A little bit of background, I am a mom of four. All four of my deliveries have been at Edward and we have had a fabulous experience with all of our delivery and recovery nurses, our doctors, anesthesiologists, the staff. We, my husband and I, smile that we have really warm memories and feelings about the Edward delivery experience, and you are part of our story in each of our children’s lives.

While we have loved all experiences, our connection to Bonnie has been uncommon and from the moment we met her, it was special. She is so gifted on a content end in her practice that we felt very medically safe and cared for in her practice, but it is her heart and her soul that touched us and she was the perfect partner in a joyous but difficult time. I have shared this with Bonnie and I wanted to share part of my story with this group so that you know just how special she is.

Our youngest, we lovingly call our bonus baby, that pregnancy was different from my previous ones. I was older and nervous about pregnancy at this different age than I had been with my first three. I was really lonely in it. There were personal life circumstances that were making it more of a heartachy situation, than the kind of, I will use the word innocent, ones of my first three pregnancies. So to have the immediately warm and loving heart of Bonnie in person and in practice made me feel so much less alone and that helped me deliver, that helped me welcome, excuse me, our son with my husband into the most joyous pure place possible. I felt safe and confident in the physical experience and I had been worried about that and I felt seen, heard, and valued in the whole process. She stayed after her shift to welcome our son because he took way longer than he was supposed to and stayed connected before we left. She made a tremendous difference in that day but made a tremendous difference in our life.

And so, we have actively worked to stay connected to Bonnie because we just found her one of our very special people, but I can’t think of a person more deserving of this recognition. She gives so selflessly and I think it is just this neat blend of incredible expertise married to such generosity of spirit and really truly pausing to see here and value the person and people in front of her and she worked really hard to know us and to make us feel known. She’s uncommon, she is incredible; I know I wish for her this small token of recognition for the difference she is making every day. I know that teaching and nursing are different but there is a service nature to them and our jobs are always are difficult and special but especially now and if we can help her know just how much she is making a difference; lots of thanks to you for listening, lots of love to Bonnie and thank you for letting me speak on her behalf.