It's Almost Moving Day! Prepare to be AMAZED.

Not our moving day. That's not for another (gasp) 3 weeks or so. But, Children's Memorial Hospital will be moving to its new home in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago on June 9.

On Monday, June 4, the ribbon was cut on the new building and CMH officially became the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.  Though we didn't attend that ribbon-cutting, Charlotte and I did get stuck in the traffic it created while we were in town on a house-hunting trip.

ABCNews Chicago covered the event. Please click here to check out the opening, and even more interesting, the plans to move up to 200 critically ill patients about 3 miles down the road in 20+ ambulances on Saturday. It's extraordinary.

While we are thrilled about the opening of the new hospital, and proud to have played a small role through the Children's Service Board, we recognize how many parents and families mourn the loss of the facility in which they saw their child's last smile or held a beloved baby through a last breath.  As I wrote to Mary Tyler Mom in response to her loving elegy for the old CMH, the hand that her Donna saw as a beacon of hope will now light up Streeterville in a vivid tribute to the families and children whose lives have been touched since Julia Foster Porter opened an 8-bed hospital cottage, the Maurice Porter Memorial, at Halsted and Belden.

What better tribute to the memory of Ms. Porter, and of the children who passed through those hallowed halls, than to celebrate 125 years of pediatric medical excellence with the opening of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago?  I think Ms. Porter would approve.

Thank you, Team Charlotte, for your unflagging support of our family's journey. Charlotte is happy to be "going home" to Chicago and to "her" hospital.

No mention of the hospital can be complete without a pitch. Here's a link to Team Charlotte's page at Give Kids a Hand. To date, you have helped me raise $7,155 for Lurie's. In honor of MTM's Donna and Ms. Porter and all who dared to dream that pediatric medical excellence had a home in Chicago, won't you help me make it an even $10,000?

Keep scrolling for some Children's Memorial Hospital memories:

Where we began. May 10 (0r so) 2005. Before surgery.

May 16, 2005 after surgery. That's Charlotte under all those tubes and wires.

Charlotte (18 months) "poses" for an x-ray. They only way we could get her to stop crying was to have her smile for the camera. (2007)

Nurse Julie with sleepy Charlotte pre-second surgery. (2007) 

The only good thing about Radiology's waiting area...the kinetic sculpture. 

Fascinated by the bandaid over her blood draw poke. Last bandaid Charlotte tolerated, I think.

Waiting (and waiting) for Dr. Backer to come get her for surgery.  Ultimately, we went back the next day. Charlotte was a trooper.

Post-op, 2007.

Uncle Hal just couldn't stay away (2007).

The PICU Guardians. Yes, Bubba used to be a lovely (clean) golden color and sit up straight (2005).

Lung scan with IV (and video to watch). Not fun. (2008)

Certificate of Bravery for above. Charlotte rocks. And CMH staff knows how to help her through it all.

 Charlotte helps Dance Marathon Chicago get psyched (2010). She loves "her" hospital and likes helping raise money for it.

Spring, 2010.

Lurie Children's Hospital Lego(tm) Structure, Children's Service Board Security Desk, 11th floor, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital (2012)

Give Kids a Hand

Click here to Give Kids a Hand for Team Charlotte

For nearly 130 years, Children's Memorial Hospital has provided brilliant pediatric care to the children of Chicago, Illinois, and the world. A bit of history from the hospital website:

Children's Memorial was founded in 1882 by Julia Foster Porter near the site of the present hospital in an eight-room cottage. Mrs. Porter established the hospital in memory of her 13-year-old son, Maurice, who died of acute rheumatism. Children's Memorial was the first hospital in Chicago dedicated solely to the care of children, at a time when the field of pediatric medicine did not even exist.

The hospital will celebrate its 130th anniversary by opening a state-of-the-art facility in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The adjacency of the Prentice Women's Hospital will mean that women like me will not need to be separated from their sick children. Instead of a three-mile distance that I was unable to cross while I convalesced from a c-section, I would be able to visit my infant in the PICU in a wheelchair rolled across a bridge connecting the two hospitals.

