Our daughter, Samantha Grace, was born December 24, 2008, 13 weeks premature. Samantha was extremely ill and spent her entire life living in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Samantha received phenomenal care, but despite that care, her ailments were too much to overcome. Samantha passed away March 26, 2009.

Within days of her death, we decided an appropriate way to keep Samantha's memory alive would be to help educate medical professionals in the field of neonatology and also to help families make the most out of long stays at the NICU.

Through education and research, it is our hope that babies born with similar ailments are able to live long, happy lives. We intend to help make that happen by raising funds through Samantha's Grace and disbursing that money in the form of scholarships to qualified medical professionals looking to further their education in neonatology. These scholarships can be used by a nurse wanting to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner, a unit secretary wanting to become a nurse, or any medical professional (doctor, nurse, respiratory therapist, etc.) looking to attend a conference to learn a new technique or to bring in an expert to teach a new technique or advance in the field.

In addition to scholarships for neonatal medical professionals, we intend to help support and educate parents and families of long term NICU babies by providing them with books and information we found to be useful during our stay. We also intend to help these parents with fuel and meal expenses by providing them with gift cards to gas stations and restaurants near hospitals. If we learn of a family need that is not being fulfilled, we want to be able to help however we can.

Samantha's Grace is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation.

If you are interested in learning more about Samantha's life and our journey with her, please visit www.carepages.com/carepages/SamanthaGraceGiese