Veya's 1st Birthday

One year ago I wrote this letter to Veya not knowing the journey we’d go down….

 

Dear little warrior,

Induction is scheduled for tomorrow and after nine long months we finally get to meet you!  Shepherding you into this world has been an honor and one of my favorite life journeys.  You are so loved, you are so treasured.  You have been prayed for over by more people than I can count.  But, you have a long journey ahead of you, little warrior.  You’ll have to be brave.  You’ll have to find your strength.  You’ll have to learn how to fight for your life every minute, every hour.  But you can do it, I know you can.  God is here carrying us all. We will be next to you, always, every step of the way.  We promise to pray over you and love you.  We promise to hold your hand through recovery….read your favorite books…and sing you your favorite songs.  Above all we pray you will recover quickly so the world gets to experience the joy you have given us these past nine months as I carried you.  We love you so much. Mom + Dad

By God’s goodness and grace, we are here today, standing by your side celebrating your first birthday. We are in awe of the power of the Lord we’ve all been witnessing throughout your life. We prayed and prayed to celebrate this beautiful day.  You’ve climbed endless mountains, pulled through the darkest nights, to arrive here…while continuing to defy all odds.  I don’t think I will ever understand why it had to be you….I will never be able to explain how hard this season of life is and how lonely it can feel at times.  How do I begin to explain a severe congenital heart defect that requires life supportive measures to most people? Or watching you code blue multiple times in front of us? Watching your oxygen drop lower and lower?  The helplessness that comes from feeling as if I watched our lives as a spectator, from the outside looking in on you my baby girl.   The pain that comes from the emergency family meetings where we were told the team is running out of options to preserve your life? 

Watching every single nurse and doctor on the floor run to your bedside and ask us to step back…afraid to leave a hospital because we don’t know if it’ll be the last time we will see our daughter alive.  It will be hard to unsee those things when I look at you.

 Throughout every single trial, infection, set back….God helped you overcome it all and I look forward to the day that I get to meet Him face to face, fall into his arms and thank him for preserving all of us throughout this time in our lives. 

Veya Hope – our beautiful little love bug.  You seem to have won the hearts of many!  From those you have met…to those that only know you by reading of your story.  The lives you’ve touched, the hope and inspiration you have given to us as your parents and countless others.  We are so proud of your fight, strength and bravery.

Even though we are still in the hospital, we made sure to make the most of it!  A huge thank you to our Child Life Specialist Isabella, who helped us throw Veya the best party ever!   Everyone here at Sick Kids knew of her birthday.  We handed out party invitations to all of her doctors and nurses…decorated her room…and enjoyed some delicious treats together! 

Music therapy came and sang to her.  Max the clown came to play with her. Stella the therapy dog came to visit.  Our door was constantly rotating, with the hospital staff spilling into her room from all her different teams.  We even had some family and friends surprise us and join in on the celebrations!  It was such a beautiful day, one filled with so much joy and awe in how far this little girl has come! 


To everyone that wished Veya a Happy 1st Birthday…donated to help make her day special…sent her gifts, from the bottom our our hearts thank you! 

 A special thank you to Dodge from the PACT team for capturing the most beautiful images for us of Veya’s 1st Birthday.  We will cherish these forever!

 To Marsha from The Cookie Cupboard – Thank you for the customized cookies to treat our staff!  They loved them so much!

And to our 7B team for making this such a memorable first birthday.  You got us good when you surprised us with your announcement over the PA system for everyone to come to the unit for Veya.  Thank you for loving her as deeply as we do! 




 


































 



Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

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