Little Lyla's Love Drive

Hello everyone,

We are Jerren and Victoria Valentine, and this is our baby Lyla. 

January of this year my wife and I decided to have a baby.  We discovered early on that my wife had a condition that prevented us from conceiving. As luck would have it, the condition was operable and was remedied in May. AND, by July we were pregnant! 

We laughed until we cried tears of joy. It was a miracle. 

As of this posting that was 20 weeks, 5 days ago, and I can tell you that the last 5 days have felt longer than the previous 20 weeks by a mile. 

This past Monday morning, my wife woke to general morning sickness. While I was going through the day to day routine of getting ready for work I heard a scream from the bathroom. I found her sitting there holding our baby in with her bare hands. Queue the ambulance ride. After a ten hour wait followed by a five-minute doctor's visit in our local hospital, we were in another ambulance. We've now been several days at Shands Children's Hospital of Gainesville. 

Now here we are. We've learned some new terms such as incompetent cervix and viability. And while those were words we didn't want to learn, we've also learned the true meaning of the words Family, Friends, and most importantly...Hope. 

Now we are learning the true measure of time. Our beautiful Lyla is only 20 weeks and 5 days old. Doctors call this the pre-viable stage of her development. She will become viable at the age of 24 weeks, which happens to be New Years Day.  

The costs of a 4+ weeks hospital stay are expensive on their own, not including the attempted surgery, antibiotics, and exams we've already gone through. We've set the goal for 40k because we don't really know what it's going to cost us in the long run and honestly any assistance is generous at this point. 

Now we're crying again for different reasons, but with hope, we're trying to laugh as we take the good with the bad. More so though we're hoping for another miracle. If you're reading this, thank you for your time. If you choose to share our story, thank you for your kindness. If you've chosen to donate to my baby girl, I don't have words to express my gratitude. 

Thank you for reading our story.

Sincerely,
Jerren, Victoria and little Lyla Valentine.