The Jackson Chance Foundation

If Jennie & Quinn have brought you some amount of joy in the last 11 months, we hope you’ll take a couple mins to read this!

We were in the NICU for 15 days with these babies after their birth as they needed time to grow a bit outside the womb, learn some crucial skills like how to swallow and breathe at the same time, how to regulate their own internal temperature - you know, basics. During that time, our NICU neighbors changed often, and rarely did we meet, but we’d learn about each other through the thin curtains separating our pods. 

For a few days, there was a woman there solo with her baby, and we learned there was no partner. We learned she needed the hospital to provide a car seat because she didn’t have one - she didn’t have the money to buy one. She asked for as many diapers as they could give her. And she cried as she told them she wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital with her baby once discharged because she couldn’t afford to pay to exit the parking garage where she left her car after driving herself, in labor, to deliver her baby who then required extra care and days in the NICU.

Daniel and I were lucky. We could afford to valet our car at the entrance to the hospital when we arrived at 1am after my water broke. And when I was discharged from my stay 3 days later and the babies would remain there for 12 more days without us, the NICU provided us with a free parking spot in a covered lot one block away, which we proceeded to use every day, multiple times a day sometimes, as we came and went from spending quality time with our babies who were on feeding tubes. 

Parking alone would have cost us $30-$50/day for the amount of time we spent in the NICU, and we were so grateful to not have had to worry about that extra cost, thanks to the Jackson Chance Foundation who sponsored our parking. And for all the parents in the NICU like the one mentioned earlier, who upon being discharged would not even be able to afford ONE day of parking while returning to visit their baby(s), that parking spot is a lifeline. 

Thanks to the Jackson Chance Foundation, we didn’t worry about dumb logistics - we were exhausted, and looking to spend every spare moment with our NICU babies. Everyday we were there, we were grateful for how Jackson Chance helped us and so many other families through this seemingly small act of kindness. A parking spot and some peace of mind during an otherwise difficult time.

In honor of Jennie & Quinn’s first birthday on 10/27, we would like to raise $1,027 to donate in their honor to the Jackson Chance Foundation, to make NICU visits a little less painful for another family or two. Please give what you can - no amount is too small, and you can feel free to keep it anonymous should you please.

Thanks for helping us spread the love. We could all use a little extra these days.