FEATURED FAMILY
MEET THE
GRAHAM FAMILY SUSAN GRAHAM
Paisley was 1 pound 12 ounces when she was born. As a 24-week micro preemie, the medical staff who delivered her explained to her birth mom that she likely wouldn’t cry, but she did. Paisley was life-flighted to the closest Level 4 NICU, which was at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. While she was there, she suffered a grade 3 and 4 intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), which is a brain bleed. Three hours away, her recovering birth mom called every day for updates and checked the live feed the NICU provided. Because of the brain bleeds, Paisley developed hydrocephalus and needed a shunt in addition to airway intubation and a feeding tube. Her birth parents visited her whenever they could but they decided they were not ready to parent a second child and made an adoption plan. In October of 2015, we received an email from Paisley’s birth mom telling us about her beautiful daughter. She explained that Paisley would need brain surgeries throughout her life because of the hydrocephalus. The doctors were also telling her that Paisley could develop cerebral palsy, and may never walk, talk, eat, play, or go to school. As we read her emails, Matthew and I felt a powerful peace that this was our daughter. Her diagnosis was scary but we knew that Paisley was supposed to be part of our family, too. On November 30, 2015, we met Paisley for the first time. Arkansas Children’s Hospital has a ward-style NICU with 6-8 babies in each room. The nurse leading us through the NICU didn’t know which one Paisley was in and we had to walk through a few rooms before we found her. She was tiny. Our older two children were over eight pounds when they were born but Paisley was only four pounds when we met her. Arkansas Children’s 42
December 2023
