Riley's Story

From my extremely biased point of view, Texas Children's Hospital is very smart to use Riley's gorgeous smile as a success story! We have done several different things for them including a mass email that was sent out yesterday titled "Patient  Spotlight: Meet Riley." What a fun surprise it was to get so many of my friends sending me messages that they got the email! 

In reality, the story TCH uses only tells a portion of Riley's story. It focuses on Riley's heart issue when she was an infant, but there has been SO much more to her story. So much hard work, so many doctors and therapy visits, so many prayers and so much love! Now 7 years, 23 diagnosis (including Cerebral Palsy, epilepsy, Polymicrogyria, asthma, GERD, Microcephaly, intellectual disability, global developmental delay, expressive launguagr disorder, etc) and a lot of fun later, it sure is one beautiful story about a little girl and a whole lot of miracles! 

The story that was published reads...

"Overcoming the Odds 

At 14 weeks of age, most babies are just learning to raise up on their arms and imitate sounds they hear. For Riley, week 14 marked a visit to Texas Children’s Hospital that would change -- and ultimately save -- her life. Riley developed breathing problems shortly after she was born nine weeks early in December 2008. Her parents suspected pneumonia and brought her to the emergency center at Texas Children’s Hospital. A heart examination showed that Riley was experiencing cardiac failure, and she was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit. After weeks of treatment, Riley was discharged and allowed to return home to her parents and her twin sister. Riley has since battled a variety of ailments including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and a brain malformation. She sees a total of 11 specialists at Texas Children’s Hospital. Her mom, Emily, credits Texas Children’s with Riley’s progress and her new ability to walk. Today, Riley is a happy child. While her health may always be fragile, her family is grateful that she did not need a heart transplant and that her diagnosis remains stable." I'm thankful for the opportunity to do small things for TCH considering they have done so much for us! And Im beyond thankful for how far Riley has come with so many blessings from The Lord! We still have a really long way to go and a lot of work to do, but we will do it together! This is just a small piece to Riley's puzzle, but it sure is beautiful! Just like she is. Especially when she is as happy as can be eating her Thanksgiving feast at school! Pumpkin pie and all!