Two weeks ago, my sister-in-law, Grace, took my 3-month-old nephew to the emergency room. The whole family had been sick, and Matthias had been having trouble eating. With him being so young, she wanted to get him checked out. Whatever symptoms the emergency room doctor saw, she sent him for imaging on his heart.

When the results came back, the doctor told Grace she needed to be very careful with him because his heart was in trouble. The hospital sent him by ambulance to a larger hospital. There, the family found out that Matthias has heart failure and will most likely need a heart transplant within the year.

Matthias was moved to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and was placed on a VAD (ventricular assist device). This helps Matthias' heart to circulate blood to his body, as his left ventricle was barely functioning. Right now, everyone is waiting to see if Matthias' heart can recover on its own with the rest it is getting on the VAD. If it does not, he will need a transplant.

Regardless of what happens, the family is looking at 12-18 months of Matthias living in the hospital. Ben and Grace have met with their realtor to put their house on the market and will be moving to Philadelphia.

Thankfully, Matthias' medical bills are being covered. Ben and Grace's current need is help with the costs of a completely unexpected move and childcare costs for their other son, Elijah (20 months). The price of daycare in Philadelphia is beyond what the family can afford. For now, Ben and Grace are splitting their time between Matthias in the ICU and Elijah at the Ronald McDonald House where they are staying. However, Ben will have to go back to work in January, which will make it much harder to take care of both boys alone.

If they do not have to worry about money for unexpected bills and have the option of childcare for Elijah, Ben and Grace will be able to put all of their focus on getting Matthias better and being the best parents for Elijah at the same time.