Meet Adelyn! She joined our family in January 2026. Our sweet baby girl stole our hearts immediately. Our little peanut was a happy and healthy baby, with her only struggle early on being poor weight gain.

In May of 2026, when Adelyn was three months old, she was suddenly diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy and systolic heart failure, a life-threatening condition in which the heart becomes enlarged and too weak to pump blood effectively. She was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, for further assessment and treatment. Due to the critical nature of her diagnosis and condition, she required open heart surgery after six days of being hospitalized. The operation includes an insertion of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), a mechanical heart support device, to help keep Adelyn’s heart functioning until she is able to get a transplant. Adelyn was placed on the Pediatric Heart Transplant list (Status 1A – the most critical) on May 17, 2026, and will remain hospitalized until a heart transplant can take place and for several months post-transplantation.

We’re learning this is going to be an extremely long road (it already has felt like an eternity). We still have yet to process everything and the overwhelming amount of information we get on a daily basis, but we are here to support her with whatever she needs. We’re told that wait times for a heart are currently quite long, which means we’re needing to significantly reorder our lives to be close to Addie while she is here. This includes a significant increase in expenses from managing our current household along with temporary housing close to the hospital, support for our 3-year-old son, Hudson, potential impacts to our work and income, and many other unforeseen expenses for Adelyn’s care. We know post-transplant this will entail a lifetime journey of daily medications and weekly, monthly, and annual trips to Rochester to provide Adelyn with the best care possible in the future. We also have been told that it won’t be a matter of “if” but “when” Addie will need a second heart transplant as she continues to grow. All that to say, we know this journey for our family will impact the rest of our lives.

Knowing this, we have joined the Children’s Organ Transplant Association, a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding families in raising funds specifically for families on a transplant journey. Funds raised for COTA, in honor of Adelyn, will assist with a lifetime of transplant-related expenses. COTA is a 501(c)3 charity and all gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Adleyn has shown so much strength and resilience. She proves every day how strong and brave she is, and we couldn’t be more proud of her. We believe in God’s healing power over Adelyn’s heart and body. We trust that God is holding her and our family in His hands.

Our hope and comfort is this:

• Psalm 73:26 & 28 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my 🩷HEART 🩷and my portion forever… But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. I will tell of your deeds”
• Psalm 91
• Psalm 27:13-14 “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Thank you for your prayers and support of COTA for Adelyn Kay. Your generosity means the world to us.

Andrew and Lynae

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.