. 11 worst case.”  I sent this text to my best friend Justin on January 6th of 2018. My wife Maribeth and I had found out we were having our first child in April and Justin decided to throw me a man themed baby shower. “So your son doesn’t only have clothes with giraffes and trains on them” as he put it.  I left that afternoon heading to his house ready for a fun night. It was the first round of the NFL playoffs, our favorite hockey team the Carolina Hurricanes had a game, dozens of my friends were going to be at the house and ribs w ..read more