We were so excited to be expecting our first baby. Everything had been so perfect until a 30 minute ultrasound turned into an hour and half. I knew something was wrong, but all they would tell me was they couldn’t get the pictures they needed. Once we met with the doctor we learned he had a Diaphragmatic Hernia.

A parent’s worst nightmare is hearing something is wrong with their child. Our sweet unborn baby had been diagnosed with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). Casey and I had never heard of this before.

We get to the office and I was in shock. How could my baby be diagnosed with something so rare and so life threatening? Why was this happening to the baby we wanted for so long? No one could answer my questions at the time.

After coming home, Colt has thrived. He was cleared by cardio. He's gained weight like a normal baby would. He's on normal well baby visits without weight checks in between. At 5 months old, he's already sitting up on his own.

I just did not know what to do. Even though my doctors seemed confident that Lucas would survive, I knew I would never forgive myself if I didn't get him the best care possible and something happened.

At 7 years old, now Breanne has beaten all the odds. She makes me a better mom and person everyday and never gives up, no matter the obstacle.

Tuanny is now a year old, already had his annual check up with Dr. Kays, and has done extremely well at home. He battled through a few colds and had a bad bout of stomach flu and an ER visit but reached some great milestones: rolled over at four months, crawled around between six and seven months, and has been scaling the walls and walking with assistance since eight months.

At 6 years old, CDH can't stop AJ! He goes full out in all sports. He loves being active & being outdoors. He loves riding his bike & playing with trucks.

So, there we were, over the moon watching every beautiful movement our little baby made on the screen. He said “Its’ a boy!’ as he continued to scan. I kept wondering what the black hole that he kept labeling “ST” was. It was near his heart, and I didn’t remember the heart being so narrow on baby scans. I

Jameson only needed a feeding tube for a week at home and has since continued to blow many doctors away with his amazing progress! He will soon be celebrating his 2nd birthday. Jameson has been and continues to be the light of our lives.

Dr. Kays spent 3 nights at her bedside doing everything possible to keep her off ECMO. He informed us that she was a lot sicker than we anticipated and was not improving much, so on day 4 he decided to do her repair surgery.

I don’t remember much about our conversation except for that she asked me what Charly’s name was. She asked if we had other kids, how old, what her name was. She asked how long we’d been married. We were people to her. Not another opportunity to experiment. We scheduled a call with Dr. Kays within a few days and spoke with him for over an hour.

What was supposed to take 3-4 hours turned into about a 10-hour surgery. Dr. Kays had said in his years of experience, he had never had to put a baby on ECMO in the middle of surgery, and he had never encountered anything like her diaphragm and her other anatomical abnormalities that she had.

I remember thinking, “Oh, just a hernia? A hernia’s not that bad.” But of course later that night, after a good bit of googling, we discovered that CDH is not just a hernia.

We truly believe Lucy Jane is our little miracle, and we know that God has used her and her story to share His love to a lot of people.

She has given us new experiences, precious friendships, and a new perspective on how precious life is. And Eleanor’s unwavering smile and strength throughout her fight has been nothing short of inspiring. She truly is my tiny hero.

Jim Beau was on the ventilator for 13 days and on oxygen for about 30 days. Thankfully, Jim Beau was a model CDH patient. The nurses called him “the CDH baby who doesn’t know he is a CDH baby.”

At that moment, I did not care if my child was a boy or a girl; I didn’t care about my classroom; and I didn’t care how I was going to fit a baby into the mix. I was sad; I hurt, but I was going to fight. Julie did share with us we were having a boy, and Jon was so excited. His words were, “Yes! A football player.” My words, “I just want him to live.”

After 81 long days in the hospital, Noah was finally able to go home. He was on oxygen for 11 months, had surgery to correct relux at 9 months, heart surgery to repair an open PDA at 10 months, and lots of oral meds for the first year.

Emma is now 15 years old and a Sophomore in High School. She is doing extremely well all around! She plays on her high school’s JV tennis team in the fall and plays indoor tennis in the winter.