Melissa and Marcel's baby shower fund

We're happy to announce that at 12:32 AM on Thursday August 20th Isabella Grace was born! She is 6 pounds 1.6 ounces and is 20 inches long! Mom is doing well. Marcel is also doing well, but is wishing he was home.

Thank you for all of your support! We are going to leave the chip in page open for a while longer, so if you'd like to chip in still you can. All donations are greatly appreciated!

Thanks again!
Natala

I realized that not everyone knows the story about Marcel and Melissa... so I thought I'd write about it.

Melissa,a single mom of 2 had served in the airforce for almost 10 years whenshe was deployed to Iraq. She had no choice but to go, having to leaveher two beautiful children (3&5) at the time behind. She was gonefor almost a year before she was able to return to them.
At the same time, my brother was asked to go back to the middle east again.
Theymet briefly while in training to deploy... and then started getting toknow each other while they were in the desert together.
They fellin love... Marcel brought Melissa back to DC with him so that my otherbrother Roman, my husband and I could all meet her.
We were instant best friends. We all loved her so much.
Notto long after that (and after Marcel made sure we liked her) he askedher to marry him! He found out very quickly after that, that he'd beturned around and sent back to the middle east - right after he gotback from his previous deployment.
They decided to get marriedbefore he left... and then they found out that Melissa was expecting -right before Marcel was getting ready to leave.
Marcel was toldthat he'd be able to come home before the birth and he wouldn't bethere more than 8 months - but that turned out not to be the case, andhis dates keep getting moved around.

In the meantime, Marcelis stationed in Tucson when he's in the states. So naturally Melissawould like to be with him and the new baby, and her two children.Unfortunately, the state where they live is making this very difficultfor them, and they have a LOT of legal battles to be able to move herchildren.

She has completely supported them, and since Marcelmarried her he has completely supported them. The legal battle isreally insane, and what should have been cut and dry, has turned into avery expensive and long, difficult battle. The airforce has said thatMarcel can not transfer jobs, so if it doesn't go their way - Marcelwill have to be a long distance husband and father. We are all waitingfor the next court date (in Sept.. right after the baby is born) to seeif they will be able to move.

This has all been a huge burdenon them. Marcel has served the better part of 24 months in the middle east, andsometimes it seems like they can't catch a break. The legal bills havebeen really hard on them. And Melissa decided to not renew her Airforceduties - so she can be a mom to her three children.

There have also been pregnancy complications on top of all of this, that have also been really hard.

In all of this though, Melissa stays amazingly strong. Marcel wants to be back so badly, but also remains strong.

I decided to start an online baby shower fund in order to help raise some extra money to buy things for the new baby.

Theresponse has been so wonderful. A blog community (DGMS) has alreadybought a crib and several people have purchased things from theirregistry.

I am going to keep this chip in page open till herdue date on September 1st... Although, she just found out that shemight be having a baby earlier than expected - she is already furtheralong than she was with her last child!

There has been tremendous support! If you would like to chip in 5-10 dollars it would help a lot with some of the necessities like diapers, wipes, and things like that.

All of this to say -we appreciate any good thoughts/prayers/vibes that you can send theirway. And if you would like to chip in - every single bit helps. And Imean that! A five dollar donation can buy some baby wipes or a littleoutfit or be put toward something else!

Our family thanks you so much! We appreciate it more than words can express!

Well thanks to wonderful internet people we now have a crib! How awesome is that?!

There are still a bunch of needs... so we're trying to raise 5-10 dollars at a time to cover some of the other important needs.

I can't tell you how wonderful it has been to see so many caring and supporting people, a lot who don't even know our family.

Thanks again!

Just a note about chipin - it's just like any other internet transaction and uses paypal. It's completely safe and secure.

The chipin box is located on the right hand side of the page, and you just click "Chip In!"

Thanks again

Thank you so much for stopping by. We are trying to help Marcel and Melissa get all of the things they will need for their new baby. Every little bit helps... if you have an extra 5 bucks laying around and can chip it in, that would be awesome.

Marcel and Melissa have been through A LOT, and there have been a lot of monetary expenses, so we thought we'd set up baby shower donation for them!

You can also check out the page for the on-line shower, where you will find their registries.
http://event.pingg.com/MelissaBabyShower

You can also donate directly to paypal through the shower site - but you'll have to RSVP, and then the contribute box pops up.

Thank you so much for supporting them. My entire family appreciates it more than words can do justice.

Thanks!