At my 20 week scan, our baby Bryan, (aka Bubba) was diagnosed with partial AVSD (atroventricular septal defect). They saw a sizable hole (the ASD) and a smaller hole (the VSD). Thankfully as I had future scans, the VSD closed up on its own, praise God! We were told he'd need open heart surgery probably within the first 12-18 months of his life to close the ASD, but that hopefully, it would be a "one and done" fix.

Bubba was born about 6 weeks early because I had pre-eclampsia, and he stayed for 3 weeks in the NICU, and then came home on oxygen for 2 months following. None of which was related to his heart defect! What a crazy time.

He is now a thriving, 19+ pound, almost 8 month old! He has been followed by his cardiologist with echos every three months.

Two weeks ago we had his check-up and the doc said we should start planning for his open heart surgery to be in the next few months. We were then told that the surgeon that I want to perform his surgery will not be traveling here anymore and if we wanted him, we would need to go to a hospital a few hours away.

Our plan is to travel to UVA sometime in April for his surgery and stay there about a week. As our hospital bills have continued to pile on from this summer, and then a new year (new out of pocket and deductible YAY.) started, we are going to do a couple fundraisers to offset costs for this surgery that will cost us out of pocket around $10k. All funds raised will go directly to help pay his surgery bills! We greatly appreciate all of the prayers, support, and love from you all.