All For Ellie...Thank you Aunt Jeanine and St. Pius!!

On Thursday, the Dr Pepper/Chamness family threw a pizza party for the grade that collected the most pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. My Aunt Jeanine's school, St. Pius, is trying to reach their goal of 1 million pop tabs by the end of the school year to donate in Ellie's name. They are about half way there!! I took the camera and got a lot of really cute pictures of the kids. I swear I did. However, I must have uploaded them wrong because somehow they did not save. Aunt Jeanine, you saw me taking pictures didn't you?!? If I find them miraculously on my computer, I will post them for sure! But, in the meantime, I thought that posting a picture of Ellie was better since she is the real reason we are doing this anyways!

In Indpls, the Ronald McDonald House benefits Riley Hospital for Children. However, Ronald McDonald Houses are nationwide and do wonderful things for families with ill children. Because our first child, Ellie, spent a lot of time at Riley Hospital and was such the miracle in our lives, Jeff and I (and our family of course) are always trying to find ways to "give back". They opened their doors and hearts to us when we were in need and we will always be grateful to "The House" for this! Jeff and I promise each other that we will never stop giving back! What a great way to do this! Thank you so much St. Pius for the wonderful gift you are giving and for supporting our angel in heaven! Some of you never even got the chance to meet Ellie or hadn't even heard about her story and you still decided to open your hearts and give! We love you for this! Our family also serves breakfast to the house residents on January 20th every year. This is Ellie's birthday. I can't believe she would have been "4" years old next year. It makes me sad as I think about her not being here with us today. But, I am also so happy to have so many wonderful people doing so many wonderful things in her name. These are memories that we will cherish forever. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing Ellie into our lives even if it was for a short while. She changed our lives and made us better people!!