“Over a month ago, my pregnant wife was rushed to a hospital in New Orleans. Away from our family and friends in our town of Houma, our son was born 7 weeks early.
We were in good spirits, but we also knew our son was going to need to be a little bit of a fighter. So, we named him Maverick and made a promise to be there for him. It was tough to see our 3 lb. son in an incubator with feeding tubes and wires coming out of the swaddle, but many people have it worse.
We are not a family of substantial means, so for us, it meant the hotel cost that we couldn’t afford, or driving back and forth [over 2 hours roundtrip] every day.
The Ronald McDonald House fixed that problem and so much more. They gave us a place to stay in a safe area and fed us every day. They were kind to us when we had to be away from our family. But most importantly, they allowed us to spend a ton of time with Maverick.
The nurses told us that they think he did so well because we were spending so much time with him. I think that too. After more than a month, we are back home, and Maverick is doing great!” — Maverick’s Dad, Ryan
