How our own personal journey means so much to others, and how you all can join us along the way???
Strength, willpower, courage, drive and the real art of someone transforming a twist that life has thrown at them into something that they can really use to the world’s advantage, something that they, the people around them and our whole society can learn and grow from – these days, I am increasingly finding that it is these types of stories of courage and strength that truly are inspiring our world around us, helping us to slowly realise how much beauty there is in our lives.
Over the past year and a half, I have been amazed and very privileged to watch my friend Stacey, her husband Tahmon and their son Arden, be real trail blazers in modelling the true meaning of strength, courage and positivity. As Stacey explains, their journey started when, at twenty weeks pregnant, Stacey and Tahmon were informed that their baby was already showing signs of a heart condition. The seriousness of this condition wasn’t revealed until eleven weeks later when they further learnt that it was severely deteriorating, to the point that they were looking at a very low chance that this baby would be coming into this world alive.
The diagnosis was a condition called Congenital Heart Disease, a disease that commonly affects the flow of blood to an infant’s heart (to read up more information on this disease click here on Medlineplus). In Arden’s case, this meant that when he was born in March, 2017, his condition was severe enough that he was rushed to the Westmead Children’s Hospital immediately so he could under go his very first surgery at just a few hours old.
This surgery involved surgeons threading a wire through his body to his heart where they inflated a balloon to open up the valve to improve blood flow.
From here, Arden spent the first six months of his life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), while having several surgeries involving his heart and chest, dealing with many infections and needing to be on life support at one stage for 72 hours straight. After six months in ICU, and then in and out of the ICU for another two months, Arden was finally allowed to go home, eight months after coming into the world.
As you can imagine, Arden coming home was met with a huge wave of emotions as their excitement about finally getting to go home was attached to the reality of needing to care for a very strong but still quite sick little boy.
In the five months that followed his homecoming, Arden had to take thirteen types of daily medication plus have regular tube feeding. However, by his first birthday, Arden was able to begin having solids and things started to really settle down.
Now nearly eighteen months on, Stacey and Tahmon couldn’t be more prouder of their little warrior, Arden, and all of us around them can’t help but be amazed and inspired by the things the three of them have done in this period since their journey began. One example includes creating a blog, “A Wolfe’s Tale“, which is all about their story, along with doing what they can to give back and help other families that maybe in a similar situation.
This family is now reaching out for help from the community in order to raise money for The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). As Stacey explains, they are linking this fundraising to the the ‘City2Surf’ and it is their way of:
1) thanking the people at the Westmead Hospital, who ‘saved Arden’s life countless times” as well as
2) ensuring that the families who find themselves in a similar position have maximum access to more of the technology and support they will need.
Their hope is to match the amount of money they raised last year (which was $34,000), however they have made clear that they will be very satisfied with whatever they can raise, as any amount of money will go an extremely long way to helping other families in need.
As you can see, after learning more about their amazing example of strength and compassion, this is a positive story that continues to put smiles on faces as it still develops. So if you can, please get behind this incredible family and support their amazing cause.
You can click here on this link “Team Arden” to share and donate in support of Team Arden and watch the video below if you want more information.