Long Time No Post

The lack of updates.... Ugh.

 We have been busy, busy, busy.  With summer coming to an end, I promise to update more.  I will post soon about all we have done this summer.  We have been busy living life - camping, swimming, amusement parks, etc...  so stay tuned.

We were very close to taking Sam off of Omegaven beginning in September. Things have come together though and we will be traveling to Boston again in September and keeping Sam on Omegaven. 

Unfortunately, we also found out last week that Omegaven will not be approved by the FDA this year as we had hoped. Right now it looks like it will not be approved for use in the U.S. until 2015-2016 at the earliest. This means we will need to continue to travel to Boston every 8 weeks if we want to keep Sam on Omegaven. This is what we feel is best for Sam and will continue to do this until we just aren't able to anymore. This is where we need your help.

We started a new campaign (link below) to help raise funds to cover travel expenses for the next year (or longer). If you have ever donated anything to Sam or helped with any of our fundraising efforts, please do not feel obligated to donate. We are just asking our friends and family to promote this link in any and every way you can, as often as you can, for the next 75 days. The more traffic we drive to the site, the better the chances that Sam's story will be featured on their front page which will help us raise more funds - plus there is a small token of gratitude for anyone who donates $25 or more. So, please, share this link and encourage your friends to share the link.

http://www.indiegogo.com/samoconnor

4 Years

I don't remember much about this day four years ago. I remember watching Sam be delivered, but not much else. I want to remember how it felt to see him come into the world, and to remember the high hopes that we had that day. Those should be the strongest emotional memories that I have about Sam, but the events over the next few days were so emotional that they have crowded out those memories.

With every year we are amazed at the progress that Sam has made and the expectations that he has shattered. It has been a long and hard journey at times but it has all been worth it to get to where we are today.

Four years ago I never could have believed that he would be running around the house, tormenting his brother, just being a little boy. It is quite a bit different than the journey we had imagined on this day four years ago, but also very different than the picture that would be painted for us by a doctor or two over the next several months.

We, of course, could not have done everything that we have without a great deal of help. Today I just want to say "Thank You!" to each and every person who has ever found a way to help. Whether it was emotional support, gifts, or monetary donations to help with Sam's expenses, we appreciate each and every bit of help we have received.

Most recently my family held a fundraiser for Sam at Pizza Ranch in Fond du Lac. We worked our tails off that night, but it was really a lot of fun, and it was nice to see so many people come out and support Sam.

We took the restaurant by storm and we have been told it was the busiest fundraiser that they have ever had.

Truly the night was a great success, raising enough money to help cover three round trip visits to Boston over the next 6 months.

Thank you, also, to everyone who continues to follow Sam through the website and through facebook. It means a lot to us to see so many people continue to check on him daily, even when we aren't the best at posting as often as we would like.