Cora was born on December 18, 2009 and was immediately rushed to the Children's Hospital NICU for a very strong murmur in her heart. Over the next days and months we learned more about Cora's "special heart" (four heart defects). We also felt the compassion and love from the nurses, doctors, and staff during our stay in the NICU, appointments, her first surgery and after care, and each appointment since. I couldn't be more grateful for the life-saving top-notch quality care given to Cora. 

By participating and raising money for Chidlrens Cardiovascular Program, I feel it's a great way to celebrate Cora's "special heart" and express gratefulness for all the caring hands who have touched us at Children's. It's also a very important thing to me for Cora personally because the heart surgery she will need in the future is still an open heart surgery for pediatrics, but a cath procedure for adults. With more funding and research (which is done right here in MN), Cora will hopefully be able to get her heart mended with a much less invasaive surgery.

Cora has a heart appointment coming up soon and I will definitely keep everyone posted!

This is our seventh year participating in HeartBeat 5000 5k! Thanks for all the love and support (emotional, monetary, etc), I am truly grateful for all of you!

Ari