Our names are Seth & Lauren Kaser, and six months ago, we received a prenatal diagnosis for our son, Douglas, that changed our lives forever. I (Lauren) went to an imaging appointment at about 25 weeks into pregnancy and was given the news that our son’s heart had an excessive amount of fluid surrounding it, as well as a coarctation of his aorta.

The doctors were concerned about this, but my own heart dropped as they said that there was something far more important that they needed to discuss with me. Before sharing the more serious news, the doctor asked me if I would consider abortion. I put my head back in the chair and closed my eyes and heard a still small voice say, “trust me.” I looked at the doctor through tears and said, “My God is in control, and He is creating our son.”

 Seth was at work as we were under the impression that this appointment was “no big deal” and I felt completely comfortable going alone. I called him and he raced down the freeway to meet me.

Before he arrived, the doctors showed me our son’s brain. They explained that almost the entirety of the left side was filled where brain tissue should be. Where there should have been gray and white areas, there was only black. Seth sat down with me in the doctor’s office, where she tried to explain the possibilities of what this could mean for our son’s little life. Some of the things she mentioned were paralysis, muscular issues, developmental delays, and even death. We soon after found out the rarity of this situation and were shocked at how quickly the trajectory of our lives had shifted.

 After the conversation was over, we checked out of our appointment, we walked out of the door, and down the elevator — speechless at what we had just seen and been told. It felt as if the world around us continued to turn normally, but ours had just been turned upside down.
We sobbed and held each other in the parking lot, I wailed in my husband’s arms as people walked by us into the office building. We got in the car and sang “It Is Well” together through tears and feelings of helplessness. Eventually, we called each set of our parents and told them the news.

It became clear very early on that there was nothing we could do to remedy the situation. There was no supplement I could take, no medication, no lifestyle change or diet adjustment. We quickly understood that there was only One that could sustain our son - his Creator.

On that day, it almost felt like the prayer “bat signal” went out all over the world. People prayed for Dougie because they understood that his life truly depended on it.
 
Weeks later, we finally got some appointments scheduled — one for neurology and one for cardiology. We met with the cardiologist and they closely examined his heart. They saw that the excess fluid was resolving itself, and concluded that though his aorta was still small, it had grown mighty beneath the surface, which ruled out him also having to deal with a congenital heart disease.

When they looked at his brain through the MRI, they confirmed that he was still missing a majority of the left side of his brain - mainly his temporal and frontal lobe, along with a complete agenesis of the corpus callosum & CSP (the parts that connect the left & right side of the brain).
Though the day was hard, it gave us an assurance that God was hearing our prayers and He was answering in the way that HE saw fit.

With 12 long weeks left in my pregnancy, we grew more dependent on the Lord and closer to each other than we ever had before. Though these were the hardest weeks of our lives, God truly showed us what it means to live in perfect peace that surrounded us daily as we kept our minds constantly on Him. (Isaiah 26:3)

Finally, after what felt like forever - the day of our induction finally came and it was time to meet our son. After 36 hours of labor, getting to 10cm and pushing for four hours, Dougie and God must have decided that our son wasn’t meant to come out that way, and I was transferred into a last minute c-section. I’ll spare you the ugly details of that ordeal.
Dougie cried as he entered the world, and believe it or not - he scored an 8 on his 1min APGAR test (appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration), and then scored a 9 on his 5min test. For those unfamiliar with what they are testing here, this is pretty much a miracle. He was a direct admit to the NICU, so my husband grabbed my hand in his scrubs while I was still on the operating table, and we said “I love you” as he left the room to follow our sweet newborn son to the NICU.

Dougie spent a week in the NICU undergoing an MRI, several fetal echocardiograms, brain oxygen testing, blood pressure checks, IVs, tests for low blood sugar, physical and occupational assessments, and LOTS of blood tests. I like to think that he showed more strength in the first week of his life than I have in 21 years.
By the grace of God, he got to come home with us a week later.

Fast forward to today - Dougie is thriving and showing no signs of developmental delay yet. He’s sleeping, burping, waking, eating, pooping, looking around, holding his head up, and he’s even rolled over from his stomach to his back a few times. He still is missing most of the left side of his brain, and doctors say that although the pathways in the rest of his brain will develop and grow, the part that is fluid will not grow tissue for the rest of his life. But GOD is his Maker — his Creator, his Sustainer. He crafted our son in my womb in the way that He desired, and we are 100% confident that Dougie is exactly as he should be, and that he is created in God’s image.
We continue to pray for our son daily, alongside hundreds of you - which we are so thankful for.

SO WHAT IS THE NEED?
As you can imagine, going through such extreme circumstances with our first pregnancy at the ripe old ages of 22 and 21 respectively is no minor feat.
The stress, the worrying, the hours in prayer and in tears, the crying out to God, the desperation to see God heal, the sleepless nights, and the extreme unknowns from all the doctors around you. This alone is nearly too much to bear - but then we must face the financial reality of such news.

Thankfully, through another miraculous series of events, we were able to secure good medical insurance that would cover the majority of the specialists visits, neurological exams, NICU stay, baby delivery, and continual follow up appointments with the specialist teams into the foreseeable future.
 
However, even "good insurance" leaves us with a mound of medical bills and deductibles that are extremely difficult - if not nearly impossible to cover on the salary of one person, or even TWO people. Our annual “out-of-pocket” alone is $7,000 for EACH person in the family. This complicates the math quite a bit since prior to birth the only "person" who needed to meet the yearly out-of-pocket was me (Lauren), (since Dougie was still in the womb).
But now that Dougie is born, both Dougie and I need to meet our respective deductibles since we will be treated for different things at different times by different doctors.
These deductibles cover a certain amount of treatments, but unfortunately do not begin to include what we still owe separately to the specialists after our insurance, or the costly monthly payments that we are making.
To say the least, our financial need is great and moving forward, we will need to continually meet these high deductibles annually as the specialists continue to monitor Dougie’s progression for years to come.

We ask you as our friends, family, and our church to please consider donating to help fund our current expenses as well as the ongoing expenses that we are facing.
Any help that you can give will go directly into a medical fund that can be used to pay both current and upcoming bills as they keep rolling in.

Thank you so much for your partnership, prayer, concern and generosity!

To God be the glory - Amen.