This is the story of our first child, our daughter named Everly.
Last week I pulled out large chunks of my beard. A couple hairs at a time. It looked so hideous that I had to shave and start over. There were obvious, large gaps. Bizarre. I’ve never done that before — that, or had a child in this kind of danger...
Sunday’s the big day. Please pray that (1) Everly will come to us safely, (2) that her lungs will be awesome at taking nice deep breaths…
An update for the day: Everly was born via c-section and is in the nicu. The next step for Everly is seeing how she does with breathing for…
Morning update: Things are stable this morning. Her last episode of dropping to low oxygen saturation was still last night at about 7p with…
An evening update: Everly is still stable and we are seeing mild promising indicators that’s she’s fighting hard and slowly, slowly getting…
12/30 update — Here’s Colby checking in on Everly this morning. (The squeaking is air leaking out of her breathing tube. That’s normal for…
12/31/2014 Raise a Toast for Everly! — We started reading bedtime stories to Everly in the NICU. We’re going through the The Jesus Storybook…
1/1/2015 Team Everly Update — If Tuesday and Wednesdays were steps forward, today felt like a step back. Hopefully that feeling is just the…
1/2/2015 Team Everly Update — Today we learned a hospital will suck your energy dry if you stay inside it all day and don’t get out for a…
1/3/2015 Team Everly Update — Everly has been doing really well the last 24 hours, but she has some obstacles to overcome in the future. We…
1/4/2015 Team Everly Update — We celebrated Everly’s first week with us! We worked on optimizing her pain management today. And… I had a…
1/5/2015 Team Everly Update — Everly is between a rock and a hard place. She’s still fighting, but we’re praying she takes a hard, right…
1/6/2015 Team Everly Update — The doctors think Everly is getting worse. We’re praying for Everly’s lungs to surprise us. In better news…
1/7/2015 Team Everly Update — Everly has surgery Thursday to put in a central line IV. She is the most calm and relaxed we’ve ever seen her…
1/8/2015 Team Everly Update — Change of plans. No IV surgery is scheduled. Everly made it to her new NICU bed safety. We were a bit…
1/9/2015 Team Everly Update — The medical team thinks Everly is not getting better. They are presenting less and less options. The team may…
Day 13: #TeamEverly Update — Now don’t freak out. Everly seemed to have a great day even with a touch less ventilator support. Even so, I…
Day 14: #TeamEverly Update — We’re testing cutting back on Everly’s ventilator support even more since she’s doing well so far. We get a new…
Day 15: #TeamEverly Update — We’re feeling the pain as the number of acceptable options for Everly seem to be dwindling into one option. And…
Day 16: #TeamEverly Update — Colby got to hold Everly for the first time today. It was epic. We’re still doing tons of research. And we…
Day 17: #TeamEverly Update — Everly is stable and getting lots of love. You’ll hear a little less from us over the next day or two while we…
Day 18: #TeamEverly Update — Everly is still stable and getting lots of love. Her ability to blow bubbles is legendary. Here’s a video of…
Day 19: #TeamEverly Update — Colby and I have decided to let Everly die. She’ll pass in our arms Sunday. Our daughter is already slowly…
Day 20 and 21: #TeamEverly Update — Everly will pass in our arms around noon CST, Sunday, 1/18/2015. Thank you for welcoming Everly into…
Our daughter, Everly Leyden Baker, passed peacefully in our arms earlier today at 12:50pm CST Sunday 1/18/2015. We will miss you terribly…
After sharing Everly’s story, I got separate emails from both Angela and Matt, telling me they had written songs inspired by Everly. I…