Congenital Heart Walk

On March 22nd our family was able to attend our first Congenital Heart Walk in Round Rock, Texas.  The walk was put on by The Children's Heart Foundation (CHF) and The Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA).  They did not offer a walk in the DFW area, so off to Round Rock we went!  Luckily, we were able to stay with Kyla & Kyle, who were gracious enough to house us, as well as the Snowden's who came to support as well.  Mitch's parents and Alex & Elizabeth came to the walk as well! 

The walk was at Old Settlers Park.  It was the perfect place for a charity walk!  It had a playground, a pretty pond, and lots of running room for kiddos.

 

 Marley was ready to walk!

Our adorable little honoree.  So proud to walk for our precious girl!

We had to come up with a team name for the walk, and it only seemed appropriate to use the name of the blog, so our team was "I Heart Evin".

The smallest {and cutest!} members of our team.

I love how Evin is looking so adoringly at Lane.

 

Mommy, Evin & Daddy

The Armstrong Family

The Snowdens, Tittles and Coots were there, too!

  

  

You can't tell here, but Kyla was only a few weeks away from Ellis' due date.  She stuck it out for the entire walk though!

  

One of our furry team members.  Kathy's new puppy, Paisley, came along too!  She had just gotten her that week and she was so tiny & cute!

 

These two...

I am sure everyone who sees them thinks they are twins!

The other canine member of our team was Ava, Alex & Elizabeth's dog.  Evin is always intrigued by her!

Marley & Lane were able to get some energy out before we started the walk.  They were ready to play!

 

Kathy & tiny Paisley

 

My heart

Here we go...

 

Kyla designed the t-shirts {as well as my matching blog header} and The Big Red Fern printed the t-shirts.  I can't say enough good things about them!  They were so easy to work with and had fast turn around for us.  I love how they turned out!

The front says "i heart evin" and this is the back:

Taking a little break halfway through the walk.

 

 Waiting in line for balloon animals.

I think it was worth the wait! Until this popped on the way to the car...then there were some tears.

 

Mitch & Marley dancing it up.

Evin went strong all morning but got really tired and hungry towards the end of the walk.  She was no longer all smiles like she had been!

Trying for a picture with Mason and I got about 15 pictures with the balloon animal in front of either Mason's face or Evin's face.

Mommy/Daughter Nikes

At the end of the walk the walk coordinator asked for a picture of all the Heart Warriors that were in attendance.  The photographer wanted all other family members that were behind the camera to scream at the same time so the babies would look at the camera.  Remember when I said Evin was tired/cranky?  Well, check out her reaction. We are on the right side of the picture...

She did NOT like the screaming.  Poor girl buried her head in me and just cried.  What else could I do but laugh?

Team "I Heart Evin".

So thankful that these people were able to travel to support our girl and her mended heart.

God certainly has perfect timing.  The walk was on March 22nd, 2014, which was exactly 1 year after we found about Evin's heart defects.  On March 22nd, 2013, Evin was taken to the NICU at Mansfield Methodist, then taken via Teddy Bear Transport to Cook Children's NICU.

Evin in the NICU at Mansfield Methodist as we were waiting for her to have an echocardiogram before she could be transported.

 Later that day, after being transported to Cooks- intubated, and wires everywhere.

 March 22, 2014 was certainly a much better day that March 22, 2013.

So thankful that we were able to participate in the walk and raise money to support other heart babies like Evin.  We are already looking forward to next year's walk!