This page is established to bring love and help to Aaron, Faith, and the Stevens family over the coming weeks and months. We are making updates to this fundraiser to help us adapt to the Stevens' family's growing needs.  For more of the full back story please click through to their CaringBridge site (https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/aaron-stevens) where Aaron and Faith have given more details and where they continue to give updates on Aaron's health situation.

The story of the last two years of their lives, the gamut of health emergencies, surgeries, hospital stays, etc. for Aaron is sobering and serious not only for Aaron and family but also for all of us who care about him and them. 

So this page is about letting the wider community know a bit more about what’s been going down in order that those who have the desire and are able can come together to do what we can to bring help!

A Message From Aaron's Friend, Drew Grow:
I sat with Aaron and Faith the other morning before they were off to the hospital for a follow-up appointment for the heart surgery and I was just blown away by all they have endured..and was in disbelief how I had missed hearing much about it until now. Faith's sibling Grace expressed it well when they related their experience to that of the proverbial frog in the pot. Events have slowly been heating up over the last months/years such that they have hardly had time to really contemplate or fully understand just what has happened/is happening until now when it's at full boil.

For the sake of this page, a condensed version is that Aaron has had a wild series of health emergencies, the most recent of which involves his heart. He has sustained two heart attacks and now has undergone triple-bypass surgery. These left him with about 22% heart function and the doctors say it will not improve. He needs a heart transplant and they have begun the process of applying for Aaron to get on the list. He is getting ready to have a short-term fix surgery in November to put in a defibrillator which is designed to kick in to help keep him alive in the case that his heart stops before the transplant. 

Meanwhile, Faith and fam have sustained months of separation from Aaron during his multiple long hospital stays, the current Covid reality. Aaron going through all he has gone through without their in-person support and them going through everything without husband and father has been extremely challenging. As any of us can attest who have gone through any major medical times ourselves, on top of the health effects even the simplest household efforts and bills, etc, really take their toll. In addition, before all this Aaron had begun a remodel project on their kitchen which he will no longer be able to finish. He got halfway in before all this began, so on top of everything else their family is currently living in a partially deconstructed home construction project through all of this as well. 

Essentially, the funds given on this site are being raised to help them with every kind of relief moment can buy in this situation, including medical bills not covered by insurance (we all know how insurance companies are), with household bills, with home care and needs, with food and basics, with finishing the home construction, and also a bit of a nest egg toward basic income as Aaron will not be able to work a job from here forward.

There is more to come in terms of ideas on how we can help and reach out to the Stevens, so stay tuned! There is planning for an online and in-person (Tacoma, WA) fundraising & talent show event this fall for those who want to gather around Aaron!

This is a challenging time for many, and I just want to end by relating that back on the porch, all-the-while Aaron and Faith were relating to me the events of their last couple years, it was as it often has been when I have spent time on their porch, lots of stories and real talk with the booming laugh of Aaron over it all, if a little less booming these days. 

It reminded me that life is all-the-things at once, not just the one or two, and that even in such a dark place we can bring some light when we come together.

Drew Grow