Lucy was born a fighter. Read about her journey and how you’ve helped her get the care she needed:

“We had our first appointment with Cincinnati Children’s back in October of 2023 when I was pregnant with our daughter. We knew that she was high risk for Down Syndrome, and we had also discovered that she had an AVSD heart defect that would require surgery to repair. We had a prenatal echocardiogram and knew we would be involved with Cincinnati going forward. When our daughter was born in January of 2024, she was taken to the NICU at our home hospital immediately and she spent 34 days there with doctors trying to manage her heart failure enough to get her home for a bit to grow for open heart surgery to repair the defect. On day 34, we were transferred with our baby, Lucy, to Cincinnati. 

I can’t even accurately describe with enough gratitude how staying in the house helped us during the most difficult, yet beautiful, time of our lives. We were able to have our four-year-old son with us in a family-oriented atmosphere while our daughter was hospitalized. We were steps away from the hospital, so visiting our daughter multiple times a day was so easy while we were also able to rest at night and be mentally present for her. We were able to eat good, balanced meals without spending a ton of our savings to sustain ourselves while there for over a month. We were provided with family oriented activities to enjoy with our son during a very stressful time when we needed family time to decompress. We felt that our child who was hospitalized was just as important to the house staff as our son, who was healthy and staying in the house with us, to the house staff. It truly felt like a home away from home and I couldn’t be more grateful for that!

I would love for people to know that donations to the RMHC of Cincinnati are used to support families going through the most difficult times of their lives. It is absolute torture to watch your child struggle with anything, including medical challenges, procedures, blood draws, reactions to medications, etc. Having a place to stay where the financial burden of being away from home is relieved is a blessing that I honestly can’t even believe exists. Having healthy food, a comfortable bed to sleep in, coffee in the mornings, the amazing toy closet for the children to get a toy and a blanket from, the planned family activities, the therapy pets that visit and provide comfort, the free haircuts offered to families, and the countless other ways that RMHC supports families in distress is simply a gift I cannot accurately put into words how much I appreciate.

Without Cincinnati’s Ronald McDonald House, our family would have spent a lot more time feeling broken, scared and lonely. Thanks to RMHC of Cincinnati, we were able to spend more time feeling blessed, feeling seen and cared for and enjoying each other in the arrival of our precious, beautiful baby girl who completed our family”. -Ashley, Lucy’s mom