Lucia was born eight full weeks before her due date and spent 39 days in the NICU under the incredible care of the staff at St. David's South before we were able to bring her home.
This past year brought countless PT, speech, and feeding therapy sessions and endless worries - but alongside it came moments of joy and more blessings than we could have imagined.
Lucia is now 16 months, runs everywhere and literally has the BIGGEST personality and longest eyelashes ever. She is outspoken, determined, and assertive. She loves eating fruit and her favorite book is "The Pout-Pout Fish". Lucia says hi to everyone and points at every four-legged furry friend she sees. We could have never imagined any of this as we sat next to her while in the NICU.
Because of A Hand to Hold, I was matched with my mentor Krystle with whom I am walking this 5k (Cesar will be running the Austin 1/2 marathon as part of our team too). Our friendship ranges from talking about what it means to be a mom to a preemie - to sending each other the silliest memes we find. Because of her, I was inspired to train to also become a Hand to Hold peer to peer mentor and hope to support other families on a similar journey as ours.
Thank you for all of your support this past year and for opening your hearts to Lucia.
Your donation will support families like us. If it is one thing we have learned is that prematurity doesn't define our kids - our kids define who they are.
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Team Hand to Hold supports Hand to Hold's mission to provide navigation resources and comprehensive support programs to parents of preemies, babies born with special healthcare needs and those who have experienced a loss due to these or other complications.
