Encouragement

February Is CHD Awareness Month :: Know The Signs February is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Month. Here are some statistics: - There are 40 types of congenital heart defects. - 40,000 babies are born in the USA with CHD every year, that equates to 1 in 100 children. One child every 15 minutes will receive a diagnosis. - Around 25% of children who have CHD will need heart surgery or other types of interventions to survive. - CHD is a leading cause of death in infants and children, twice as many children will die from CHD as they will from all forms of childhood cancer combined. Yet childhood cancer research funding is five times higher than CHD research funding - Baton Rouge does NOT have a...

Superwoman Is Overrated As moms we’ve been conditioned to think we can do it all. We want so badly to be able to take on that role of superwoman that when we fall short, our mental health inevitably suffers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at-home mom, or a mom out in the workforce, we put too much pressure on perfection and getting things accomplished. I’m a working mom. The guilt is very real pretty much all of the time. I’m fortunate enough to have flexibility with my 9-5 that allows me time to conquer doctor’s appointments and attend school events when I need to, but the sense of not being present for my kids is still very much prevalent every single...

Camp Bon Coeur :: An Oasis For Heart Warriors Having children with medical needs affects you. There's always so many questions to be asked, decisions to be made. What if my child doesn't progress like other kids? What if something happens? What does their future look like? You also start questioning whether or not they’ll get to have the normal experiences of childhood most people take for granted. Summer camp is one of those experiences. Let’s backtrack a little. I have two children with heart conditions. My daughter is 9, and my son is 4. She was diagnosed as an infant and he was diagnosed in utero. They’ve both undergone surgery to alleviate their conditions and improve their lives. While those...

Lessons Learned Through A Year Of Grief 2023 will always be the year that my mom passed away. I’ve never experienced a loss as great as this, and I’ve never experienced this level of grief. Although 2023 was the hardest year of my life, through this first year of grieving my mother's passing, I have actually grown and learned so much. Lesson #1: I am stronger than I thought. The mere thought of losing my mom seemed unbearable. I figured I would be inconsolable and not be able to go on with my life. But once I was faced with the reality of her death, the opposite was true. I was able to plan a beautiful service for my mother. I was able...

Setting Your 2024 Goals - and Keeping Them! If you close your eyes and reflect on 2023, or the many years before, can you recall making resolutions at the start of a new year? Did you keep them? Were they life-changing, achievable, and worth the effort put in? Did they require sufficient sacrifice, altering of annoying habits, and financial investments for the betterment of self? New Year's goals are nothing new, and roughly 4/10 of us set goals every year. And with that said, most of us have historically set similar goals. According to Forbes' New Year's Resolution Statistics, the top goals set for the new year include some form of fitness goals, finance goals, and goals for improving mental health....