First off, Caelen is doing really well!! His heart function is good, his labs are good and his chest xray is good. His favorite thing to do now, aside from playing with his Disney cars and playsets, is to sing, dance and play guitar to country music videos. His favorites are all videos by Florida Georgia Line. He especially likes watching the behind the scenes making of the videos, and says that he wants to go watch them film their next video. Gotta hand it to him, he dreams big! Anyone have any connections with FL GA Line???
He had a small cold again that led to a week of casting, but he got through it and was healthy by his birthday last Sunday...That's right, my miracle boy hit a major milestone and turned 5! It may seem small to some, but for those that have followed his story from the beginning, you know how much he has fought to get here, and I'm so proud of him. He got way too many gifts from family, typical, and we will hold his party tomorrow. Once again the charity Icing Smiles is donating Caelen's birthday cake, and this year he has chosen a How to Train your Dragon theme. I'll post pics after the party tomorrow.
Now, on the the good stuff!
Several weeks ago, Caelen and I were interviewed for a story in our local newspaper, The Jupiter Courier. It was a great opportunity to tell Caelen's story and spread awareness about CHD's (congenital heart defects) and organ donation. Little did I know that we would be the cover story!!!!
Please read the story here and share with your friends. Jupiter Courier Caelen Gorman
We are trying to get Caelen's story to go viral so we can raise awarenss for CHD's and organ donation. Here's just a few facts about Congenital Heart Defects:
- CHD's are the number 1 birth defect worldwide, 40,000 are born each year in the US alone
- There are more than 40 types of CHD's
- Twice as many children die from CHD's each year than from all forms of pediatric cancer combined
- Only a fraction of a penny spent by the government on medical research goes to CHD's
- There is no cure
- Click here to become an organ donor: Organ Donor
Thank you to our great friend Kim Barnes for sharing Caelen's story with local photographer and reporter, Lori Griffith (Chasin a Dream Photography/) who has now become a dear friend. If it wasn't for Kim telling Lori about Caelen, none of this would have happened. So a tremendous thank you to Kim Barnes :)
I spent an aggressive day yesterday bombarding facebook with links to Caelen's story, and thank you to ALL who have posted and shared the link. We were even shared by the American Heart Association of Palm Beach on their social media sites yesterday. I ask everyone reading this, please share Caelen's story with all the outlets you can. You never know who is watching and will pick this up and take it national.
Palm Beach heart walk
Caelen and I will be teaming up with our Heart Buddy Troy Rice again this year for the American Heart Association Palm Beach Heart walk. Our fundraising page will be going up in the next few weeks and I'll share that here once it's live. Last year, Troy and Caelen raised the most money of any non-sponsored team. And they did this in about 3 weeks. So this year I want to start early, and double their success of last year. The photo below was taken by Lori Griffith with Chasin a Dream Photography.
I think that's it for now, but with each passing minute, Caelen's story is gaining traction. So back to my social media blitz. And thank you all again for continuing to support Caelen and I.
Love, Katye and Caelen
No comments:
Post a Comment