In October of 2022, God blessed our family with Atlas Rogue. Atlas was born with Severe Bilateral Microphthalmia of both eyes. Microphthalmia is an eye condition that happens before birth. In this condition, one or both eyeballs are abnormally small causing vision loss or blindness. There's no treatment that can create a new eye or bring vision back for people born with microphthalmia. In Atlas' case, there is complete blindness. His right eye is extremely small, underdeveloped and imbedded deep within the eye socket. Though this eye has enough tissue to be considered an eye, it is close to having been considered anophthalmia, which means no eye tissue is present. His left eye, though appearing to be more developed is also very small, has a cataract, a detached retina and does not contain the internal structures needed to produce any type of vision. According to his doctors, his eyes will never grow. Furthermore, it is likely that his left eye will develop glaucoma resulting in the need to remove it. It is unclear as to when this is expected to happen. We are hopeful that he is awarded the ability to mature enough before having to endure such a procedure.

Children born with this condition need to wear eye devices to make their eyes look symmetrical and help their eye sockets grow the correct way. Special devices called conformers can help children's eye sockets grow to a normal size and shape, and prosthetic eyes can change the way children look. The eye sockets grow according to the size of the eyes. These devices do not restore or correct vision. For Atlas, as he continues to grow, due to the small sizes of his eyes, his eye sockets will not grow normally. Without these devices, deformity will form around his sockets which can then cause other malfunctions and issues, like a ripple affect. In addition to his orbital sockets being small, the lack of normal sized eyes has caused the tissue around his eye lids be under developed as well. He does not have the natural pocket, or cul-de-sac, we see when we pull out our bottom eye lid. Atlas will need something to force the tissue around the lids to stretch and form this pocket which is necessary to work in conjunction with your tear ducts while he blinks to spread and evenly distribute the natural oils and lubrication needed to maintain moisture for his conformers and prosthetics as it would a natural eye.

Because of this, Atlas will need to wear conformers (sometimes called expanders) which are plastic devices that help the eye socket grow to a normal size and shape. It's important for children who need conformers to start wearing them as early as possible. Because babies grow so fast, they'll need to change to a larger conformer every few weeks or months until their growth slows down — usually around age 2. Atlas began with his first set of conformers as of January 23, 2023. On February 17th, Atlas went in for his next sized conformers. When Atlas received his first set of conformers, I could not help but cry tears of joy to see my baby boy open both of his eye lids for the first time. I can not wait to witness Atlas's ability to fully open both eyes once he has graduated to full size prosthetics in both eye sockets. Atlas will need to replace his conformer every few weeks and is projected to have to where and upgrade his conformers for at least the next year and a half.

Once Atlas' eye sockets reach a normal size, he can wear prosthetic eyes — a device that's painted to look like a normal eye. Children usually get their first prosthetic eyes between ages 1 and 2. Then, they'll need a new prosthetic eye every few years as they grow and the shape of their face changes. Most children will need to have their prosthetic eye replaced 3 to 4 times by age 10.

So as you can imagine, this journey is not only a physical and emotional challenge, but a financial one as well. Medical expenses aside, in the near future, our journey will begin to include the learning of Braille and with that all the expenses for materials such as educational materials, special papers, special writing devices, labelling etc. As Atlas becomes more mobile, the more space he will need to safely explore and learn his surroundings. Furthermore, once he has advanced to walking, he will need to learn to use a walking stick which will require even more space. Our hope is to one day be able to provide him a seeing eye dog.

Though I had hoped to go back to work, the extra care and attention Atlas requires has forced us to become a single income family on a Law Enforcement income. As a family of 5 in a small 2 bedroom apartment, this is the least ideal environment for a baby who is blind to be able to properly and safely explore his world.

With our biggest challenge ahead being to somehow afford a home with the proper amount of space ideal for Atlas to thrive, we first need to manage the current and upcoming medical expenses. We are aware of financial programs available for children with disabilities, however, since our financial income falls just above the qualifying limits, financial assistance has been difficult to secure. So far we have been denied Medicaid have not been able to make any progress with SSI, despite being told that our son absolutely qualifies as "dyer need status" with his disability.

When you love your children, you tell yourself you will do anything for them. We never thought that asking for financial support would cause more hesitation than running out in front of a moving vehicle to use your body as a shield to protect your child from injury. Asking for financial support is a scary thought; it is humbling to say the least. We want to be strong for our children but in this case, to do that, we must be vulnerable.

So here we are... asking for help via fundraiser. We started this fundraiser asking for $4,000 without knowing the full extent of financial support we will need. We were blessed to exceed our initial goal. Now, after having begun our journey with Atlas's Eyes, we are a little more educated on his needs and potential financial responsibilities. We asked Atlas's Ocularist to give us a projected monthly cost for conformers since our insurance does not consider his services as in network or covered. We asked the doctor to please contact our insurance to see if there is any type of agreement or contract that they can come to in order to help cover our out of pocket expenses. The initial quote we were given is $6,885 PER EYE PER MONTH, for the conformers alone, over the next year and a half. As you can imagine, we are dreading our first bill and those to come over the course of Atlas's lifetime. We are completely running on faith to provide Atlas what he needs to keep his face from deforming and to give him his best chance at living as close to a normal life as possible without having to endure the cruelty from people. In efforts to not scare people off from donating, we have limited our fundraising goal to $20,000. With the monthly quote total of $13,770 and the total projected amount adding up to $165,240 for this year alone, $20,000 will not get us very far. However, we are grateful for every penny we are blessed with.

We ask and welcome everyone to join us in prayers. if you are unable to assist us financially, we ask that you help by sharing this page in hopes that others may be able to assist.

For those who prefer a more modern approach, you may Text-to-Donate:

Text ATLASEYES to 206-800-7879

For those who prefer not to have their gifts/donations charged any fees from the 3rd party FreeFunder uses to transfer funds, you may Venmo here:

https://venmo.com/u/A-Rodriguez-W

Or @A-Rodriguez-W

Or reach out to us personally for other options.

From the bottom of our humble hearts, we thank you all for taking the time to read this. And we send a huge thank you to those who have supported Atlas thus far through prayers, donations and shares. We can not express how grateful we are to every one of you for your gifts. To be able to get your child the care that they need without having to worry about how to afford those needs... you can not put a price on that. Thanks to all of you who have donated and may donate, we can give Atlas his best chance. Again, our sincerest thank you.

Sincerely,

Angelica, Christopher, Atlas, Kylus and Landen