Thursday, February 27, 2014
Hi friends! To follow our fundraising progress please like "Team Kamps3 -March for Babies 2014" on Facebook. This will have the most up to date information on our fundraising totals, announcements of team sponsors and fundraising events planned. Help us spread the word, be sure to share with your friends. Thanks!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Kamps3-March-for-Babies-2014/326119430769564
Thursday, January 30, 2014
March for Babies 2014...Team Kamps wants you!
Here we are again...March for Babies season is upon us. This time each year, as Brad and I are writing this entry we think, "Wow, we seriously didn't blog all year, we should start that up again." We quickly remember "Oh yeah, we have triplets...we don't have time for that!" I applaud all you parents that do maintain a blog while parenting!
We are now starting our 4th year of fundraising for the March of Dimes, March for Babies campaign. This event is always exciting and we look forward to it each year. Our first year, it was literally our first major outing with the girls, they were 9 months old and the cold/flu season quarantine was over. Many of our friends met them for the first time that day. While I paced the NICU floor those first 5 months, I would dream of spring time and if we could just make it to then, this bad dream we had been living would be over. It was a wonderful day but it became apparent that all the effects from their prematurity would not be over.
Case in point, March for Babies 2012, our second year of fundraising. 2012 was not exactly a calm year medically speaking. In January, Lucy underwent kidney surgery at the U of I to repair a constriction. We knew this surgery was coming and we made it through, hoping that was the worst of it. February 8th, 2012 is a day I will never forget. Brenna had a seizure. It was scary, it was unimaginable, it was absolutely terrifying. The follow-up medical tests from the seizure revealed that Brenna's shunt was failing, and that she had a large cyst in her brain that needed to be removed. Surgery 2 in 2012, a shunt revision and cyst removal...a very intricate and tedious brain surgery. This happened in April and we once again had high hopes that if we just got through this that all would settle down. We made it through, but 8 days later...another shunt failure. We were transported to the U of I for yet another brain surgery for our sweet Bren. She is one tough cookie. After 6 days in the PICU, we were released...just 12 hours before the March for Babies walk! It was again, a wonderful day for our family and Brenna was able to enjoy the outdoors for a brief time after being in the hospital.
In 2013, we had the great privilege of being the March for Babies Ambassador Family. Our friends and family came out and supported us as they always have. It was wonderful...a little windy....but wonderful. I think the most wonderful part of it all was seeing the girls reaction to our families work. They were old enough for us to explain what we were doing and why we wanted to help. We were starting a tradition, a legacy of giving for our family and something I hope they continue to strive for the rest of their lives. Since last year's walk, Anna often asks when we can "March for the babies" again, and then will suggest a time, like "how about Tuesday." I know our work has already made a positive impression on her and that makes me smile.
That brings us to this year, our fourth year with the March of Dimes. So far, in the past 3 years, Team Kamps has raised over $49,000 for this wonderful organization. We know what we have done is nothing compared to what the March of Dimes has done for us. They kept our dreams alive and for that we are forever indebted to this charity. We once again have high hopes for this year. Together, as a team, we strive to raise another $25,000. It is a lofty goal and something that cannot be done without teamwork. Team Kampers...we hope you will join us again this year and help us to reach our goals. We also would love to welcome new members to our team, so if you haven't joined in on the fun yet, now is the time. Thanks to all of you following our journey and we hope you consider walking with us on May 10th, 2014 at the DMACC campus in Ankeny. To join our team or donate, please visit
http://www.marchforbabies.org/KampsAR
Love, Angie, Brad, Anna, Brenna & Lucy
We are now starting our 4th year of fundraising for the March of Dimes, March for Babies campaign. This event is always exciting and we look forward to it each year. Our first year, it was literally our first major outing with the girls, they were 9 months old and the cold/flu season quarantine was over. Many of our friends met them for the first time that day. While I paced the NICU floor those first 5 months, I would dream of spring time and if we could just make it to then, this bad dream we had been living would be over. It was a wonderful day but it became apparent that all the effects from their prematurity would not be over.
Case in point, March for Babies 2012, our second year of fundraising. 2012 was not exactly a calm year medically speaking. In January, Lucy underwent kidney surgery at the U of I to repair a constriction. We knew this surgery was coming and we made it through, hoping that was the worst of it. February 8th, 2012 is a day I will never forget. Brenna had a seizure. It was scary, it was unimaginable, it was absolutely terrifying. The follow-up medical tests from the seizure revealed that Brenna's shunt was failing, and that she had a large cyst in her brain that needed to be removed. Surgery 2 in 2012, a shunt revision and cyst removal...a very intricate and tedious brain surgery. This happened in April and we once again had high hopes that if we just got through this that all would settle down. We made it through, but 8 days later...another shunt failure. We were transported to the U of I for yet another brain surgery for our sweet Bren. She is one tough cookie. After 6 days in the PICU, we were released...just 12 hours before the March for Babies walk! It was again, a wonderful day for our family and Brenna was able to enjoy the outdoors for a brief time after being in the hospital.
