Last May Peter, Jessica and their 5 year old daughter Sophia were moving from Washington to Florida to help start a church in Orlando. At the time, Jessica was pregnant with twin boys. She went into labor and gave birth to their twin boys at 24 weeks gestation while visiting her mom in Great Falls, Montana. Both of the boys have suffered several complications from their prematurity. Zion has dealt with a brain bleed, heart surgery and continues to struggle with chronic lung disease. Coen's small intestine developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a bacterial infection, that ended up perforating his intestines at 4 days old. One week later, his small intestine perforated again and then again 2 days later. Coen went through a reconstruction surgery 7 weeks after his last perforation and from all of the surgeries, only has 1/3 of his small intestine left. On September 10th, Coen again developed NEC, but this time in his large intestine. He was flown to Seattle Children's Hospital, where they will hopefully find a way to prevent him from getting NEC in the future. Currently Jessica is with Coen in Seattle and Peter is in Missoula, Montana with Zion and Sophia. The road has already been very long for them and they still have a very long way to go. They've been in the hospital for over 100 days now and Coen will continue to be hospitalized for an undetermined amount of time, but at least several more months.
The Unruhs are so grateful for all the love and support they have received. Many have asked for a "go fund me" account to be set up for them. Any donation amount is a huge blessing as Peter will be unable to work while Jessica is in the hospital with Coen. He will be the primary caregiver of Zion and Sophie. Finances will be for food, diapers, extra medical costs, and other living expenses. On behalf of the Unruh family......thank you!