Olive's Medical & Burial Expenses

The stress of finding out your fiancée is pregnant when both you and your fiancée are unemployed is enough to weaken the knees. However Kat and I knew we were pro-life and we knew with perseverance that we could overcome any financial obstacle that lay ahead. You see, just two months before we had both been in politics and (as anyone in politics can tell you) many of these political jobs end abruptly on election day. That being said, both Kat and I found ourselves living on the cheap after we were let go on November 4th, 2014.

We were quickly scrambling for a new job and a means to take care of ourselves and our new arrival in mid-December, however the search was arduous and slow beyond words. With no health insurance, we knew we could not keep up with the expenses even with a healthy child and soon all of our credit was maxed. We sold belongings, dog sat, and borrowed in order to keep ourselves afloat until February 16th, 2015, I finally landed a job in marketing and sales.
With the new job, we knew that we could get Kat and myself on insurance in May of 2015; we just had to make ends meet until that time. With a meager paycheck and a lot of hope, we saved up to see a doctor and, while I was at work, I got the news that we were having a girl! However, after I sent a companywide e-mail announcing the joyous news, my joy turned to anguish after I received news that there was a heart and umbilical cord problem and that further tests were needed.



The financial situation was the furthest thing from my mind. All I could wish for was for a misreading or some kind of miscalculation, and that my baby, Olive Kathryn Smith, was healthy. Again, we called family and friends to try to gather the large amount of money needed to see the three specialists without healthcare. As the days wore on, the medical bills continued to mount, and finally the news came back…

Baby Olive was diagnosed with Trisomy 18. A debilitating and lethal genetic syndrome that has a .027% chance of existing in a healthy 27 year old woman. This coupled with the fact that Olive’s heart is only half developed, and due to a hernia, her stomach is in her chest cavity; stopping her lungs from developing, and sealing our daughter’s fate. We will only have mere minutes to spend with Olive when she enters this world.

Now, the last thing anyone wants to think about when you are faced with losing your child in your arms is money. I feel I have failed both Kat and Olive due to this fact. However, the delivery and funeral arrangements are not within any grasp or cost that we can bear. This has made us unable to give Olive the care she needs before her birth and Kat the care she needs to stay healthy. This has made us unable to give our daughter the respect and dignity of a proper burial and the safe delivery before her passing.
Every bit helps.

I am never one to go and ask for help needlessly. I served as a combat medic in a scout platoon in Iraq and was awarded for valor in my year and a half tour. Both Kat and I have fought for our friends and family when we found that one had fallen on troubled times. I am one who fixes the problems I see, no matter when and where I see it. This, however, this is a problem I just cannot tackle. This is a burden that weighs more on the heart and soul than it will ever weigh on a pocketbook. But, with your help, it is a burden that maybe we can carry together.