Hi All:

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since I did Yoga with 1500 other Yogis at the Patriots field house at Foxboro Stadium for Boston Children’s Hospital. I raise money on behalf of my daughter Julia who is 27 and thriving.

She has Truncus Arteriosus 1:40,000 heart anomaly. Let that sink in. Fenway Park holds 35,000 people. Among other things, she was born without a pulmonary artery. So the doctors at BCH promised one could be built. And they did.

In between the surgeries has been a life filled with friends, dance classes, art lessons, tennis, yup tennis ,driving, college and work. She is a special event coordinator at a National non-profit.

This year I have been thinking about gratitude. It is perhaps an overused word these days in the lululemon yoga clothing - hands in prayer emoji -culture of thankfulness, but I know of no other word to describe my relationship with Boston Children’s hospital these 27 years. For me gratitude is a powerful mixture of feeling indebted, lucky, and relieved . This gratitude can never truly be repaid.

I have gratitude for the doctor’s of course and their research and skills. The nursing staff without whom nothing would run.

And treatment at BCH goes a layer deeper. Raising a child with a life threatening condition is hard. Harder than I would want anyone to have to know. But Boston Children’s Hospital knows. They provide families with respite. A way to regroup and recharge through their programs at the Hale Family Center. This program encourages families to take time for self care through education and the healing arts It is one more part of the puzzle we need as we join with our children and their treatment team toward healing.

Please consider making a donation of whatever amount. With Gratitude, Ellen