Johnny Carver's Kidney Fund
Donation protected
Hey everyone. Thanks for taking some time to check out this page! I have decided to start a GoFundMe page for my cousin Elizabeth and her amazing family. Due to the nature, I will be as detailed as I can, but I also want to respect their family’s privacy.
The adorable little guy you see pictured is Johnny Daniel Carver. He was born on November 13, 2015… 6 weeks early by my cousin Elizabeth and her husband John. To keep it simple for now, little Johnny was born with kidneys that refuse to function. After weeks of mystery as to why they would not function, he underwent surgery to hopefully fix the issue. Unfortunately, the surgery did not yield the results the family had hoped for and Johnny will now need a kidney transplant. To make matters worse, the surgery can’t be performed until he reaches 15 pounds and until then, he will have to be on dialysis. This means he doesn’t get to come home.
I’ll get into a little more detail on Johnny here shortly, but I first think it is important to tell you guys a little bit about Elizabeth and John. To start, before Johnny, they were parents to 3 other beautiful children: Giana, Giavella, and Julian.
This means Johnny is their 4th blessing! I can tell you from experience they have been such great parents to their children and have honestly given me something to strive for in the future, when a family happens for my husband and me. They honestly are like the perfect happy family, just like the ones you read about in books or see in movies. I mean, look how cute this family is!
Elizabeth is an amazing mother and would do anything for her family. She works so hard to take care of her 3 kids and John works hard to support them all while still making sure to be a huge part of their life and help his kids grow up. What's more is that this family has so much faith. Through both good times and bad, they always manage to fall back on the fact that God is Good and everything that happens is all part of His plan.
Again, I cannot say enough about these 2 and how great of parents they are to the 3 beautiful babies they have been blessed with so far, and how great I know they will continue to be with Johnny.
**********************************************************
So about Johnny Daniel, the reason I wanted to start this GoFundMe campaign...
You got the jist of the story earlier: Prematurely born... no functioning kidneys... needs dialysis... has to remain hospitalized and can't go home... will require a kidney transplant at 6 months... and now for the details that make this story even more heart wrenching...
The first detail: he has 3 wonderful and loving siblings and can only meet 1 face to face. Because Giavella and Julian are both too young, they aren't able to visit their new baby brother. Instead, the youngest, Julian, meets his brother via FaceTime. He is absolutely adorable when he kisses the screen in the video and notices his "boo boo".
<iframe media_type="0" media_id="slTrroQlODw" class="youtube-replace" title="YouTube video player" style="margin-bottom:20px;width:560px;height:315px;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/slTrroQlODw/?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1"></iframe>
But on a positive note, their oldest, Gianna, does get to meet him.
The second detail: for over 2 weeks, Elizabeth and John couldn't hold their new precious baby boy. They could touch him in NICU, but for weeks, they couldn't hold him in their arms freely. That is, until November 29th when Liz shared this post on Facebook...
"Today was the most perfect day. I woke up this morning at 3:30 to head to go see little Johnny, I've been holding onto his tiny socks for 2 weeks in my pocket excited for the day I can finally freely hold my lil guy and tell him how much I adore and love him. I got to hold him for hours with no interruptions and sing to him and kiss him. It was the perfect start to my day. As we know we have a long road ahead of us I have a grateful heart for every second I get to be with him."
And the third detail, perhaps the hardest to think about: a new kidney could cost this amazing family everything. Insurance will only cover 80% of the transplant and that is the transplant alone. Attach the huge transplant costs to the fact that they have to make daily trips to Chicago to see their son, the fact that he will require repeated dialysis for a time frame around 6 months, and the fact that he will have to remain hospitalized, and the medical bills alone could be enough to threaten taking Elizabeth, John and their family from their home. But they have made it clear that they would give up all of their material things if it meant little Johnny got to be a healthy baby by getting the medical treatments he needs.
Although they are willing to give up everything if that's what it takes to ensure Johnny gets the healthcare he needs, that doesn't make it fair and it kills me to think of them going through this. But remember that faith that I was talking about earlier? Elizabeth and John know that they can leave anything in God's hands because he can make miracles happen. Their faith has inspired me but I still feel that there is more that I can do to help them. That's where this page is going to conclude. Our family knows that our faith in God will make sure that Elizabeth and John and their 4 beautiful children will end up where they need to be. However, I by no means am going to watch these amazing people struggle to make a potential decision between having a home and providing the care for their son that he desperately needs. God will get them through but we can help them get there with less burden!
All I ask is that during this holiday season, you find it in your heart to make a donation to them to ease their pain in this hard time.
BIG OR SMALL, ANYTHING WILL HELP!
It is humbling to think about this fact: While you're waiting in a long line at the store to get that expensive new gift for your child that the just have to have, think about this family. For this family, their holiday season is about holding on to what is really important and counting the blessings in their life. So please be thankful for all of the amazing things you have and can experience and please cherish the great times because no one knows what God has in store.
Besides donations, I also ask that you please share this page any way you can. Email it to friends and family or share it on Facebook so that we can reach out to as many people as possible to help Johnny Daniel Carver get a new kidney and allow this family to stay on their feet.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this post that quickly became a book! And thank you so much for anything you can donate. It means so much...
