Wednesday June 30 - Spotlight on Rudy's Beat

This is Rudy, and he's a pretty cool kid. He has two brothers and a sister (older). He lives in Santa Barbara, CA and loves to laugh and play with his siblings.

Rudy's parents started their blog, Rudy's Beat, when they found out how unique he was, which was before he was born. Rolf and Trish are eloquent and devoted writers, and the minute you start to read their story, you will be hooked, and you'll learn a lot along the way.

Here's an excerpt from one of Trish's first posts:

"I’m writing this morning with a deep need for prayer for our precious little baby. I went for my routine ultrasound on Thursday and the attending doctor detected what he believed to be a congenital heart condition known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Ventricle – a serious condition found in 3 or 4 babies out of 10,000. Rolf and I saw a pediatric cardiologist yesterday who, essentially, confirmed Thursdays diagnosis. Unfortunately, his diagnosis was expanded a bit to Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome as the entire left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped (not just the ventricle). As far as we understand at this point, the baby’s entire left side is not functioning at all and so the right side has grown bigger than normal to compensate. The baby can survive and grow and thrive inside the womb because it has the support of the placenta, etc but life is not sustainable outside the womb without intervention. The most common treatment is a series of 3 open heart surgeries after delivery…one at birth, one at 4-6 months and one at 2-4 years provided there are no other chromozomal abnormalities and the right side of the heart remains healthy/functioning. The treatment doesn’t correct or cure the left side…it reroutes the plumbing of the heart so the right side can do what both sides should do together. So, that means this little one can certainly live an active life but will be under the lifelong care of a cardiologist and will need heart medications, etc."

Check out Rudy's Beat, see the lovely silver hearts his mommy makes, and read about a family full of joy. Beautify My Blog would love to give away a blog design to a family with a child in need. Please leave a comment here with your suggestions.