Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia – an update on Lucy

We tell people she is our miracle and they smile, kindly, not quite sure what to do with that statement. Seriously. She is a miracle. She is 8 months old, sitting up, crawling, pulling up on the furniture and trying to eat everything she can get into her mouth. She babbles and plays and holds our hands and snuggles in tight to fall asleep in our arms.

Our NICU nurses looked at us and said “She’s such a miracle. She should not be doing what she’s doing.” Over and over. I’ve never, in my life, been so close to such a blatant and obvious miracle in all of my life. I praise God daily for the graces we’ve received and pray, daily, for the many parents whose children will lose this fight. We do everything we can to make people more aware of this diagnosis. This isn’t “just a hernia” and problems aren’t over just because surgery is done. Reherniation is a possibility, something that lives in the back of our minds, but today we celebrate. Today we rejoice because we were given the biggest gift parents could ever get, a slobbery, exuberant, toothless smile from our beautiful little girl.

Please consider supporting CHERUBS – a charity dedicated to supporting CDH families and funding research to improve the survival rates and long-term prognosis of children born with this condition.