Chicago

We survived Chicago!!!

Where do I even start? We got to Chicago Wednesday night. We got stuck in traffic on the Dan Ryan Expressway but still made it to Chicago in good time! We checked into the hotel and then went out walking.... Craig was set on getting new shoes (imagine that!). Once we got daddy new shoes, we stopped to eat at the Hard Rock and then back to the hotel. We were tired but of course, we didn't sleep well, probably because we were nervous for Thursday.

We got up Thursday and met up with Amy Pisani. She is the executive director at Every Child by Two, the organization that is making this all possible for us to share our story and raise awareness. We sat in on a session put on my Ari Brown. Shes a practicing pediatrician and also a spokesperson for raising awareness about child vaccines. She was an amazing speaker and we really enjoyed listening to her. If youre interested in learning more, here is her website http://www.draribrown.com/

After she spoke, Amy did a session about vaccines and the media. It was about how to try to pitch stories to the media in hopes they bite on it. Mind you, that this conference was attended by people in the medical field, such as nurses, doctors and then people from each of the 50 states who sit on their states Immunization Coalition. So we were the only "non-medical" people there. But we found it very informing. During Amy's speech she referenced us many times.... during her slide show she even had clips from the Good Morning America segment and the CNN iReport. So it was kinda overwhelming but we're glad that Callie got to be seen!

At lunch we got to head out and had about 4 hours to do what we wanted. So we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and then we walked.... and walked... and walked. We had no idea where we were going so we just walked until we saw something interesting! And yep, I have the blisters to prove it!!

We got back to the conference and Amy and two of her colleagues had "gifts" for us!! It was a bottle of wine (which I am sooo saving until after this baby is born... Craigs not drinking it without me) and then a huge bag of Garretts Chicago Style Popcorn! OMG if you haven't had that stuff, its the BEST!! So yummy! Such great people!!! We're so lucky to have been teamed up with Amy!

Right before we spoke, Amy showed the group the Good Morning America clip. This was only the 2nd time we'd seen it so it was a little hard to watch. It brought tears to both of our eyes, and many of the attendees as well. Then after it was done, we stood up to speak. At first I felt like I had a lump in my throat, I was trying not to breakdown, which wasn't easy. Then I took a deep breath and everything just flowed. I spoke about our quest to get her, our time with her, our devastation of losing her, the whole nine yards. Then we spoke about wanting to raise awareness about the TDaP and about doing it all in Callie's name. We spoke out the new baby we're expecting and how its eerie that we're due the day after Callie would have turned one. The crowd laughed and cried with us. It was amazing. When we were done, they gave us a standing ovation. We went back to our table and people came up to us all teary eyed to thank us for being there and just to hug us. One lady was from the national coalition of immunizations and vowed to contact us about making it a mandated policy in hospitals to offer new moms the vaccine after giving birth!! YAY!! So, Callie's Crusade lives on!

It was an awesome awesome experience!!!!


After the conference we went to the Darius Rucker concert at Joe's Bar. It was a charity event hosted by Greg Olsen of the Chicago Bears and the place was full of celebs... from Bears players (quarterback Jay Cutler and others) to Blackhawks and Cubs players. Amazing.

When Darius came out, he looked at us, looked away and then did a double take. He winked, and I felt like he knew who we were. Even if he didn't, he made it seem like he did and it was amazing to me. You all know about the connection with Darius, me and Callie right?? If not, let me know and Id be happy to tell the story.

He put on one heck of a show. He personally handed me his guitar pick he used and then his roadie guy after the show gave me the set list that they had for knowing what song was coming up next.

We had a blast! When he did the song called "It Won't Be Like This For Long" my tears flowed.... Craig got teary eyed too. Craig wrapped his arms around me and we just cried. For those of you who don't know, its a song Darius wrote for his daughter about growing up and its just a perfect daddy/daughter song...and it was the first time we'd heard the song since Callie left us... whenever we hear it on the radio, we turn the channel and when it comes up on the cd, we skip over it. So it was sad, but we needed to hear it... especially live! Once it was over, we wiped the tears away and went back to rocking out!! It was just an awesome night!

Til next time....