Nearly 60 people in pink shirts waited at the hospital for news of baby Wren’s birth.
Wren’s Warriors were there to support Wren’s parents, Nick and Savannah Roberts, as they prepared to welcome their daughter, and say goodbye.
Doctors had told the Montz couple that their daughter would likely not survive birth, and even if she did, would likely live only minutes. Wren was diagnosed with several serious health conditions, including multiple heart abnormalities, severe spina bifida, a rare genetic mutation, hydrocephalus and clubfeet. She has no spleen, her heart is on the right side of her body and her stomach developed in her chest rather than its normal abdominal position. Nick said doctors described her condition as incompatible with life.
As the couple prepared for Wren’s delivery, Savannah cried, believing she would have to say goodbye to her daughter. Nick prayed that Wren, their firstborn, would live for an hour.
“That’s what I asked for,” he said. “I asked for an hour.”
Wren was born Sept. 7. She was immediately placed on her mother’s chest. A deacon baptized her.
“That was a very emotional moment for the both of us,” Nick said.
Wren was breathing heavily, but she was breathing. An hour passed, then two, then three.
The next day, doctors determined Wren could tolerate the car ride home, and Nick and Savannah left the hospital with their daughter. A hospice team met them there with oxygen, suction equipment, medications and other medical supplies.
Nick said the family did not put her down for the first six days. The family held her around the clock, fearing she could pass at any moment. But Wren kept going.
By the third or fourth day, Nick said the family began to realize something was changing.
“She doesn’t want to go,” he recalled thinking.
Instead of preparing for Wren’s death, her parents began learning how to care for her life. At one week old, Wren underwent surgery at Ochsner Children’s Hospital to repair her spina bifida. She spent six days in the hospital before returning home.
Then came milestones her parents had once been told might never happen.
Doctors had warned that Wren might not have the sucking and swallowing abilities needed to safely take a bottle, Nick said. One day, Savannah noticed Wren seemed to want her pacifier and offered it to her. They tried a bottle next.
“She just took it without a hitch,” he said.
Wren still receives supplemental nutrition through an NG tube because feeding by mouth requires more energy than her heart can always handle. But Nick said her doctors continue to be surprised by what she can do.
“She’s the strongest person I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Wren’s future remains uncertain. Her complex heart abnormalities remain one of her most serious medical challenges, and her family is seeking additional opinions about whether anything can be done to treat them.
But the conversation about Wren’s future has already changed dramatically. Nick said a cardiologist indicated that without heart intervention, Wren could potentially live for months to years. When Wren’s pediatrician relayed the information, Nick wanted to make sure he had heard correctly.
“I said, ‘Did you say a year or did you say years?’” he said.
The answer was years.
For parents who had once prayed for an hour, it was another miracle.
“She’s not going down without a fight,” Nick said.
The Roberts know Wren will remain medically complex and that no one can tell them what her future will look like. But instead of planning their goodbye, they are now learning how to build their lives around their daughter.
As for Wren’s Warriors, the group has grown to include not just family, but friends, community members and strangers. The family keeps followers updated through the Wren’s Warriors Facebook page.
The community has rallied around the Roberts family through fundraisers and everyday acts of support. Nick said friends and relatives have sold Wren’s Warriors T-shirts, organized a 50/50 raffle and planned other fundraisers. A group of Riverside Academy fifth graders made signs and bracelets at a football game and raised more than $1,600 for the family and a sixth grader at St. Charles Borromeo organized another bracelet fundraiser. Nick’s sister also organized a meal train, and supporters have provided home-cooked meals and more than $1,000 in restaurant and food-delivery gift cards.
“The community has been unimaginably amazing,” Nick said. “Overwhelming support.”
For Nick, the past several months have changed what he considers a miracle.
“Every day with her is a miracle,” he said.