As another Mother’s day passes I am sitting here wishing. Wishing for what too many other mothers are wishing, for just one more day with my little girl (or boy). Many of you may not know me, and I think that is why Caramie asked me to guest write her blog one day, and I honestly was not sure when I would or what to write about, but today I just needed to share so I thought this might be ok.
My Daughter, Isabella Faith Adkinson, was born June 20, 2008 and was a wonderful addition to our family along with her twin brother Dax. Like many couples, my husband and I struggled to have a baby ‘naturally’ so we went through fertility treatments and ultimately In-vitro. And when the twins arrived, all seemed perfect. They were both healthy and we all went home together after only a few days in the hospital. For the next 6 months our only struggles were normal as any other new family, lack of sleep, trying to get on a new schedule and just be sure we were doing all we could for the twins.
About 6 months later, Bella began vomiting randomly – at first it was not an alarming thing, but as it did not go away and she not only stopped gaining weight and growing she began losing weight; we knew there was a problem. After many trips to the Dr. and a couple to the ER, and even a reflux test, we were puzzled and we had no answers. We spent 3 weeks at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, and to make a very long story short, they finally found the cause. It was a grade II astrocytoma on her brain stem.
A parents worse nightmare was happening to us. We found out on a Friday, and on the following Monday they performed a resection which was by all accounts successful. After a long stay and recovery, we took Bella home just 2 days before her first birthday.
Because of the complications from surgery, Bella had a tracheotomy, and we knew we had a long road ahead of us, but we were so incredibly thankful that our baby girl was home and on her way to a full recovery. She also suffered from breath holding spells that meant she could not be left alone for even one minute.
During this process, I unfortunately lost my job because I could not be at work – I had to be at the hospital while she was there, and I had to stay home with her because we did not have enough insurance to pay for nursing full time. So we applied for help from many Government programs as well as private organizations to see if we could get Bella the help she needed and allow me to go back to work to help support our family. Unfortunately, we were turned away for any help, because even though I was a large part of our income, and we needed that income to pay our bills, my husband “made too much money” $500 a year gross to be exact.
Thankfully we are blessed to have family who supported us and helped us through this horrible trial in our life. But things soon would become even more difficult. Bella was somehow exposed to H1N1 (swine flu) even though we did not take her out and made sure no one came to the house if they even had a cold. After 5 days on a bypass machine, her little body could not handle the drugs and complications of the pneumonia that developed and she passed at only 17 months old.
You may wonder why I am sharing this with you – it is NOT intended to make you sad, only to show you that honest, hardworking people, who go through an amazing difficult event with a sick child, do not get the help they desperately need just to survive.
Once Bella passed, we knew we had to do something to help other families. Her little life had to have more purpose that we could see in the short time that she was here.
That is how Bella’s Blessing Foundation was formed. We are a non-profit foundation, 501c3 qualified, and have just completed our first year of helping families who are turned away from other programs and assistance.
We provide everything from a dinner gift card while at the hospital to get a few minutes away to gas money to travel to the hospital or Dr. visits, all the way up to utility bills and mortgages.
In our first year, we have helped approximately 125 families and raised more than $75,000 for our cause. We even received a grant from The Texas Rangers Baseball team. We held our first annual Casino Night benefit and auctioned off a Harley Davidson which was donated to us.
To start the foundation, I held a garage sale and used the proceeds to file our paperwork. Organizations around the area donate to us, some on a monthly basis, some when they get referrals from our followers, and some just $5 at a time.
We primarily focus our attention on families with sick children who are being cared for in the DFW metroplex at one of the many children’s hospitals we are blessed to have, but have also helped families in the Houston area, West Texas, South Texas and even California.
We have two pages on Facebook if you would like to follow us and help families in need. We will soon start planning our second Casino night – which will be in September.
Thank you all for allowing me to share our story – all I ask is that you do something to help another person or family when you can. You would be amazed at how little it takes to make a difference!
God Bless
Founder/President
Bella’s Blessing Foundation
You can find Bella's Blessings home page here.
You can find Bella's Blessings Facebook page here.
I thank God for people like Lisa everyday. You are an amazing woman. What a blessing you are to so many people!
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