Hi FB family, we've never done this before but need your help. Anyone that knows Monique & I probably knows Todd and Diane as well. Their son Travis & daughter-in-law Cristina have a beautiful 3-month-old baby boy, Scottie. Monique & I are both blessed to have childhood BFFs. They actually introduced us to each other and our extended family grew with 5 great kids: Nicole, Travis, Tommy, Jessie, and Natalie. Our kids are like siblings. The icing on the cake was when the 4 of us became grandparents this year. We all spent the 4th of July week together at the Jersey Shore, like we've done since our own kids were babies. This year the gang was all there with spouses and significant others and of course our two new grandsons, Marco & Scottie.

After the Morgan gang left, what should have been a routine 2-month check-up for Scottie turned into a diagnosis of a rare liver disease for infants. With Travis's permission, we cut and pasted his recent FB post below for more details.

"We wanted to give an update/ let everybody know what we’ve been going through these last couple weeks with our little Scottie. We went to his 2 month appointment thinking it would be normal check-up besides us asking about his jaundice and that was it. They grabbed some blood work and told us they would let us know what they found. Later that night we got a call telling us that his blood work showed elevated levels from his liver and we should probably take him to the children's emergency room in Charlotte once it was the weekend. After spending the entire night in the ER and still not having any real answers they transferred us to Levine Children’s Hospital because they are one of the best pediatric hepatologists in the state. After doing another evaluation on Scottie they wanted to do a liver biopsy to confirm what they were thinking and Wednesday afternoon they confirmed that he has what’s called Biliary Atresia, 1 in 15,000 babies are born with this condition and doctors still dont know what causes it. For us normal people that means that Scotties liver cannot properly dispose of the bile and toxins in his body which backs-up into his liver and can permanently damage it. They said the only option was surgery, called the Kasai procedure, which would reroute his small intestine to his liver so it can function properly. They also said that this unfortunately isn’t a permanent fix and that in all likely hood Scottie will probably end up needing a liver transplant at some point in his childhood. On Monday July 28th, Scottie had successfully completed surgery and after a week in the hospital to make sure he was stable, we were able to head back home. He still has a long road ahead of him, not just recovery from the surgery but a lot of doctor visits to keep up with his liver. Well keep everyone updated on how hes doing. Lastly, for everyone that has reached out and put Scottie in their thoughts and prayers, Scottie, Cristina, and I Thank you!"

Due to his condition being so rare, the Hospital, Surgeon and Specialist team are all out of their network and much more expensive than if it were covered "in network". As they tackle the burden of exorbitant medical expenses & time off from work without pay to care for Scottie, please help these first-time parents, who are so dear to us and all of you that know them. Please keep all of them in your thoughts and prayers. You got this Scottie!