Hudson's Donation to Children's Heart Center

Today was a bittersweet day in our family. We knew this day was coming and have been planning it for quite some time. It is a bittersweet day in that we are reminded that our Warrior is no longer here with us on earth and we miss him so much each and ever day; but we were honored to be able to honor his memory by making a donation to the Children's Heart Center of South Carolina - a donation that he is 100% responsible for generating. His story, his life, his testimony has inspired so many, of course our family being number one on that list. This became quite clear to us over the past 2 months since Hudson went to be with Jesus. Since that time we asked you all not to send flowers or any sort of gift to Malynda and I. But rather, we asked that you make a donation in honor of Hudson to ultimately help all of the other heart babies out there like him, specifically to support the amazing team of professionals who took care of him here on earth - the entire MUSC PCICU team. We were hoping to raise $1,000 in order to have Hudson's name engraved on the donor wall in the PCICU waiting room. Boy did we underestimate each of you out there and what generous hearts you have. Today we were able to donate $3,500.00 to the Children's Heart Center - all of which consisted of donations from dozens/hundreds of donors out there who have shown our family such love and grace during this time. We were quite overwhelmed at how much Hudson raised, and humbled by the fact that we are able to represent his memory and each of your contributions toward helping Hudson's heart baby brothers and sisters. We regret that we are not able to send a thank you to each of you individually (there are hundreds of you and many are anonymous), but please accept our heartfelt thanks for honoring our Warrior in such a fine fashion.

In addition to dropping off Hudson's donation today, we were able to catch up with some of our PCICU family, which was the highlight of the day! There were lots of folks in the unit today when

we dropped off the donation and it was great to get to see each of them. Conner handed the check to the attending doctor on call, Dr. Forbus (he's in the photo). He told him that the money was "for his babies - to help the sick heart babies." He is very in-tune to what's going on. In fact, since Hudson passed, one of the things Malynda and I have talked about are sunsets and how we are so reminded of Hudson when we witness beautiful sunsets - we've shared this with Conner as well. When we were driving home to Columbia this evening we were driving toward a very beautiful sunset. Conner proceeded to remind us that it was a gift from baby brother, and that he misses his baby brother. We all miss our Warrior, but were very honored to be able to honor him today. Conner even got to hang out with and drive around Sarah May & Kimberly in the ship in the PCICU waiting room! (check out the photo).

Thanks again to all of you for your love, support and prayers for our family, and thanks for your generous donations in Hudson's honor. It was quite a day for our Warrior, and we were so very blessed to be a part of his testimony to so many. Love to you all!