“Think of the milestones we would have missed if we couldn’t stay close”, says Nadia as she talks to Chance about their baby Axel.
Nineteen-year-old Nadia is from McBain, MI- about an hour and half away. She was in Grand Rapids on bed rest for three weeks and delivered Axel at 25 weeks. When he was born, at the end of June, she moved into the Ronald McDonald House of Western Michigan (RMHWM). Chance stayed on weekends and one night a week.
“Axel is a tough little guy”, he says. Born at 1 lb. 15 oz., Axel has now doubled his birth weight; Nadia and Chance were able to bring him home after 77 nights. Nadia says, “The House provided everything we needed since we were not in our own home. It was so nice to come home to a home-cooked dinner after being gone all day- and to have other people to talk to about the challenges they were facing with their children”.