This is why we do what we do... what you do is up to you.

There are so many charities and most all of them are asking for a donation from you. Each of these organization advocate for different causes and the people working or asking are doing so because in the belief or connection to the cause. When you donate to a charity you probably do so because you believe in what they are doing, or you want to help a specific cause or have a connection to it. While most Americans are very generous to charities, many don’t and that is their complete right. Each of us work hard for our money, each of us have our own fair share of “life” happening. How and where people spend their money is their prerogative.

Heart disease is America's number one killer and a major cause of permanent disability. Congenital Heart Defects are the number one birth defect, number one in birth defect related deaths. Thousands of children born with CHDs will not see their first birth

day and thousands more will not reach adulthood. Nearly 1 in 3 adults in the United States suffers from heart disease. Heart disease and stroke cost the US an estimated $503 billion in 2010 which included health care costs and lost productivity.

The Federal Government spends approximately 35 Billion Dollars or about 2% of the budget on on healthcare research; naturally this too is extremely political when it comes to the allocation of research funds. The politics of illness are complex, yet so are diseases. Certain diseases have large communities of support, with celebrity spokespeople and funding to match. Of course, it is understandable that some illnesses would attract more advocacy and research dollars (which come from both public and private resources). But mortality rates of illness don't quite match up with the amount of money spent on people with specific illnesses. Reports have suggested that research dollars are allocated when a member of Congress advocates for funding of a disease. Many times driven by a family member or close friend being stricken be engages member of Congress and in turn a powerful emotional pull has weight in the determination of funding.  Not to mention the public private partnership sectors through foundations and universities assisting in guiding the monies and how they are spent on research. Additionally and in general, diseases and defects in children get proportionally less emphasis than adult diseases. The problem with low funding rates for a particular research area is not only that useful research opportunities are missed but that the low probability of funding success drives promising scientists into other research areas. Unfortunately there is no national organization devoted to specifically to CHD pediatric research nor are there any federally-funded national health education or research programs targeting outcomes, needs, or genetics in adult congenital heart defect survivors and their offspring, therefore individual efforts consistently provide considerable help in keeping this field of research going.

In our family, we have struggles and I have learned the hard way not to judge, as you know truly never know what is going on behind closed doors. We are a family of five with three growing kids, one with a Congenital Heart Defect who underwent open heart surgery and still lives with leaks in his heart. We do what we can and we don’t live an extravagant life. We consume our lives with our children and rarely do anything for ourselves. That is our choice. We take what extra time we do have and try to do something meaningful, pay forward as we have been fortunate to say we have a miracle that resides in our home.  We encourage our children to do something positive every day, make a difference in someone’s life, even if you don’t know them.  We believe that promoting awareness first and foremost will eventually trickle down to enough people that we will in time get the endowments for research. In the interim we are compelled to work toward awareness, prevention and early detection. These three things I find satisfying in terms of Congenital Heart Defects until CHDs are at the top of the government finance list to cure my son and prevent others from suffering.  This is why we do what we do… what you do is up to you.