Evie taking it all in at the Ithaca Farmer's Market
After months of wishing away the difficult medical situation of our baby, we are accepting it as reality and taking it head on. Our sweet baby will be born with a heart condition - and we will do all in our power to help that baby thrive. The baby continues to grow well and has very similar heart development as Evie. With a little over a month out we are focusing on many more details, including our anticipated relocation in late May (due date is June 1)in order to deliver the baby at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. The ideal situation is that the baby is born and the heart can tolerate waiting until 4-6 months old for surgery. Of course knowing that Evie had surgery at 5 weeks - we know that many different situations can arise.
The idea of surgery scares the heck out of me, but I realize the very fortunate reality that we are have access to this type of life saving procedure. The sad case is that many families throughout the world do not. We want our experience to change that for a few of those families.
Proud Mama Photo taken by Photog Evie D.
Over the next year or so we will be organizing an effort to raise funds to sponsor surgeries overseas for families in our similar situation. Under 10% of the world's population has access to pediatric cardiac care. That's where an organization like the International Children's Heart Foundation (http://www.babyheart.org)comes in. They lead medical trips throughout the globe and work with local medical staff heart surgeries to help give many of these kids a chance. They perform surgeries such as the one Evie had for about $2,500 which is a very small fraction of what it costs stateside. We want to work with you to help "sponsor" as many kids for surgery as we can.
We anticipate a fun, formal fundraising event in Ithaca in the fall and also envision conducting a formal written request for support, though in the interim are calling on our great network of family and friends to think about supporting this effort through your own networks. Would your child consider an awareness and fundraising effort with their class? Would you host an event to support our effort? Would your business or organization be willing to rally behind this effort? Would you be willing to make a donation to this effort? I encourage you to check out the ICHF website and consider making a one-time or continual donation at - http://www.babyheart.org/donate/make-a-financial-donation/. Please denote in comment/memo section that this is for the "Doyle Family" as we will be tracking how how we are doing in this sponsorship effort.
Thanks again for all the tremendous support and words of encouragement as we ramp up for the delivery. As difficult as this is we are tremendously excited and hopeful.
