Day Twenty-five, Gift Twenty-five

I know yesterday I wrote about how inspiring the movie "Extraordinary Measures" was to me and Tim. Ironically, the next day, I received an email from one of my special needs support groups. This particular support group is for congenital CMV and Cerebral Palsy. All of Justin's special needs are from cCMV, it's a cold virus, that 90% of the population gets while they are toddlers. However, if a woman is pregnant and get's this particular virus for the first time in her life (usually from other children she has) then the brain does not develop correctly. It results in deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, seizures, even death, and the list goes on.

Due to this virus, Justin is never expected to talk, eat by mouth, hold his head up, sit, or walk. He fights seizures constantly and is completely dependent on others to live. He is four and already has had two surgeries and will experience dozens more, he spends on average five hours a day doing therapy. It is very serious and is affecting 1 in 150 children. It is the most common serious birth defect, yet no one knows about it. I'm part of a group called "Stop CMV", our mission is to get posters in OBGYN offices about CMV, get the information out there and to get doctors talking to their patients about it. It is preventable.

The email I received was from one of the members of the "Stop CMV" group. On the website for "Extraordinary Measures" there was an "Inspirational Quilt" where you could put your story. She put her son's story on the quilt. Now you can click on it and see him and more about CMV. The great part is that whichever story on the quilt gets the most votes will get $10,000 towards their cause. This would really help us get the word out about CMV! So, for my gift today, I went and watched his video and voted for it. You can vote up to one time daily, so please consider voting for your gift today.

Here is the direct link: www.extraordinarymeasuresthemovie.com

It is the orange square that say's "David Carver's Story".

I've also put the trailer and link directly at the bottom of my blog...please check it out.