-Ashley
The adorable little guy you see pictured is Johnny Daniel Carver. He was born on November 13, 2015… 6 weeks early by my cousin Elizabeth and her husband John. To keep it simple for now, little Johnny was born with kidneys that refuse to function. After weeks of mystery as to why they would not function, he underwent surgery to hopefully fix the issue. Unfortunately, the surgery did not yield the results the family had hoped for and Johnny will now need a kidney transplant. To make matters worse, the surgery can’t be performed until he reaches 15 pounds and until then, he will have to be on dialysis. This means he doesn’t get to come home.
I’ll get into a little more detail on Johnny here shortly, but I first think it is important to tell you guys a little bit about Elizabeth and John. To start, before Johnny, they were parents to 3 other beautiful children: Giana, Giavella, and Julian.
This means Johnny is their 4th blessing! I can tell you from experience they have been such great parents to their children and have honestly given me something to strive for in the future, when a family happens for my husband and me. They honestly are like the perfect happy family, just like the ones you read about in books or see in movies. I mean, look how cute this family is!
Elizabeth is an amazing mother and would do anything for her family. She works so hard to take care of her 3 kids and John works hard to support them all while still making sure to be a huge part of their life and help his kids grow up. What's more is that this family has so much faith. Through both good times and bad, they always manage to fall back on the fact that God is Good and everything that happens is all part of His plan.
Again, I cannot say enough about these 2 and how great of parents they are to the 3 beautiful babies they have been blessed with so far, and how great I know they will continue to be with Johnny.
**********************************************************
So about Johnny Daniel, the reason I wanted to start this GoFundMe campaign...
You got the jist of the story earlier: Prematurely born... no functioning kidneys... needs dialysis... has to remain hospitalized and can't go home... will require a kidney transplant at 6 months... and now for the details that make this story even more heart wrenching...
The first detail: he has 3 wonderful and loving siblings and can only meet 1 face to face. Because Giavella and Julian are both too young, they aren't able to visit their new baby brother. Instead, the youngest, Julian, meets his brother via FaceTime. He is absolutely adorable when he kisses the screen in the video and notices his "boo boo".
<iframe media_type="0" media_id="slTrroQlODw" class="youtube-replace" title="YouTube video player" style="margin-bottom:20px;width:560px;height:315px;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/slTrroQlODw/?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1"></iframe>
But on a positive note, their oldest, Gianna, does get to meet him.
The second detail: for over 2 weeks, Elizabeth and John couldn't hold their new precious baby boy. They could touch him in NICU, but for weeks, they couldn't hold him in their arms freely. That is, until November 29th when Liz shared this post on Facebook...
"Today was the most perfect day. I woke up this morning at 3:30 to head to go see little Johnny, I've been holding onto his tiny socks for 2 weeks in my pocket excited for the day I can finally freely hold my lil guy and tell him how much I adore and love him. I got to hold him for hours with no interruptions and sing to him and kiss him. It was the perfect start to my day. As we know we have a long road ahead of us I have a grateful heart for every second I get to be with him."
And the third detail, perhaps the hardest to think about: a new kidney could cost this amazing family everything. Insurance will only cover 80% of the transplant and that is the transplant alone. Attach the huge transplant costs to the fact that they have to make daily trips to Chicago to see their son, the fact that he will require repeated dialysis for a time frame around 6 months, and the fact that he will have to remain hospitalized, and the medical bills alone could be enough to threaten taking Elizabeth, John and their family from their home. But they have made it clear that they would give up all of their material things if it meant little Johnny got to be a healthy baby by getting the medical treatments he needs.
Although they are willing to give up everything if that's what it takes to ensure Johnny gets the healthcare he needs, that doesn't make it fair and it kills me to think of them going through this. But remember that faith that I was talking about earlier? Elizabeth and John know that they can leave anything in God's hands because he can make miracles happen. Their faith has inspired me but I still feel that there is more that I can do to help them. That's where this page is going to conclude. Our family knows that our faith in God will make sure that Elizabeth and John and their 4 beautiful children will end up where they need to be. However, I by no means am going to watch these amazing people struggle to make a potential decision between having a home and providing the care for their son that he desperately needs. God will get them through but we can help them get there with less burden!
All I ask is that during this holiday season, you find it in your heart to make a donation to them to ease their pain in this hard time.
BIG OR SMALL, ANYTHING WILL HELP!
It is humbling to think about this fact: While you're waiting in a long line at the store to get that expensive new gift for your child that the just have to have, think about this family. For this family, their holiday season is about holding on to what is really important and counting the blessings in their life. So please be thankful for all of the amazing things you have and can experience and please cherish the great times because no one knows what God has in store.
Besides donations, I also ask that you please share this page any way you can. Email it to friends and family or share it on Facebook so that we can reach out to as many people as possible to help Johnny Daniel Carver get a new kidney and allow this family to stay on their feet.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this post that quickly became a book! And thank you so much for anything you can donate. It means so much...
-Ashley
Organizer and beneficiary
Ashley A Benson
Organizer
Coal City, IL
Elizabeth Carver
Beneficiary