13 Jul The Perez Family

My name is Angela Perez.  I was fortunate enough to stay at The Ronald McDonald House inside Texas Children’s Hospital.  At that time, my 10 day old son, Nicholas, was diagnosed with Bacterial Meningitis – later to find out through testing that it was Ecoli, the second most deadly type of meningitis.  He was admitted into the NICU in isolation.  I remember the morning after he was admitted, his nurse told me about the Ronald McDonald House in the hospital and she put me on the list for a room.

There are so many things that I remember from my stay in the Ronald McDonald House:  I’ll never forget the feeling that I had walking down the hallways from the NICU to RMH – especially the very first time.  The little brown bag that was delivered to me with toiletry items so that I could shower.  The exhaustion that I felt when his nurse would call me in the middle of the night to come and nurse him, I remember feeling that too, “BUT at least I was close so that I could still nurse him.”

And… THE COOKIES!  Who could forget the delicious cookies that one of the sweet volunteers would make every morning, which usually turned into my breakfast. J  I also remember praying… I prayed to God that if he healed my son, I would promise to give back to the people who gave to me!

I’m happy to report that I have kept up with that promise. God did heal my son completely with no side effects from the meningitis (when we were initially told that he would be deaf and developmentally delayed).

Every year on Christmas Eve, my mom and I take a Christmas Eve dinner and many donation items to the Ronald McDonald House inside Texas Children’s Hospital for the families who are spending the holidays with their healing children.  I have to say that this is the highlight of my Christmas every year and I’m so thankful for anyone and everyone who makes the Ronald McDonald Houses possible. I have also raised money for Ronald McDonald House Houston when I ran the Houston half marathon in their honor.

THANK YOU, RMH, FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE AND ALL THAT YOU DO!  It is truly a life changing experience!