Make a Difference - Play For Payten - Charity Golf Tournament

Make a Difference - Play For Payten - Charity Golf Tournament
Please take a minute and read about a family I love dearly...

Kim & Joseph have 3 beautiful children Zachary, Makenna, and Payten.
Peyton was born October 16, 2008. Despite having no complications during pregnancy or delivery, Payten began her life with complications that become greater than her parents ever imagined.

Payten was born having water in her lungs and trouble breathing. After spending some time in the Observation Nursery in the NICU, she seemed to catch on to feeding and breathing quickly, so she was sent home. In Payten's mother's words, "We were so ecstatic words cannot express the joy we felt, we believed our troubles and worries were over, but as Payten’s Mother I could not dismiss that feeling deep down that told me something was wrong with my child, I just didn’t know what it was or how bad."

Payten was re-admitted to the NICU a week later with Failure to Thrive and Hypotonia. After an extensive work-up of tests, several diseases were ruled out, but no definitive answers were given. After being in the NICU for 3 weeks, it was discovered a valve in Payten's heart never closed and that she aspirated while swallowing. Since then, she has had several major surgeries and has spent 190 days in the hospital.

Current status from Payten's parents:
"We know now after months of waiting, that Payten suffers from a rare deficiency called Cerebral Foliate Deficiency. It is treatable with a Foliate Supplement. Now can it reverse the damage that this deficiency has caused? No one knows. Do we know if Payten will get better? No. Could she not and become worse? Possibly. It is a wait and see diagnosis. Research on this is kind of discouraging. We just have faith that whatever happens is meant to happen."


This family has endured so much over the past 20 months of caring for their sweet Payten. In addition to the emotional strain of watching their sick child struggle through every complication, they have been financially strained by the astronomical costs of medical care. Any family who has had major medical issues knows that having medical insurance is unfortunately, not enough.
The Merrill Family is organizing an awesome charity golf tournament called, "Play for Payten" to be held on Monday, July 12th. You (or someone you know) can golf in the tournament or you can pledge money to fund Payten's care.

Click here to visit Payten's website for all the info!

You can also read all about the event here !
Please forward this onto your friends and family, re post this on your blog or Face book, Tweet about this - get the word out there for this sweet family! I will re post about this as we get closer to the event and I will put a link up in the my right side bar to access the event info. Payten's mom has said that, "Payten will thank you someday, maybe not in this life, but you will receive a thank you."

Love to all & Thanks for reading. Click here to visit Payten's website for all the info!