Veya Hope VanderBrugghen

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old."  Isaiah 63:9  204 days inpatient… What a journey it has been. We are still taking things one day at a time. Veya’s current health concerns remain a mystery to her team.   They have found no answers yet as to what is going on with her liver. Her enzyme levels along with her bilirubin continue to climb.   It breaks my heart because I can physically see that her liver is not functioning the way it should be by way of her color.   But Veya remains so strong and continues to persevere through each health challenge that has come her way by the grace of God.   She is such a fighter and is a million times stronger than me.   Each day we have to choose to fight.   Fight for joy, fight for peace, and fight for Veya to receive the best care possible.   That best care for Veya is at Toronto Sick K

Not only has it been three weeks since our transfer back…. but today we celebrated Veya’s half year birthday!  We can’t believe it’s been six months already living out the ICU hospital life with our heart warrior.  When I sit and think about that for a moment, I’m met with a lot of different emotions.  I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that it stung a little. You know, I had this picture in my head of how I thought this journey with Veya could go. I had it mapped out, what the future could potentially look like and where we would be with her at six months. I naïvely thought at best we would spend two weeks in NICU and at worst we would spend one month in NICU. When we passed that timeline, I adjusted my goals and was hoping we would be home before she was six months old. I imagined being able to enjoy the simple things with Veya like sitting in the back yard soaking up the warm weather with her brother and sisters. Now reading back on that statement I can see that in some ways I was tryin

Yesterday marked three weeks since we have been back “home” from Toronto.  While it has been nice to be back all together under the same roof and closer to our family and friends, we are still adjusting to the change. We miss seeing our core medical team from Sick Kids and the friends we made at Ronald McDonald House.. and are still trying to sort out our new routines around the house here.  I wanted to take a moment to highlight and thank some very special individuals from Veya’s Sick Kids Team as we didn’t get a chance to personally say goodbye to each one of them.  I know many of them are following along here on her blog here, so it is my hope that it will reach them. First off, we’d like to thank Dr. Oshri Zaulan.   This man right here was one of Veya’s core CICU Docs.   He was the one that orchestrated her transfer to Sick Kids in February, and he advocated so much for her during her stay.   He knew to take everything slow and steady with Veya, never to rush her with her complex