Vote for Baby Jesus...I mean Beckett (Photo Contest)

Ben and Mandy had a little late night date night...coming up with our photo that we would enter in the NICU Helping Hands (https://www.facebook.com/nicuhelpinghandsfoundation) Photo Contest. Turns out not much has changed since we were in college. Nothing like the night before the contest deadline. :) We had SO much fun! It had to be holiday themed, so what better than a Beckett posed as Baby Jesus. :)

Hey Friends! Can you please vote for Team Gramkow's photo project in this contest? 1) Go to NICU Helping Hands Foundation (and like the page)...this is the foundation that Beckett's Neonatologist (Dr. Grubbs aka the DRG)'s wife, Lisa Grubbs is the President of (and that I'm going to volunteer with here in Fort Worth). I think you have to actually like the page to vote. 2) then go to the photo of Beckett posed as Baby Jesus and "Like" it. The one with the most "Like" votes wins! Wahoo! Thanks friends. We had SO much fun coming up with this!

How did we do it? We used Ben, Mandy, Ellie white socks for the sheep, Beckett socks for the ears, Ben's black socks. Manger base is a MandiMoo Designs wrap; The "hay" is packing material from the Phillips remote that we ordered because ours was stolen in the break in. The swaddling clothing is a bath towel. The blue sky is a Moby Wrap that Ben and I made at the NICU with the March of Dimes Family Support Group. The star is left over yellow yarn from Ellie's "Tangled" themed birthday party! Ben stood on a chair and took the pic from above. Beckett was a great model as Baby Jesus. :) TOO FUN!

Our inspiration for this photo was: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45816601/ns/today-books/t/tot-sleeps-baby-bookworm-surfer-astronaut-elephant-tamer#.TwxF4JvIlc0 . Thanks Libbie (co-worker of Ben's) for showing this website to Ben!


**side note/shout out to Lisa Grubbs (um, she's amazing just like her husband)...I had never posted the whole story, but I was actually supposed to meet up with Lisa the DAY Beckett was born to talk about how I could volunteer with NICU Helping Hands. Little did I know that I would be meeting her husband, the DRG, hours earlier as he was the neonatologist on call, and the one who was at Beckett's delivery. I pretty much was beside myself when Dr.Grubbs introduced himself, and yes, in the middle of labor, I say..."Oh, I was supposed to meet with your wife today, do you think you can let her know that I'm not going to make it?" So...fast forward to 9:30 am, after Beckett had been born at 4:43 am, and Ben is passed out on the couch from the long night, and I have the light off so Ben can sleep. I'm trying to eat the nasty, dry french toast for some sort of breakfast, and in walks Lisa.....at our scheduled appointment time. Yes, she came and found me on the post-partum floor. She said "What? You're trying to eat that stuff...here are some muffins from Central Market" (which...thank you Lisa, I am addicted to Pecan Sourcream Muffins from Central Market now :) and I just gave her a big hug. And then she also brought us a birthday cake for Beckett. She said "Mandy, I know this isn't at all how you planned, but today is Beckett's birthday, and it will be for the rest of his life, and THAT is worth celebrating." And I had tears, but they were definitely tears of a different perspective. She was absolutely right. Today WAS worth celebrating, even though we knew all to well we had a long journey ahead. 

Meeting her pretty much solidified that NICU Helping Hands was an organization I wanted to be a part of...and then I also realized that she has passion, and is REALLY good at her job. I can't wait to see how I can help serve other NICU parents through this organization right here in Fort Worth. (They serve Baylor Hospital Downtown). Harris Methodist has March of Dimes Family support, but March of Dimes only approves a program within a certain mile radius. And for those of you in Fort Worth, you know that all the hospitals are in a similar area. 


Yet another way that we knew God was taking care of our Sweet Beckett...and his family. We are so thankful for the DRG and his assistant, Lisa :)


***Ok, too cute, I am blogging right now, and Ellie comes up and sees the pic of us eating the birthday cake, and is like "HEY, that's Beckett's Birthday...do you remember that?"