I linked to this on my Facebook profile but I thought I should blog on this too. I’ve been praying for and attempting to raise money for the family of a little guy named Ryder Walters who was born 6 weeks premature. The little dude has had serious health issues and I truly can empathize with his family because my own son was born premature. I don’t know if you know what it’s like seeing your new baby fighting for their life in an NICU and hopefully you never have and never will. Let me toss some knowledge out there for those of you who were spared this particular humbling event, it is the greatest source of distress and anxiety a person can imagine, seeing your baby helpless to help themselves with needles and tubes coming out of their body. The only thing they’ve learned and experienced in their brief tenure in our world is pain, repeatedly administered and for reasons they cannot possibly understand and the whole time the only thing you can do is pray and try to stand by their side and comfort them while the whole ordeal takes place. It will tear the heart out of the most stalwart men and crush your illusions of control. I’ll admit, there was a breaking point for me when an IV had to be administered to my own son whereby the nurse stuck a needle into the top of his head because his arm was too small and his vein had collapsed. He was screaming as loud as he could with his tiny voice, my wife was holding his hand and I had to rush out into the hallway because I was losing it, I got about 6 feet before I started sobbing. The receptionist tried to help but I was beyond consolation, the only person who could help me was God, I was literally broken.
This year has, for me, been one of learning a valuable lesson and that lesson is that I have to trust God. I had to trust him to help my baby through the NICU. I had to trust him to help my wife during her month plus stay in the hospital. I had to trust him to help both my wife and I adjust our lives around 2 babies, both in diapers and in need of constant supervision. I had to trust God recently during my motorcycle accident and the aftermath and I’ll have to trust him in whatever comes next. Control is an illusion, trust in grace is not.
That said I saw little Ryder’s pictures and in them I saw my own son (pictured above), my own situation and my heart ached to help. I committed myself to help financially but I cannot do alone what we can do together. I implore you to help this family financially if you can. Skip one beer this weekend and donate $5.00 instead. Build up some of that kharma, or grace or whatever it is you believe in. Pay it forward. Yes the website isn’t all that nice, after all I built it and I’m not a web developer. I know some of you may be worried that the website will compromise your information; the good thing is that the entire financial process is handled by Paypal, not me. So if you’ve ever used half the merchant sites online, or Amazon.com or even Ebay, you’re just as secure. I won’t lie, I set an ambitious goal of $500 but if I even reach the halfway mark I will feel like we did some good. 100% of the proceeds will make it to the Walters family as I will pay the fees and costs out of pocket myself.
So what exactly is going to happen with your money? Well, the family lives in a different state than where they baby is being treated. They have been living off of credit cards to eat and have been staying at the hospital. Some hospitals will give parents a room free of charge for children in the NICU but this is not guaranteed and the hospital will kick them out if they need the room for a patient. When and if this happens parents often will sleep in shifts in waiting rooms and sometimes are forced to get a nearby hotel room. As you may imagine if they lose the room things will get tough. Both parents are unemployed as of now and neither can work while their son is in the hospital. In my case I had to take a leave of absence from work for over a month so this is not uncommon, fortunately my employer allowed me to come back but this is not every person’s case. The Walters also face massive medical bills looming on the horizon, just as a reference point, my insurance provider paid around $80,000 (not including the $4,000+ I paid out of pocket) for my wife and son so you can appreciate the desperation of their particular circumstances. Your donations will likely be used for food and if required a place to stay for the parents. Little Ryder needs them there and they need to be there, we’re counting on your financial help to make that possible.
Please donate at:
(link closed...thank you for your donations)UPDATE
I thought I would go ahead and provide an update. Ryder made it home safe and sound and is a happy, healthy baby boy thanks to God, a lot of prayer and a little help from people who donated to help this family out.
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