Lotz Family Party of Four

Megghan Shroyer is organizing this fundraiser.

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We are close friends of Rob and Kelly Lotz. Since the birth of their son, Liam, their lives have been a wild roller-coaster ride! After a seemingly healthy pregnancy for Kelly, Liam was diagnosed with Lowe Syndrome shortly after his birth.

Lowe Syndrome is genetic condition that affects Liam's eyes, kidneys, as well as physical and mental development.

We have witnessed the special challenges and hardships that Rob, Kelly, and Liam have faced together. While we think we know what they go through, even as their close friends, we have discovered that we actually know very little about what it takes to raise a child with special needs! We cannot imagine the emotional, mental, physical, and financial toll that it has taken behind-the-scenes to provide for Liam.

Liam Lotz is such a JOY! He is simply, the happiest little child and he deserves the very best! Rob and Kelly have been exceptional parents and have always put Liam first. They know that Liam will benefit tremendously from having a SIBLING and they need our financial help in achieving that!

We are always looking for ways to offer our love and support to the Lotz family. If you find yourself in our shoes and feel that making a small monetary contribution to their cause is something that you would support, we ask that you please donate any amount to their Go Fund Me page- it all adds up.

Please read their full story below and thank you for your love and support,

Megghan & Lauren (friends of Kelly & Rob)
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When Megghan and Lauren first approached us I was told I couldn't call this campaign "Help Rob Knock-Up his Wife"

For those of you who know us, the above statement will likely come of little shock, in fact, you will have likely rolled your eyes already imagining me saying it and laughing at my own joke in my typical Neanderthal manner. Many of you will already know the struggles our small family faces everyday with the most amazing three year old monster (Liam) who, in my completely biased opinion, is the most awesome little man to have ever been affected by a tragic, horrible, scary, and life-long genetic condition.

So, for those of you who know us I will make this simple and to the point. We want a little sister or brother for Liam, and unfortunately, to be safe, we have to pay for them to have a chance to be born healthy and unaffected by Lowe Syndrome. So if you can, and are willing, please help us fulfill this goal of growing our little family.

For those who may not know us well

Kelly and I have been married now just over five years (I think she says it feels more like fifty) and honestly, other than one little hiccup (Liam's diagnosis), I honestly feel we have the best life in the world. Ever since we first got together back in 2009 the only thing we wanted out of life was to have a large family full of love and joy. So in 2011 we were married and dreamed of the days when we would have a house full of crazy children running around. Roughly a year later we got the news we had both dreamt of, we were pregnant! And in August of 2013, Liam came into this world and brought with him more joy, happiness, and later fear and sadness than I could have ever imagined.

It started one morning at around two a.m. when I was giving him an overnight feeding (we were the typical insane first-time parents) and I noticed white specks in both of his eyes. Having a mediocre amount of medical training (as a firefighter/paramedic) I knew that something didn't look right, so I did the worst thing I could do, and Googled it. Just so you know Googling "white spots in infants pupils" brings up scary enough results, but in the end it would turn out what Liam had was even more, in my opinion, devastating than retinoblastomia (eye cancer).

So after two cataract surgeries, and one for glaucoma we got the diagnosis that our son, Liam, had Lowe Syndrome, an incurable and extremely rare genetic condition that we will battle with for the rest of his life. Not to go to in depth about what it entails (you can read more here if you'd like Lowe Syndrome Association ) it is essentially a condition that affects the eyes, brain, and kidneys to a point that one day our son will likely need dialysis and/or a kidney transplant.

Though this disease can happen spontaneously, we are unfortunately a carrier. This means were we to attempt to have another child naturally, we would have a 1 in 4 chance of having another boy with Lowe Syndrome or a daughter who was a carrier. So basically a 50/50 chance of having a healthy child. Knowing what our son has gone through, and what we and our family have gone through, we can't risk it naturally again, we just don't have the strength. Luckily science has progressed to the point where we don't have to. Through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) along with a screening procedure known as Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) we can hope to have a healthy child to share our love with, and in the future, help care for Liam as he gets older as well (he will forever need a caregiver).

This process, however, isn't cheap. In all, it runs $5,600 for the PGD portion, $13,500 for the IVF, and another $2,800 for medications (we haven't gotten the final quote yet), for a grand total of $21,000 and some change. As of today we have paid (with the help of some family already) for the PGD and some parts of the rest of the procedure, but still owe over $15,000 for which we have taken out loans to cover. So even though we are well into our process (Kelly is already taking her shots), this is still a very scary and difficult process that will very hard on our family financially.

We are beyond grateful that Megghan and Lauren approached us about creating this page . So please, if possible, help us grow our family as Kelly, Liam, and I, have more love we want to share with this world!

Thank you,

Rob, Kelly, and Liam Lotz