Help Support Lily's Journey

Story

Hi My name is Nicole, and i have started this go fund me in order to help Melissa and Adam during this rollercoaster Journey our baby girl decided to bring them on. Let me tell you a little story about a beautiful baby girl named Lily. When Melissa and Adam began their pregnancy journey they never expected the unexpected and granted that is exactly what they got. The ultrasound showed that Lily had gastroschisis which is A birth defect where a hole in the abdominal wall allows intestines (and sometimes other organs) to protrude outside the body. The journey began there. This diagnosis required Melissa to be heavily monitored throughout the pregnancy resulting in daily appointments at the hospital and frequent visits to Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and Mount Sanai Hospital. During her pregnancy Melissa was also diagnosed with Epilepsy causing Severe seizures and hospital stays and near the end she was being treated for gestational diabetes. The team of doctors decided that she would need to relocate to Toronto for 3 weeks before the birth of the baby to ensure that she was as closely monitored as possible but this resulted in heavy costs to the parents. The first week of stay cost them $2700 at a discounted hospital rate, and week two they were able to switch hotels saving them a little bit with a cost of $2300 for the week. although some of this will be recovered by the ontario travel grant unfortunately the out of pocket expenses have been alot to handle. On July 18th, 2025 our Lily made her appearance over a month early, Melissa was admitted for monitoring and due to the baby being in fetal distress they had to do an emergency C Section. At this point her fiancé, Mom, and family were not with her as there were still 10 days left before the actual induction date, but Lily had other ideas so like the strong woman she was she took the first step at being a mom and brought her into the world alone while daddy and grandma raced to toronto to be there as soon as they could. LIly was rushed into emergency surgery but her had a perforation in the bowel that they ended needing to perform surgery on, once she is stronger and recovered she will need another surgery for the procedure and possibly more. All of this means that Melissa and Adam will need to be in Toronto for 2-3 months at minimum trying to navigate being new parents, being away from their families and Adam continuing to work to provide as best he can for his family while travelling back and froth. I am Hoping that with our beautiful Family and friends we can help support their journey together. Any little bit helps and if you cannot donate as we know these are some difficult times we are dealing with then please keep our Lily in your thoughts and prayers.