Clap hands for joy!
Our goal when we started our Charlotte’s Miracle Milk (CMM) campaign was to feed Charlotte until she was 2 as well as through her recovery from cranial surgery. Well she is almost 27 months and just had surgery- still getting breastmilk!!!
Even though I was convinced we could do it – I can’t help but be totally blown away! The reality of such of feat is simply astounding and we owe it all to you <3……those who donated their hard earned money (sometimes several times) for banked milk – we raised a total of $20,000! To those who pumped for her, those who prayed for her. You held us up in the depths of despair, accepted us, embraced us and shared in the ultimate joy of her awakening and recovery. You stood by and supported us during this entire time……tears of gratitude fall from my eyes and fill my heart.
How could I be so lucky to have you all?! How could I be so blessed to have you in my life?! Its simply because God is good. “Ask and you shall receive.”
I am happy to report that we have be inundated with breastmilk over the last few weeks as there was lots of renewed interest. Charlotte has enough milk now to get her into summer so we have decided to “rap up” our breastmilk collection. Honestly, it makes me a little sad because this project has been so rewarding for me on so many levels. My professional skills were invaluable providing an opportunity to educate and inform both medical people and the public on the benefits of breastmilk for injured children. It gave me a sense of purpose and helped me to feel useful from a distance. It fulfilled the promise I made to Charlotte that she would be given every advantage humanly possible to live, be loved and thrive through the miracle of breastmilk. It renewed my belief in human kindness and God’s mercy.
So donors: Any milk you have pumped and set aside up to now for donation- I will graciously accept. Otherwise all good things must come to an end. As you can imaging, left to my own volition, I would feed her breastmilk till forever- Lol
It is difficult to put into words the positive impact your donated miracle milk has had on Charlotte but I believe her amazing recovery speaks for itself. The bigger picture is the impact it has on people all over the world who have shared this story. The milk of human kindness….expressions of love for one little girl who has been mothered by so many is now legendary.
My prayer is that you will always know that you have done an amazing thing…selflessly and heartfelt.
Many, many thanks to you and big hugs for you all.
On behalf of our entire family,
Maria
“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world”
Last week I had the awesome pleasure of spending 6 days with Charlotte and family including Dad for Thanksgiving. She is doing so well- I couldn’t believe the difference, even better than in the beginning of November when she was here in NJ. She sits and plays with toys, loves books and music and actually tries to sing! We had my Dad do one of those recorded books in his voice ” Twas the Night before Christmas” – she especially loves that. Charlotte is so snugly & cuddly – she lives to be rocked to sleep and we love doing it! She is making a lot of noise- not real words yet. But we are optimistic since the part of her brain that deals with speak has not been too damaged. The gross motor area appears to be intact so they believe she will walk….eventually. Sitting up unassisted in a short term goal but since her cranial bone flap is open still it hard to do too much. Our hope is that her cranial reconstruction will take place sometime in Jan….that alone will speed up a lot of her progress. Charlotte has an EEG to look at her brain function since she experienced what appears to be a few “focal” seizures. Results were at first a little hard to swallow: the right side of her brain is basically non-functional: 60-70% of her entire brain is either dead or damaged 😦 There was quite a bit of epileptic activity as well. So they increased her Kepra (anti-seizure medication) and she is doing much better. Please keep in mind as we do- The left side of the brain is the dominant side – thankfully we have plenty of function there – the brain has tremendous plasticity to take over function. Charlotte in the flesh, DOES NOT match her CT, MRI or EEG meaning the doctors find it hard to believe those are her results. She far exceeds their expectations so we feel blessed ten fold. Also I also was able to hook Annette & Cabell up with a holistic practitioner friend of mine to start Charlotte on some homeopathic supplements and help maximize her nutritionally. So we had much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday……..Great Grand Diddy & Charlotte here with us! Truly a blessed miracle ❤ With love & gratitude GrAuntie Maria
Charlotte was so engaging to everyone she met- smiling and giggling esp at GGD’s funny duck noises! There was a time when “they” said Charlotte may never smile -well our little miracle not only smiles but giggles too! The Lord has blessed this child tenfold<3
There were two small reception help at GrAuntie Maria’s office so Charlotte could meet some of her supporters and milk donors.
That’s right – lots of cuddles from GrAuntie Maria !
Charlotte's Miracle Milk Fund 