Baby Nate's Cleft Fund

We were blessed with our second son, Nathanael James, on September 21. Baby Nate was born with a cleft lip and palate, which will require multiple surgeries in his first year of life.


After planning and preparing for the extra costs of childbirth, our basement was flooded in a unusual flash flood the week before Nate was born (the heavy rains were so localized that flooding began at our house while Peter was outside just 5 miles away - completely dry) . We had to spend the money we had saved for the hospital bills for Nate’s birth on the dry out & other repairs. One day after Nate was born, he was taken by ambulance up to Seattle Children’s hospital for evaluation on an emergency surgery that thankfully was not necessary. It all added up to a lot of extra expenses in short period of time.


With Sara on leave from teaching this year and our savings depleted, Peter's teaching income is not enough to cover all the additional medical expenses we will incur this fall & next year. While it’s impossible to know the exact out-of-pocket costs we will need to pay, we estimate that we will need an additional $6000 beyond Peter's paycheck to cover these costs.

Any amount you can contribute, whether big or small, will help us tremendously and allow us to spend more time as a family during this challenging season.