Ryann Hope

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, an old friend of mine and his wife recently lost their baby girl at 9 days old to a birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). To learn more about CDH go to http://breathofhopeinc.com/ and spread awareness.

Ryann was diagnosed with CDH 9/11/08, born on 12/27/08 and

became an angel 9 days later on 1/5/09.

I contacted Ryann's mom, Jaime, this past week to tell her how sorry I was to hear of this news. In the course of our conversations and the sharing of the story of Lucy, she shared with me lots of info. Her carepage/blog for Ryann, her efforts to raise awareness and educate people on CDH, her fund raising for the research program being started for CDH at the hospital Ryann was, even support ideas for my brother and SIL, ways we could raise awareness for EB, and condolences and caring words about our loss, all the the midst of her grieve, and loss of her baby. How amazing is that? This is a woman I truly admire, a woman with a big heart and a wonderful mommy, not only to her baby angel, but to her 3 yr old as well.

In the midst of all this, one thing I have learned is that even when life is SOOOO hard, God puts the right people in our paths. I can't even start to tell you all the wonderful stories of people that have stepped up to support us, hug us, bring us food, send us cards or how were put into our lives just to comfort us, or even those we just correspond through via email, lending a listening ear a caring heart. This is how Jaime and I feel, she was put into my path under the worst circumstances but at the right time and for more reasons I will ever know.

Jaime is trying to raise awareness and in doing so keeps a care page/blog to share her story here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ryannsmith