In 2013, we had the great privilege of being the March for Babies Ambassador Family. Our friends and family came out and supported us as they always have. It was wonderful...a little windy....but wonderful. I think the most wonderful part of it all was seeing the girls reaction to our families work. They were old enough for us to explain what we were doing and why we wanted to help. We were starting a tradition, a legacy of giving for our family and something I hope they continue to strive for the rest of their lives. Since last year's walk, Anna often asks when we can "March for the babies" again, and then will suggest a time, like "how about Tuesday." I know our work has already made a positive impression on her and that makes me smile.
That brings us to this year, our fourth year with the March of Dimes. So far, in the past 3 years, Team Kamps has raised over $49,000 for this wonderful organization. We know what we have done is nothing compared to what the March of Dimes has done for us. They kept our dreams alive and for that we are forever indebted to this charity. We once again have high hopes for this year. Together, as a team, we strive to raise another $25,000. It is a lofty goal and something that cannot be done without teamwork. Team Kampers...we hope you will join us again this year and help us to reach our goals. We also would love to welcome new members to our team, so if you haven't joined in on the fun yet, now is the time. Thanks to all of you following our journey and we hope you consider walking with us on May 10th, 2014 at the DMACC campus in Ankeny. To join our team or donate, please visit
http://www.marchforbabies.org/KampsAR
Love, Angie, Brad, Anna, Brenna & Lucy
Friday, February 15, 2013
March of Dimes 2013
I'm dusting off the keyboard for a short blog post. As many of you know, we have been asked to serve as the 2013 March for Babies Ambassador family. This year marks the 75th year for the March of Dimes, and we are extremely honored to have been asked to fill this role.
We are beginning to ramp up our fundraising efforts for the year. With the help of the March of Dimes, we have put together a short video showing why we do what we do. Please watch and enjoy, and share with your friends.
We plan on updating the blog more frequently with our fundraising progress as well as upcoming events and opportunities to help Team Kamps reach it's goal in 2013, so stay tuned!!!
Monday, September 10, 2012
We are two!
Click here to view this photo book larger
Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.
Friday, April 20, 2012
A Night at the Pizza Ranch...
Finally, the blog has come back to the internets!!! Sorry,
that was dramatic. It was the best I could come up with after not doing a post
for two months.
As you all may know, the March for Babies is coming up next
month, and we have been going all out with our fundraising efforts. Monday, we
held one of this year’s larger events at the Pizza Ranch in Ames. What a
wonderful opportunity Pizza Ranch provided us!
We would like to say thank you to everyone who came out to have some
good pizza and support Team Kamps3. Angie and I tried very hard to
visit with all who attended but inevitably missed some of you. The event went well, and we raised over $1000
for the March of Dimes! A big thanks to Aaron and Blakely Mortvedt for doing
the legwork to get the event set up. Also many thanks to Susie, Craig,
Elizabeth, and Grandma Janet for bussing tables all night and earning those
tips!
There was a lot of activity at the Pizza Ranch, but there
were some very touching moments that really impacted us. We got to catch up
with another triplet family we have met since the girls were born. It was good
to see their girls, and meet their
little brother. And get this, their mom brought all four of them *by herself!*.
Yeah, 4 kids, under three, all the way to Ames
from Lohrville. Alone. Shannon Hobbs, I salute you. Your children are
delightful and we hope to see you again soon!
We also had a very nice conversation with the manager of Pizza Ranch,
who after hearing our story, generously donated out of his own pocket in
addition to the business donation of 10% of the evenings sales. I tell you what, Pizza Ranch truly is a wonderful
business that supports its community and charitable organizations. This is a fundraiser we hope to continue with
for years to come.
We were completely blown away by the generosity of one
particular customer. As we were approaching the end of our fundraiser, Angie’s
aunt walked over and handed me $300 cash. I asked where it came from, and she
told me it came from a dad of 9-year-old twins, who were 25 weekers. Angie and
I went over to talk to him and learned he was from Minnesota , just passing through town. He’ll
probably never see this, but thank you random customer, we can’t express our
gratitude. It is amazing to me how God
orchestrated a random encounter that meant so much. What are the odds that this gentleman would
pass throw town of that very night and stop at that very restaurant and have so
much in common…wow. Very, very cool.
There is just under a month left until the walk, and there
are still plenty of opportunities to donate to the March of Dimes. There is a
bake sale at a vendor show in Nevada on Saturday, April 28th, as
well as team t-shirts to purchase if you haven’t already (deadline is Monday,
April 23. Information can be found on our facebook page, or by contacting
Angie. There is also the matter of Angie’s facebook fundraising challenge. Her
goal is to raise $3000 on her personal page. If she hits that, I will in fact
be wearing a tutu the day of the walk. So if you want to see the manliest of
men sporting the prettiest of pretties (there will be shorts underneath, nobody
wants to see that), please visit her personal page to donate.
Thank you to all our team members that are working hard to
raise donations for the March of Dimes!
We greatly appreciate you efforts.
