In October of 2016, my husband Kyle and I conceived. Although it was more real to me now than it ever had been, I still couldn’t shake this feeling that something was going to go wrong.

Ever since I started feeling our baby move, I got in the habit of counting kicks. I did this religiously, morning and evening. Then one day, she stopped moving. I did everything I could think of to try to get her to kick me. I went to bed that night with a promise to myself—if this was still going on by noon tomorrow, I was going in to the doctor.I checked in at the doctor’s office, and the doctors didn’t like what they saw. The next day, I was life-watched to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, KS.

Kyrin was born on Mother’s Day 2017. I only got to hold her for about 10 seconds, but in that moment, everything was okay. Then they took her away. Little did I know that it would be a few weeks before I would be able to hold my sweet girl again.

We knew Kyrin would at least have to stay in the hospital until her due date, so we were looking at another 9 weeks, minimum, of remaining in Wichita. We had no option but to try to get into the Ronald McDonald House if I was to be able to be in the same town as Kyrin during her healing and recovery.

They were able to place us right away. Not only that, but they provided home-cooked meals by volunteers, and much needed companionship and understanding from other parents with babies in the Wesley NICU. It was a huge blessing for our family, and without them, there is no way I would have been able to stay by my baby’s side. I am eternally grateful for what they did for us during that time.

On July 30th, 2017, after 11 weeks (to the day!) of our hospital stay, we got to unplug from all our machines and start the scary, exciting journey of parenthood at home, just our little family. It was completely terrifying, but we were ready to be home.

We still need to go back to Wichita every 3-4 months and each time are very blessed to be able to stay at “home” at the Ronald McDonald house. The staff there has become like family, and they have been a blessing that we didn’t even know we needed.

– Erin Holder