Hi, my name is Josh Thomas I have started this gofundme in hopes to raise some money to help me and my small little family stay on our feet while dealing with one of the hardest things young parents could ever endure.

On thursday, march 26th at 9:46am my fiancé and I’s baby daughter was born at just shy of 25 weeks. This pregnancy was very high risk and scary as there was a lot of unknowns because she was measuring almost a month behind and had some abnormalities. We had an amniocentesis done to try to get some answers but 2 days after the procedure my fiance’s membranes broke and she started to leak amniotic fluid (was a risk that we were made aware of but they said it was a 1 in 800 chance) so we rushed straight to the hospital and our daughter Raelynn Marie Thomas was born just 5 short days later. My fiance was given 2 steroid shots as well as magnesium with those 5 days to try and help Raelynn and better her odds of surviving when she was born but to no avail. While i was at work they did an ultrasound to check fluid level as well as overall wellbeing of Raelynn and found her heart rate to be under 50bpm and my fiance was rushed to the OR. I got there just in time to meet our daughter and be there when my fiance opened her eyes after being put to sleep for the operation. She was born weighing just 12.7 ounces and was so tiny that they didn’t have a breathing tube small enough for her. they were able to keep her heart going with a breathing mask but her heart rate was steadily dropping and she passed away just 2 hours and 33 minutes after birth in my fiance’s arms. We found out the day after she passed that she had what’s called “triploidy” which is a genetic disorder where instead of 46 chromosomes she had 69. This “random event” as they call it happens at conception and affects 1-3% of all yearly pregnancies. Most babies with this disorder never make it past the 1st trimester and most woman don’t even know they’re pregnant before the baby passes away. The baby that lived the longest only made it to 10 months so our babygirl was definitely a fighter and was one of the more rare of extremely rare cases. This news was both devastating and slightly comforting knowing that there was nothing we could do helped us know we didn’t do anything wrong, but was also heartbreaking knowing she was doomed from the start and never really had a chance. We had so much planned and had outfits and shoes and had such a beautiful idea of how our family would be with her and to know that it was all doomed from the start is truly one of the most heartbreaking things i’ve ever had to endure.

Me and my fiance have been through more than a lot of people go through in a lifetime in just the matter of 3 years. As I lost my father in January of 2023, one of my childhood best friends the year prior, and now one of the worst pains i’ve ever experienced being our daughter who we only had for 2 hours and 33 minutes. My fiance has dealt with a lot of mental health struggles as well as losing someone very very close to her to a completely unexpected suicide. We were also one of the targets in a shooting in 2023 which left a lot of anxiety and trauma there as well.

Im not asking for bookoo bucks or anything crazy just hoping to get some help from some amazing people out there to keep the roof over our heads and food in our and our son’s bellies as well as having some sort of service/celebration of life for our beautiful daughter which is insultingly expensive. I am out of work the past week (a job which i just started about 2 months ago) and this next week to stay home with our baby boy because she can’t do any of it as she’s healing from a c-section. So I’m hoping to have some help keeping us afloat while i’m not getting paychecks. If you know me you know i don’t ever ask for help and especially don’t like asking for money because i was raised to always figure things out which we usually do but we JUST got caught up financially and it would be so upsetting to get back into the same situation over something tragic that neither of us had any control over.

I want to thank any and everyone who is able to/willing to help us out in this horrifically tragic time and if you can’t help sharing this will do just the same if not more! To whomever does donate or share just know from my whole family we love you and appreciate you more than words can describe. Thank you all for your time and support.❤️