An even greater impact, especially for children like Charlotte, will be the ease of collaboration between pediatric and adult specialists at Children's and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. These collaborations occur today, of course. But, now, researchers and physicians will be on the same campus, facilitating even greater and faster collaborations.

As I've heard Pat Magoon, Children's visionary CEO, say, we are in an age of beautiful problems--children with heart defects, cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, and other historically mortal health problems are living into adulthood. But, they are still treated by pediatric specialists since adult doctors have never dealt with their problems. (We saw a 30-something-year old in the PICU for a heart surgery in 2005.) The new Lurie Children's Hospital will begin to bridge that gap.

One of my colleagues on the Children's Service Board, Holly Duran, has said for years that Children's offers 5-star healthcare in a 2-star building in Lincoln Park. The new hospital will put children, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers in the building they deserve. It will allow for better care, better recruiting of top doctors, and better access for all children.

Children's Memorial may be located in Chicago. But, it is a world-class medical institution that treats children from all over. In 2011, the hospital treated more than 148,000 children representing every state in the nation and 33 countries. The Lurie Children's Hospital will have more beds and be able to treat even more children.

As this season of joy, generosity, and cheer draws to an end, I would like to ask you, the followers of Charlotte's Journey Home, to join us as we continue to help make the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago a reality. We hope to raise at least $1,000 in the name of Team Charlotte and earn her name on a tile mosaic in the hospital lobby. No amount is too small, and of course, no amount is too large. Follow this link (and make sure you land on a page that says "Team Charlotte" at the top).

Alternatively, follow this link and choose "Support a Fundraiser" in the left-hand nav. Then choose the radio button for "Search for a Team" and type in Team Charlotte. Click on the link for the team and choose "Support Team Charlotte" from the right-hand nav.

From our very grateful family to yours, best wishes for a healthy 2012.

Trick or Treat

I didn't get to go trick or treating with Charlotte last year because of my teaching schedule. I was really disappointed. So, of course I was terribly excited to take her out this year. Lucky me, she wanted to wear the same costume as last year and it still fit. She was talking about going trick or treating "with mommy" all day, so I think she was pretty jazzed, too. Philippe is in Germany for business, so he missed out this year. These pictures are for you, Diddy!

Charlotte is dressed as a "bubba doctor" (Bubba is Charlotte's bear and also the generic affectionate term she uses for all bears), sporting Children's Memorial Hospital scrubs given to her by friends at the Children's Memorial Foundation just before her second heart surgery. (No, I can't resist a plug for the hospital! That's a link to the online donation form for the Children's Service Board.)

Hitting up the neighbors with her buddy Taylor. Yes, Charlotte is VERY tall, but T is about 8 months younger and no shrimp herself!

We headed out in Lincoln Square with Charlotte's buddy Taylor. The girls were very excited to go to each house and get more candy, but not so sure about knocking on the doors by themselves.

At around 6 p.m. Charlotte had a meltdown about wanting to get on with it and go to more houses for more candy. I quickly realized that it was a dinnertime meltdown so I had to cut our afternoon with friends short and drag the poor thing home. It was not my best mom moment, involving yelling at her in public and dragging her (literally) back to the car. By the time we got home, all was well and we hit two neighbors' homes en route to dinner. Charlotte was very excited to see our neighbor's dog dressed as a pumpkin, but she is still talking about how she didn't really like the skull with moving eyes in our next door neighbors' candy bowl.

She was practically too tired to eat dinner (but not to eat candy!). Dinner took forever because Charlotte stopped to yell "Happy Halloween!" and "You're welcome!" to all of the Trick or Treaters who came to our house while she was eating.

When Charlotte finally went to sleep, I recovered with our traditional Halloween treat--cocktails on the front porch with our favorite neighbors, Richard, Cynthia, and Marcy. It's the one time a year I see Marcy. We had some serious fun involving a radio-activated rat and gals walking to the neighborhood bars.

I think she's a bit sad to see all the Halloween decorations come down. She's been enjoying all the different spiders in the neighborhood!