We decided to head to Baptist since it was still technically Saturday. Courtney was born early Sunday morning, May 11th on Mother's Day. We were expecting her to have problems with her heart when she was born, but we were not prepared for her having issues with breathing. Within 7 hours, the Angel team took her to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and I had to leave Jennifer at Baptist and meet with the surgeon alone to discuss our options and probabilities. We were given a 30% chance that she would make it through her open heart surgery. We were told later that the surgeon was being generous and it was really closer to 10%.
Courtney beat the odds that day and continued to beat the odds on many more surgeries and procedures over her lifetime. We celebrated 16 birthdays with her doing the things that she loved doing the most (skating parties, bowling parties, bounce parties, musicals at TPAC, singing, making videos). We have continued to celebrate her birthday spending time together and cherishing our memories of her.
This year Courtney would have been 21 years old and I can't begin to know what her life would be like, but I know that she would be spreading her love and bringing a smile to everybody's face. She would have loved being an aunt to Fox. Since many of our birthday celebrations were on Mother's Day, this year will be extra sweet since Kelsey is now a mother as well.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we celebrate her memory and carry on her legacy of love and joy.
