Abrielle Neff Foundation

Friday, February 12, 2010

Salem Church Donation

We received a wonderful donation of $200 from Salem Church at Christmas time along with a note stating they wanted the donation to go towards the stuffed animals given to children. It was in a card that simply stated, "Peace. May it rest in your heart at Christmas and ALWAYS." Perfect card for us to receive and a wonderful donation.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Miss Jackson County

Darbi Furham won the title of Miss Jackson County and will be competing for Miss Missouri this summer. She has decided to use the Foundation as her platform for charity work. She will be helping out in all different areas and carrying our message as she travels to competitions. Currently she is holding a stuffed animal drive at Maryville Dance Academy.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Donations

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Our Snow Family

With all the snow that fell, the girls had to play in it this weekend. They wanted to build a snowman and then decided that we needed to make our family. Of course our family includes 3 little girls, so that was what we had to make. It wasn't even spoken, but we just kept rolling snowballs until they were all there. It was just like everyone knew how many there needed to be without saying it out loud.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Friday night was the Daddy-Daughter Dance this year. My feelings were pretty much the same as last year in that there should have been two girls going with their Daddy, but I wanted to share what Mady did. This is a rather formal occasion, a little girl's prom with the best date ever. She wanted to wear her Abby necklace. I told her that was up to her and she could look through my necklaces if she wanted to. She simply responded, "There aren't any other necklaces I want to wear" and didn't even look. I also told her to take off her pink bracelet, but she refused to do that too. She replied, "I don't ever take it off Mommy. Well, except for soccer." So, she went to the dance with her Abby necklace and her Foundation bracelet on.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Quote and an Explanation

"Faith is ... believing in advance that which only makes sense in reverse." ~ Charles Swindoll

My apologies everyone, I'm putting in long hours at work right now and the last thing I want to do when I get home is look at a computer screen. I'll have posts ready for next week though.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Donations

I don't normally share any donations that we make as a family, but thought I would share these since they were from the girls.

Our Story...

Abrielle came into this world in a hurry to get started, which gave us our first glimpse at her personality. Not waiting on Dr Jane to put on gloves, only a towel to catch her with, she weighed in at six pounds fifteen ounces. From the beginning Abby had reflux, but there seemed to more than just that as she failed to gain weight. At four months we were sent to draw all kinds of labs, hoping for a solution, but all was normal. By six months of age, the vomiting became worse, almost nightly. We were keeping records of every calorie she ate, every dirty diaper, and every time she vomited. By this time Abby was refusing to eat supper most nights and would throw up her undigested lunch after bathtime at 8:00. Her food was just sitting in her tummy all day. Dr Watson sent us to Omaha Childrens Hospital to Dr Zapata a pediatric gastroenterologist to help diagnois the problem. There, over the next year and a half of her life, Abby underwent testing, treatments, and outpatient procedures. During every procedure she was given a stuffed animal to hold for comfort, even though she had Blankie with her.
To make a long story short, after the accident we discovered St Francis Hospital did not have a program like this for kids and Abby's Hugs was born.

That Tragic Day...

Thursday, March 29, 2007, began like any other school day in our household with the only exception being that it was Abby's sharing day at preschool. We had a rule that if the sharing item was not picked out the night before (which it usually wasn't), Abby had to be ready for school before she could find something to take. This morning was just like most ... nothing was picked out the night before. She hurried faster than usual that way she would have time to find something. After brushing her teeth, she ran to her room to find some clothes. I always tried to give Abby choices, but she was down to her last clean pair of capris. I gave her the option of wearing those, a pair of Gymboree Fruit Punch capris with a bright yellow shirt or jeans and a purple kitty shirt. She decided on the capri outfit which she had actually rejected every other day that week. After getting dressed, she went into Sissy's room and was playing with her LeapPad when I found her. I asked her how she wanted her hair fixed and she said "little pony". (Not that she was going to leave it in anyway) I helped her onto the sink and she dug through her basket of hair things until she found a yellow one. We went into the living room so I could sit down to brush her hair. Since sitting on my lap was now impossible, Abby stood in front of me as I pulled her hair up with the little yellow hair tie. She ran to her room and began looking for something to bring for sharing. She came out with her Little People's Noah's Ark set stuffed full of extra toys. Being a mean Mommy, I said, You can only bring one toy. Aww, was the response as she took the ark back to her room to look for something else. I went on about my routine of making my lunch and everything else to be ready to leave for work. Mady and I headed out to the Expedition and Abby was not following behind. I went back inside to find her and Marc on their way from her room with her big "bobbycat" (bobcat skidloader) for sharing. They had been looking for the scoop that attaches to the front but ran out of time. They decided that just the bobbycat would work. Marc helped buckle Abby in her car seat. Because she was so small we still used the 5-point harness and not just the seatbelt so she required some help. As we left the house, Marc pulled out ahead of the girls and I onto the gravel road. Just around the first set of curves past our house, I slowed down so we could watch the turkeys fly across the road. I am not sure if Abby saw them or not, but she said she did. We continued on, oblivious to our fate that lie ahead.

last added to 10/29 ...this I will add to as I am able ...thanks for understanding.

The Sentence

On June 25, 2008, Ryan C Sundermann was sentenced to 6 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Sundermann wrecklessly caused the death of Abrielle Neff in a motor vehicle collision on March 29, 2007. Sundermann was charged with failing to maintain proper control of his vehicle, failure to drive on the right half of the roadway and operated a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol.
Sundermann was previously convicted of Driving While Intoxicated and Failure to Drive on the Right Half of the Roadway on April 25, 2006 and sentenced to 2 years probation, 12 days in jail, and a $300 fine. On December 19, 2006, Sundermann was again convicted of Excessive Blood Alcohol Content-Prior Offender which he received a Suspended Execution of Sentence of 180 days, was continued on 2 years probation and received a fine.