Support Baby River's Heart Surgery Journey

Hello! I am Michelle Lyons, aka Lolli to this precious but very sick baby, River, and momma to my beautiful daughter, Olivia. Olivia gave birth to River on Oct 11th at full term. He seemed perfectly healthy and happy. We loved on him the entire day with no problems. Once bedtime came around, Olivia told the night nursery nurse that she could feed him for a bit with the colostrum Olivia had saved and brought up to the hospital. It was at this time the nurse realized River was not holding his oxygen level high enough. They ran a few tests and determined he had a bad heart that needed proper care, and River was airlifted to Children’s around 3 yesterday morning. Once Olivia was released from the hospital, we made a flying dash to Children’s. We met with the cardiologists on his team and learned some very bad news. River has a deformed heart with many complications. He will have to have open-heart surgery between 3 & 4 months of age and then again around 3 & 4 years of age. River is a very sick little baby with lots of cardiologist visits in his near future. The Dr. told us to prepare for a lifelong battle and many trips back and forth from El Dorado to Children’s. We have applied for the Ronald McDonald home so they can stay there, but as of right now, it is completely full with an enormous waiting list. Last night, Jeff and I put Dallas and Olivia in a hotel nearby because Olivia just gave birth and cannot sleep in a waiting room chair. We need help. They need help. This is not how we hoped to spend River’s first week of life. We don’t know how long we will be here this time, but we will be back many times over the next weeks and months. We are asking our friends and family to please donate anything you can at this time. We promise it will all be spent on gas, lodging, food, and items needed for the trips and stays for River. If you cannot donate at this time, please pray River’s name out loud, asking our Lord to heal him. And any amount of donation will help. Please share this, but mostly pray our boy will be healed and will live a long, healthy, prosperous life.