Parker's Promise

Parker Lee Archie was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, Trisomy 13, in utero. During my 19 week OB appointment, I found out that Parker had several abnormalities detected on the ultrasound. The doctor saw many heart defects, rocker bottom feet, clenched fists, abnormal brain development, extra digits, and a bright bladder. The doctor suggested abortion due to Parker's disorder being "fatal" and he would probably not make it to a live birth and if so he would more than likely not make it past a few days or weeks, but Chris and I remained strong in our faith and said that we would love our baby no matter what happened. Throughout the rest of my pregnancy, we prayed that God would heal Parker and use his life to reach others. I continued to see high risk doctors and the fetal cardiologist. It seemed that at each appointment Parker was looking better which gave us a lot of hope. On July 23, 2018, Parker was born! I remember laying on the operating table just praying that I would hear my son's first cry. God answered our prayers and Parker was born alive and able to breathe on his own! He was taken to the NICU where he stayed for the next 16 days. Throughout his stay, Parker was seen by many specialists as he had several defects associated with Trisomy 13. As you can imagine, the medical bills started to pile up as we seeked the best healthcare for our son. Parker was able to come home on August 8, 2018 and did well for a few weeks before he started having some GI issues, which apparently was masking the ultimate issue, cardiomyopathy (heart failure). On September 19, 2018, I rushed Parker to the ER due to breathing issues where we finally learned of the condition his heart was in. Other than medicine, doctors told us there was nothing else they could do for him as he was not a candidate for a heart transplant due to his genetic disorder. He was sent home with hospice care on September 26th. We were still praying for God to perform a miracle and heal Parker's heart, but if that was not His will that we would all be home together and he would go peacefully when the time came for him to meet our Heavenly Father. During the night of October 6th, Parker was battling for his life. He stopped breathing around 3am and ended up passing away at 10:57 that morning in our arms. Although our prayer for a miracle was not answered in the way we were hoping, God is still the God of miracles as Parker is now healed completely and resting in the arms of Jesus. God is using Parker to change lives and we want his story to continue through a foundation that offers emotional, financial, and educational support for families facing the same situation as we have. Through your donation, we hope to be able to pay off all of our medical bills and then help other families with their medical bills as well through our foundation. Thank you so much for your support!