By: Kristen Grach - Pooler 

  Finalist 

                                                                                                     Lori, 

After 9 weeks of pre-term labor contractions, I delivered a 4 week premature baby boy at 7 lbs.      6 ounces.  He was very healthy and ate every hour and a half to prove it… for 5 months…day in and day out.  Levi was my second child so you’d think I would have known what to do, but I had no time to pull myself together before someone needed something.  I became emotion-less, robotic.  That is the only way I can describe it.  My husband sensing my distress, strategically placed our portrait in the nursery so it was the first thing I saw every time I walked in to retrieve our hungry boy.  On days I didn’t know if I’d be able to make it to lunch time without having to call someone to help me, it was there.  The days I didn’t get a chance to shower, and there were quite a few of them, it was there.  And 2 1/2 years later it is still there reminding me of the indescribable love I have for my children. 
After going through post-partum depression, I relish the moments that Levi now walks up to me and says “Hold you.”

Kristen Grach