Sitting
around a conference room table is not an unfamiliar place for me. I’ve done it
for years for my job but this was a different experience that made me sick to
my stomach. Once again my husband and I were talking to the brightest minds in
our country about our son’s health and the news was very grim. They couldn’t
even give us statistics for survival as they had not seen his specific case
before.
Meet
our son…
Our
incredibly precious and strong baby boy, Hudson Sylvestre was born six weeks
premature on July 17, 2015 with a condition called hypoplastic left heart
syndrome, meaning he only has half a heart. With just two days’ notice, our
family had to leave our home, jobs, church and family in North Carolina to relocate
to Philadelphia to save our son’s life. In addition to his congenital heart
defect, Hudson has also experienced several other life threatening conditions
that required intervention even while in the womb.
In
the delivery room the doctors offered for the hospital chaplain to come and
quickly baptize our son and a photographer to get pictures in case we weren’t
able to see him alive. To everyone’s surprise Hudson is breathing on his own
after going into cardiac arrest and then being on life support.
Hudson
has undergone open heart surgery and liver surgery as well as suffering through
a life threatening infection in his stomach two different times. Our
Hudson is an incredible fighter and is now three months old and in the cardiac
intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He will
remain under CHOP’s care until he is big enough for his second open heart
surgery which means we will be away from home for at least several more months.
We are so deeply thankful for the expert care he is receiving.
There
are not sufficient words to express our gratitude to God, to the many family
members, friends, churches and even strangers who have cared for us during such
a painful time. Strangers have welcomed us into their homes, loaned us cars,
donated food and funds. We love our sweet Hudson so much and we would have
already been devastated without the support of others.
We
ask you to join us in prayer for Hudson’s life and health. Thankfully he is
stable now and is such a cutie. Check out his cheeks!
Hope lives
here!
Romans 5:3-5
We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not
put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who
has been given to us.
With
grateful hearts,
Corey,
Amy & Big brother Graham
PS
I’ve often said that if tears healed babies, our son would be whole.
To
join Hudson’s journey, visit his page:
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