Her first set of wheels!

Emersyn has been so excited about getting her wheelchair, she has been telling anyone and everyone within ear shot.

The truth is we all have ideas about "disability" and what it means to be "disabled." What are your first thoughts when you see a person in a wheelchair? What about when that person is a spunky 3 year old? Many people are fixated on milestones and the thought of their child not being "typical" can be very challenging. I see it over and over again in our HIE community. What if my child can't walk? What if (gasp) they end up in a wheelchair?

With her son in the NICU, Margaret Stuart stumbled across her new support network while searching for any information she could find about HIE.

Margaret’s son, Merritt, suffered HIE at birth and has since been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and has a charming personality that wins everyone over immediately.

A Google search turned up Hope for HIE, and Margaret immediately found a support network that has grown in the four years since, especially when she attended an annual retreat and was able to meet fellow HIE families in person.

A motto of so many of our HIE families is that hope is in the journey.

For Gabrielle Shimkus, finding that hope has been a process over the last two years since her daughter Harper, the last of five children, suffered HIE at birth.

HIE didn’t stop them from trips to the beach, visiting family miles away and the Jersey shore vacations they had envisioned taking as a family.

And after losing their son Jacob, Dawn Carofine cherishes those memories.

“The memories we made are just another way to keep Jacob’s memory alive. I’m not able to see the ocean without thinking about him. His life was too short, but I know that we had always done our best to make happy memories together,” she said.

By Emily Combs

HIE hasn’t stopped this adventurous family from exploring and enjoying their world together.

Two-year-old Connor May and his parents, Rhea and Johnny, live in the foothills overlooking Denver, Colorado – and they take full advantage of the adventures awaiting them in their own backyard and beyond.

From mountains to music festivals, Connor is already quite a daring little man. Along with laughing and listening to music, being outside and feeling the wind on his face are some of his very favorite things.