The Story of Killian's Kisses at BGT

First things first, Killian Update:

• Little man had an okay day. He's still really easily agitated.
• They ticked down his morphine a tiny bit, so that could be causing it.
• They continue to increase his feeds! Yay!
• One of his doctors told Lindsey that she'd like to switch up his medication a bit to see if it helps his pulmonary hypertension.
• In about a week or so, they'll try to take him off the vent again and see how he does! 
• Please pray/send good thoughts for the following: his infection to go away, that this new medicine combo will take that stupid old pulmonary hypertension away, the blood clots in his brain would dissipate and for strong lungs and a strong heart! 

About three weeks ago two coworkers, Sonja and Anna, pulled me into a room to tell me they wanted to organize a fundraiser to help Killian and Lindsey called "Killian's Kisses". As I cried (again, I'm a crier) they said, "There isn't a whole lot we can do to help Killian get better. But we can do this." They had already cleared it with management and everybody was all in!

None of this was about the money to us (the family) or to any of the awesome people who helped design the logos, write the status updates, take pictures of the event, pass out the Valentine's or any thing else that it took to make this event a success. It was about raising awareness for CDH and giving people who wanted to help an outlet to do so.

Employees could buy "flowergrams" for $2 a piece

The flowers with Valentine's were later distributed to our desks.

They brought in an awesome catered lunch from Sushi Maki!

Everyone had a lot of fun delivery "secret admirer" Valentine's and silly notes to friends.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that BGT would raise the amount of money that they did. Not $200. Not $500. Not even $1000. Between employee and client contributions on the blog or in person the total was ....$2041!!! Can you believe that!

I sure couldn't! I was in a meeting when they came in to tell me. Look you can see my fillings!

And I'm crying. Big surprise.

Me (Aunt Layna) calling Lindsey 

Telling her the amazing news!!

PLEASE go to the BGT Fan Page and give them a shout out if you feel led! More companies would do well to take a page out of their book!

As always, we will take 10% right off the top to donate to Cherubs, one of our favorite CDH Awareness organizations. Lindsey has also said she'd like to use some of the money to help organize a CDH awareness walk on April 19th in Nashville, while others are marching in Washington D.C. the same day. And don't worry folks, she'll claim this money on her taxes ;)

And now to the really good stuff....videos of the fam!!









To every single person who contributed (or even has so far!) or had a hand in making this event happen, we will forever be in your debt. I only hope that God lays a path for us to one day pay it forward!

Six days until I go to Nashville!!!! Hugs!
Aunt Layna 

Killian's Social Media Coordinator 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Killian has been fighting - like a champion! - for his life since he was born. Because Killian's family is so spectacular; their friends decided to create this website in their honor to help in any way possible.

We are overwhelmed by the amount of people who have asked for an avenue to help Killian, Lindsey and the family. Any donation made below will go to help pay for food while staying in the hospital, gas back and forth, travel for family and the general care Killian will be receiving beginning on the glorious day he leaves the hospital!

All donations go directly to Killian's care and the care of his family. Also, ten percent of all money collected will be donated to Cherubs, The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Research, Awareness and Support. The paypal donation account was set up by a friend, Liz Wolfe, whose name and email appears on the PayPal page. Liz manages all donations with the support and oversight of Killian's aunt, Layna Lambert Dugan.

More about CDH from CHD Support:

CDH occurs when the diaphragm fails to fully form, allowing abdominal organs into the chest cavity and preventing lung growth. CDH occurs in 1 of every 2500 births; somewhere in the world, a baby is born with CDH every 10 minutes. 50% of babies diagnosed with CDH do not survive. The cause is not known. Over a half million babies have been born with CDH since 2000. CDH is as common as Spina Bifida and Cystic Fibrosis but there is very little awareness and even less research.