If you have donated, please know we are incredibly grateful for your
gift. If you have yet to do so, there is
still time to make a difference in the lives of sweet babies, I urge you to
consider a gift. Having gone through
what our family has, every family I can help to avoid premature birth, is worth
all the work we put into March of Dimes fundraising.
Things have been busy at our house even without all of the
March of Dimes activities. We hit the Easter Egg hunt in Slater at the
beginning of the month. I don’t know if the girls quite understood, but they
each got a couple of pretty eggs, and were happy. Dad got some candy out of it,
so he was happy too. We made it to church for the first time this year on
Easter (we have had to miss during cold/flu season), then spent the day with
family, hunting Easter eggs and chasing bubbles. Man, do we love bubbles at our
house. I think we spent the entire day outside, I’ve never seen them so tired,
but they sure did have a good time playing.
We do have some less exciting news. Brenna is going in for
surgery on Monday, April 23rd. We visited our neurosurgeon in
February to discuss Brenna and her MRI results. The scan showed two large cysts
in the third and fourth ventricles of her brain which are making it difficult for
her shunt to drain the extra fluid. After
consulting with several other top children’s hospitals, the surgeon has determined
the best course of action is to revise her shunt to allow two catheters, joined
by a Y-connector, to drain through her current device. The area of the brain
that is being affected by the pressure this extra fluid is causing has a direct
link to balance and coordination. The surgeon expects to see improvement in
both areas for Brenna once the surgery is done and the shunt settings are
tweaked to where they need to be. Hopefully, this will fix the issues Brenny
has been having with her balance and gross motor skills. So please keep Brenna
in your thoughts and prayers next week for an uneventful procedure and speedy
recovery. To say that we are burnt out
on surgeries and complications from the girls’ premature delivery is a massive
understatement. This just goes to show
that even once you’ve survived the rollercoaster in the NICU, the effects of
premature birth do not go away, it will continue to be a battle we must face
throughout their lives…this is what we hope to prevent for other families.
We look forward to getting out more now that RSV/flu season
is officially over. Hopefully you can join us on May 12th for the
March for Babies in Des Moines . We are going to
try to update the blog a little more regularly this summer, but I emphasize try, and I make no guarantees, unless
you want to watch toddlers while I type ;)…
Brad, Angie, Anna, Brenna, and
Lucy Kamps
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Why March of Dimes?
Two years ago, all we really knew about the March of Dimes was they were the organization who sent us pretty mailing labels around the holidays and asked for a small donation in return. After the last 18 months, we have a whole new appreciation for the March of Dimes and it's mission to ensure stonger, healthier babies.
From early on in our pregnancy, we knew this was going to be an extraordinary journey; three little heartbeats on the ultrasound screen, a dream come true. Little did we know at the time, the rollercoaster journey our family was set out to endure. The pregnancy was difficult physically but there was nothing of special concern until my water broke unexpectedly at 25 weeks. After 12 hours at Mercy Medical Center monitoring my condition, the labor was unable to be stopped in time and on September 1, 2010, our three little girls were born. Annaliese Hope, Brenna Renee and Lucy Jane entered this world each weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces and were 12 inches long, they were smaller than a Beanie Baby. We were amazed at how very perfect they were, tiny, but absolutely perfect. Our sweet little babies, while so very beautiful were also very frail and sick. Each was in a fight for their life. In total, the Kamps triplets endured seven surgeries, multiple infections, and too many blood transfusions to even count during their stay in the Mercy NICU. We had numerous nights where it wasn’t clear they would see the next morning, but our angels are fighters and Annaliese, Lucy and Brenna were able to come home after 77, 79 and 152 days respectively. The girls are thriving today and are very active toddlers. We are so proud of our trio! We still are dealing with the lasting effects of their premature birth and it is not an easy road, but they are tough little girls!
We became involved with March of Dimes in 2011 to support their cause of prematurity awareness and research and also to celebrate the extraordinary lives of our little miracles. Without the medical research funded by the March of Dimes in recent years and the training and expertise of our wonderful neonatologists and nurses at Mercy, our story could have turned out very differently. Last year, our team consisted of 40+ friends and family members, and together we raised over $6200 for the March of Dimes. We would love to see each and every one of you again this year. Last year was a great year, and we are excited to try and top that this year.
One of the ways we hope to accomplish our goal is to add some business sponsorships to Team Kamps^3.We are hoping to find numerous business sponsorships and one company to potentially match what we raise, but any contribution would be greatly appreciated. If your business or company is interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship, please contact us for more information. You may also visit our March of Dimes team page, or visit us on Facebook for more of our story and information on personal donations and to learn more about our company sponsors. All donations are 100% tax deductible, and will support the March of Dimes mission to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
The following video was made by Grandma Sheryl for the girls' first birthday, and chronicles our NICU stay. As a family affected by premature birth, we truly feel the research funded by the March of Dimes is the reason we were able to bring all three of our girls home. We look forward to seeing all of you at Principal Park on May 12th for the March of Dimes March for Babies!!!
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