Everett Says Let’s Go UDance!
B+ Hero Everett
Please read about what this cute little boy has gone through in his very short life. If this doesn’t give us perspective, I don’t know what will.
“ I want to start out by saying I’m at a loss for words about your generosity shown to our family during this time. Thank you so much for paying our rent for the month as it has taken a burden off our shoulders. We can now put what we would have spent towards other needs such as medical bills, meals, etc. Throughout my life I have always tried to put myself in other shoes and help anytime I could, because you never know when their situation could be your own. It’s a very uncomfortable experience being on the other side of things, but I appreciate people like you that are helping us more than you realize.
I know over the years I can’t help but have lingering questions after helping people, so, I would love to give you a little insight into our situation.
This is Everett. He just turned 1 on March 8th and has kept us on our toes since the second he entered the world via emergency C-section due to fetal distress. He had CPR for over 10min at birth, and he was put on a ventilator and cooled to 92 degrees for 72hrs. At 8 days old, he had a 4+ hr surgery to remove a large rare tumor called a sacrococcygeal teratoma which had adhered to his bladder and his tailbone. The surgery was a success, and it was completely removed along with his tailbone. After 13 days in the NICU he was discharged, and it was like nothing ever happened..except for all of our specialist appointments! Even though his tumor was benign and there was around a 7% chance of reoccurrence, he got an MRI/bloodwork every 3 months just to be safe.
Everything continued to look great until January, when his scan showed a small reoccurrence which he would need surgery again to remove. He had surgery in February and again, everything went great according to our surgeon. Little did we know the pathology would come back that his tumor was malignant this time, and he would need several rounds of chemotherapy. I can’t help but ask God why our poor baby has had to endure more in the last year than most adults do in their whole life. I find peace through all of this, knowing that God must have big plans for Everett, and he is going to come out of all of this stronger than ever.
Once again, I just want to say thank you so much for your generosity.”
It’s UDance Weekend!
Our largest school-based event, UDance, will be held this Sunday at the University of Delaware. The students are shooting to greatly exceed last year by raising $2,000,000. It’s going to be close. If you’d like to help them get there, I know they would be greatly appreciative…as would we. Please visit here.
If you’re local, come by The Bob Carpenter Center at 3pm for B+ Hero Hour or join us via the livestream. (Livestream link will be available Sunday on the udancedelaware.org.)
Live Like Andrew
Ali & Andrew’s Dad