We’re new here, too
But our inspiration has been with us for quite a while.
On January 5, 2016, my son Felix was born in the back of a speeding ambulance on the way to the University of Minnesota. Although Felix was over 12 weeks early, his arrival wasn’t totally a surprise for us. Felix’s mom experienced a rare condition during pregnancy that our doctors predicted would result in an early birth.
We had some advantages that other families might not have. We knew an early birth was likely and could prepare for that. We met with doctors to understand what time in the NICU would be like, we toured the NICU where our baby would stay if he came early as expected, we were able to make arrangements with our workplaces to leave for the birth of our baby whenever it might come, and very importantly, we could financially plan for days or weeks of visits to the NICU.
Felix was very healthy for a baby born so early. Unfortunately, babies born so early do not have a functional immune system, so any infection can be deadly. At nineteen days old, Felix’s life was claimed by an infection. His mom and I were able to hold him as he left this world.
Felix’s death was devastating. It took years to emotionally recover and in that period a lot life changes occurred. Through it all, I remembered a promise I made to Felix the night he died: I would find a way to make his life have meaning beyond just our family. As I looked back at those wonderful nineteen days with Felix, I thought about how I could use that time as inspiration to create something wonderful for the world. I remembered other families in the NICU who came to visit their babies. Some had long drives and were staying in hotels, some had to juggle visits, work, and other obligations to avoid expensive childcare costs for older siblings, and others had already been struggling to handle the expenses of life before the curveball of a preterm baby.
Those memories led me to understand how I could make something wonderful from Felix’s memory. I decided to create Felix Foundation to help families pay for the expenses of coming to visit their babies in the NICU. I reached out to my cousin Jeremy to talk about the idea, knowing how many parallels there are between Felix’s early birth and Jonah’s early birth, and how truly kind and good Jeremy and Julie are as human beings. When they heard my idea, we had our core group of founders.
Additional founding members came from our extended family, as well as from NICU professionals. The NICU professionals we have on our board have a level of dedication that goes far beyond their working hours, and their involvement helps us understand the workings of the NICU not just from the patient side, but also from the functional side. Without their involvement and dedication, Felix Foundation would be less informed and less capable of helping families.
And now to you: You can make a life-changing difference for a family. Your one-time or monthly donation to Felix Foundation will help pay for parking, meals, sitters, travel… All these things that sound simple, but become challenging to a family with a baby in the NICU. Thank you for supporting us. The families you help will probably never see your face or know your name, but you will always be a hero to them.