The KAIDEN PAUL Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit founded in July 2024 after suddenly and shockingly losing one of our identical twin boys to spontaneous Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence (TAPS).
As we navigated our diagnosis, we struggled to find resources, guidelines, or anyone else who had been through a pregnancy with TAPS. We hope to be those things that did not exist for us.
We aim to support families, fund research, and ensure others facing TAPS bring home TWO healthy babies.
May Kaiden’s life and legacy be a force that helps other.
with love and hope,
emilie & eric
board of directors
Emilie Martinez, President & CEO, Kaiden’s Mom
Eric Paul Martinez, Secretary & COO, Kaiden’s Dad
Tom Miesner, Director, Kaiden’s ‘Papaw’
Rachael Reinert, Director, Kaiden’s Tia
Amy Schelle, Director, Kaiden’s Godmother
why snails?
Early in our grief journey, Emilie’s trusted therapist gave her a small brass figurine of a snail and excellent cautionary advice: grief is like a snail. It makes people uncomfortable. It is delicate. It is slimy yet sturdy. People will not know what to do with you. Do they pluck you up and tuck you away? Do they ignore you and leave you to trudge on?
However people choose to interact with you, you know that it is hard work being a snail. Trudging along and lugging the heavy load you carry but knowing the shell you inhabit is crucial to your survival. You are the only one who can feel this weight. But there are other snails around you that will carry their own heavy loads along the way.
Most importantly: snails are unable to move backward. Although the going is slow and slimy, there is always forward. On some days you may stop completely. You will need to rest in your shell. You will be overwhelmed. But there will always be forward.
While missing Kaiden, I think he sends snails into our lives as a reminder of forward. I see them everywhere. Or perhaps they were always there and I just never noticed the delicate creatures.
As the Foundation started taking shape, we tried to brainstorm a logo. Emilie charged Eric with incorporating a snail. Eric made an image of TWO snails, superimposed on each other. In TAPS twins, one twin, the ‘recipient twin’ is characteristically born very red, filled with too many red blood cells (polycythemia). There stands our steadfast little red snail, Mateo. The other twin, the ‘donor twin, is a pale, dusky white from too few red blood cells (anemia). The other snail is Kaiden, in a stance that reminds us there is always forward.