It is hard to find a couple more giving and kind than Maria and Jimmy. People say God gives His biggest challenges to those He knows can handle them, and that seems to be the case here. On March 17, Maria gave birth to a handsome baby boy names Ender Charles Daws. After an endlessly challenging pregnancy, Ender came into the world by an emergency c-section and had trouble breathing from the beginning. He was moved to a regional hospital apart from his mother, where he is expected to spend at least a week in the NICU. Among many expenses common to childbirth and bringing home a newborn, Maria and Jimmy will have travel costs and costly medical bills for baby Ender. The goal of this fundraiser is to take some of these concerns away while they focus on the challenging earliest days of their baby boy. Consider donating, and please keep the Daws family in your prayers.

Note: While Freefunder does not take fees, your method of payment might incur a cost. Please feel free to reach out to Maria and Jimmy directly to provide any assistance you can.

March 27 update from Maria:

We had a long talk with neurology yesterday about the MRI. Ultimately we don't know what his future is going to look like as his brain has damage. The hopeful part is that baby brains are incredibly resilient and have an amazing ability to adapt, compensate, overcome and even rewire which makes long term prediction impossible and leaves room for a good outcome. While we are waiting we are starting multiple therapies and continuing to address his other issues.

Side note, the Drs come in packs here but the leader of the neurologist yesterday was a really lovely Dr. Jones. She practically squealed when she found out his name. Apparently she is a big fan too.

April 7 update from Maria and Jimmy

Everyday feels like a clone of the previous day, hanging out in this little windowless room with doctors, nurses, therapist, and techs in and out constantly. Then I think about how far we've really come how many fewer wires and tubes how many less specialists were dealing with on a daily basis, and it's heartening. Hopefully one day soon Ender will see daylight for the first time and we will get to go home. In the meantime our continuing to work on his eating lactation and speech therapy both are helping him to have a more organized suck and we're advocating to address both a tongue and a lip tie, however slight they are.

[Ender spent 12 days in the NICU before moving to the hospital's CCU, where he currently remains at 21 days old. Maria and Jimmy are staying at the nearby Ronald Mcdonald House to be closer to Ender.]