Kaylee's Back Surgery

Many of you know our daughter, Kaylee.  She has been a very athletic child since age 4 when she began playing soccer.   She is now 13 and has continued to play soccer every fall and spring.   In first grade, she began playing basketball and this year, in 7th grade, made the basketball team for Glenpool Middle School.  She also made the volleyball team this year and was named team captain.  She is in great shape physically and extremely dedicated to all her sports, never missing practices or games; however, at this time in her life, she is facing spinal surgery.  She has scoliosis that recently (since July) progressed significantly to a 67 degree curve in her thoracic spine.  She has been under chiropractic care since age 3 but unfortunately, her issue is genetic and was unavoidable.  We are fortunate to have Dr. Joseph Davey as her orthopedic surgeon with OU Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City and her spinal fusion of 12 vertebrae is scheduled for Feb. 13th.  She will be unable to play competitive sports for 6 months and will be facing physical therapy to recover.  We are optimistic that she will have zero restrictions by August given she is in great shape due to having great coaches for all her sports (special thanks to Hector Robles for being an exceptional conditioning coach!).  She is looking forward to the inches she will gain in height and the improved lung function she will have once her thoracic spine is corrected. 
This year we have experienced an impact on our income when Aaron had to unexpectedly switch jobs last September.  He is blessed to now have a position with Glenpool Middle School working alongside the amazing nursing staff there.  This is perfect given Kaylee will be recovering for much of the spring trimester and he will be there readily available to assist her; however, the decreased income and change in insurance during her treatment is creating some extensive medical expenses that we were not able to anticipate.  We know she will meet her out of pocket maximum that we have been told is $4,000 by the insurance company.   We will also have expenses in the way of hotel and travel costs for the week she is in the hospital and her subsequent follow up visits with her surgeon.  We have already spent about $750 for x-rays and travel. 
Some have asked what they can do to help us during this time.  We have great family and friends to help out at home and so what would help us most is, for those who can, to provide funding toward her expenses.  However, we do not want anyone to feel obligated to help out if you are not able.  We, more than anything else, need everyone's prayers during the surgery and during her recovery.   It will be a struggle for her to not get to play soccer this spring along with the fact she is very anxious about the surgery in general.  She is not a fan of needles (it was nearly impossible to get an IV in for her oral surgery a year ago; we had to go to 2 different oral surgeons and basically restrain her to get it in) so we will all be relieved once the surgery is over and we can move forward in helping her to recover and retrain her muscles and body.  We are so blessed that it is possible to correct her condition but we know that the first few weeks are going to be rough for us all.  Please share with others who are willing to pray for Kaylee during this process (and her parents).  We appreciate everyone's support! 
Aaron and Tracy