There’s something wrong with your baby’s heart.”

Those are the words that rang in our heads, shook our world and catapulted us into a new normal that made us a heart family. The worst and best thing that’s ever
happened to us.

Our world and what we’d known would now operate on a different axis - one with fear and hope and joy we’ve never known and doctors appointments and procedures and unknowns and what ifs and relief and pride and love - lots and lots of love…

We were 20 weeks pregnant when we found out something was wrong with our baby’s heart. She didn’t even have a name. We didn’t even know she was a girl. And yet there we were becoming heart parents without even knowing it. The next 18 weeks comprised of tests and doctors visits and ups and downs and discovering things we never even knew were possible.

Our daughter’s heart was on the right side of her chest. What? It’s something to this day we still have a hard time believing. Along with that there were veins going the wrong direction and a really small lung and other complicated things. We didn’t know what to expect when she was born - there were doctors and machines, and we were braced for anything to happen. But what did happen? We had a healthy baby girl who needed no interventions at the hospital and just happened to have her heart on the right side and several veins going the wrong direction and a small right lung. She was perfect. And she’s still perfect. We named her Kaia. It means “I’ve got this” in Tagalog (Filipino). And she definitely does. She’s got this.We left the hospital knowing one day she would need heart surgery and hoping that day would never come. But that day did come. August 30, 2022, Kaia had open heart surgery at 4 years old. It was hard. Really really hard. She had a bleeding complication and essentially had 3 heart surgeries in 24 hours. We had expected to be in the hospital 5 days and ended up there for 12 full days - 12 of the hardest days.

But guess what? Kaia is OKAY! She’s thriving, and her heart is perfect in it’s own special way. We are so grateful to those who helped us, and now we have the capacity to pay it forward. We created Kaia’s KindHearts Foundation to make a space to support families who have a child with a CHD. We have walked and are still walking a similar path, and we believe that together we can make a difference. We hope you will join us in spreading kindness and love to these families who have kids with a CHD. They need you.

Go on - be a KindHeart.

Thank you for your support and for helping us give back to a world that
has given so much to us.

With love,

Kaia, Rylen (little brother), Leigh (mom) & Ron (dad)