Thursday, September 8, 2011

Update on Baby Arlo (a.k.a. Ziggy)


Thank you, everybody, for the amazing rally of support for Arlo. We now, b/c of your unbelievable compassion for him from old friends, and new friends, from colleagues, and clients, from family and from absolute strangers, from California to Georgia to AustrIalia, will have to start referring to him as 'the people's baby.' We're ok with that, and maybe that will help cut down on babysitting costs (not that he likely leave our sight for good 14 years. But, we are not out of the woods yet, by any means, so keep that love and strength coming.
Arlo was dealing with jaundice immediately after his birth, like many babies, but a day after we got him home his bilirubin count skyrocketed, and we rushed him to the ER at Children's Hospital, where he stopped breathing for a time. The wonderfully talented and compassionate team at Children's incubated him and stabilized him. We now sit watching his little belly rise and fall under his tanning bed lights. This morning they felt confident enough to remove his breathing tube, and mom even got to hold him for a bit as they changed his sheets. And as I write this to you, I hear his first Arlo gurgles since we came, gurgles of appreciation I'm sure to you all. He's always looking to get his 2 cents in. Keep it up everybody and thank you for being so wonderfully overwhelming.

Love,
Ted, Sharon, & Arlo "the people's baby.
"

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Benefit Show for Ted, Sharon, and baby!

Beth Pyper-Holz has now gotten in on the "barn-raising" head first! She's organizing a benefit show at The Eagles34 in South Minneapolis on Sunday, September 25. The Betsies are playing. If you are in a band or know of a band that would like to participate, contact Beth Pyper-Holz on Facebook or contact her via email at bpyholz@gmail.com.

If you're neither in a band, or know of a band, hopefully you can still come and enjoy a band!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

As you know, Ted and Sharon's baby will be born any day, and their new house is contaminated with mold and must be repaired in order to be inhabitable. At the moment, they are essentially homeless. The repairs will cost at least $25,000. This house is their nest and they can not live there until this work is done.

In the past, communities got together for barn raising events when a family needed shelter. Perhaps our contemporary version of barn raising is coming together as a support community through facebook.

Ted has 561 friends on facebook, and Sharon has close to the same number. Many of us are friends with both Ted and Sharon, so let's use 561 for doing the math. If 561 of us each sent Ted and Sharon $40 we could raise $22,440 in a week. If each of us went out for a nice dinner this week, we'd spend at least $40. If we skipped the dinner, we could repair Ted and Sharon's house!

How many of us say, 'I love Ted'...'I love Sharon'. It's so easy to talk about community....let's BE one.

--Diane