Baby Ava - Medical and Funeral Help

I'm Amy, and I'm making this page for my brother and sister-in-law and their baby, Ava Marie.

Michael and Anne have been married for nine years, and have long looked forward to welcoming children into their family. After a previous loss, they were so blessed and excited to discover that Anne was pregnant. They felt from early on that they were having a girl, and they decided to call her Ava. They made her middle name Marie after Anne's middle name.

Anne had wanted for her entire life to be a mother. She has expressed this desire not just verbally, but in her actions. She has loved and cared for and played with her nieces and nephews, and they have loved her. After doing so much mothering, she was ready to give everything she had to Ava, to provide her with the best life full of wonderful memories.

Michael was especially excited to raise his first daughter. He is a great big bear of a man, but he has a tender and gentle heart. He loved Ava and took great care of Anne and Ava during the pregnancy. He worried about the slightest bump and did everything in his power to keep Anne and Ava healthy, happy, and safe.

A little over a week ago we gathered with friends and family to celebrate Ava and Anne and our excitement at their great blessing.


Saturday night, Anne and Michael rushed to the hospital thinking they might have to deliver their baby a little bit early, and were devastated by the news that when doctors and nurses found their precious baby's heart, it was no longer beating.

Sunday evening, Ava Marie was born silently. Her spirit returned to her Father in Heaven, and her precious body here to be treasured for just a little while by her family. She was a beautiful, perfect baby. At 33 weeks gestation she was already 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and 19 inches, her head covered thickly with dark, curly hair with blonde highlights. She looked so much like her father it was breathtaking. Her lips mirrored his baby pictures, but she had her mother's cheekbones and eyes and a sweet, tiny little nose.

Michael and Anne, Ava's daddy and mommy, spent every minute they could watching over their precious baby before making the heartbreaking goodbye and leaving the hospital. Their great love for her was and still is overwhelming.

Anne and Michael's family and church are taking the best possible care of them, but as we look at the costs of the necessary hospital and burial services, we know that we need help. Our goal is that Michael and Anne have room to grieve without the great stresses of extremely heavy medical bills far beyond what insurance will pay. Where family and church support is the first line of help, we need the assistance of the community to bear this load together.

Please take a moment to give what you can. Together we can remove this financial worry from Michael and Anne so they can focus on the healing of their souls.