Hello, and welcome to a very overdue project. My name is Wayne Keller and I'm the Founder and Executive Director of Caiden's Hope Foundation. We started Caiden's Hope Foundation in October 2010, and I've had every intention of starting a blog since then, but something always seem to stop me and it's usually the question of what I'm going to blog about.
So, I thought I'd start at the beginning.
I have known my great friend Eddie Call's daughter Jennifer since the day she was born, so we were very excited to hear she was expecting her first child. Reports on her pregnancy were all positive until they weren't and five days after visiting her doctor, Jennifer delivered her son Caiden 2 and 1/2 months premature. Doctors called for a helicopter to take Caiden 70 miles from home to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, but it was raining, and the helicopter couldn't fly, so he was placed in an ambulance with his grandparents driving right behind.
Later that night, Eddie secured a hotel for the next few nights while UCLA staff stabilized him and began treatment.
I always tell people this is the first time God shows up in this story, but that isn't true. God was always there and without Him, I don't know what the family would have done.
Eddie had tried to get a hotel room at the UCLA medical facility, but the hotel is always sold out. When he went to the hotel to doublecheck, the front desk agent was canceling a room reservation and Eddie was able to confirm a room for three nights. Now, they had a place to stay. God is good.
The next day, Jennifer was able to leave her hospital and was driven to UCLA to see her son. Once she arrived, she never left, with hospital Social Services arranging for a hotel room for Jennifer for 2 1/2 months. But, having a place to sleep isn't the only issue Jennifer faced. Meals, parking, being alone, being scared, these are all issues most NICU families face daily.
When we heard about the issues Jennifer was facing, we started the blame game. Why wasn't anyone helping NICU parents? Why weren't insurance companies helping? Why wasn't the government? Why weren't you? And slowly we realized, why weren't we helping?
The realization that we should be helping took 10 months. Caiden was born in January and Caiden's Hope Foundation was officially formed in October 2010. It took a lot of research and the help of a wonderful woman at the Internal Revenue Service. I wish I knew her name for she was certainly one of God's angels. She took the time to explain what we needed to do to be certified as a 501c3 charity and actually helped write the documents needed for approval. She was an Angel. Caiden's Hope Foundation would not exist without her, for I'm sure we would have given up.
We set our goal to help one family in 2010 and actually assisted five. The next year we helped 17, and then 88. Last year (2024) we assisted over 170 families in all 50 states with unforeseen and unexpected expenses related to personally caring for their precious gift hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
We have been blessed to assist over 3,000 NICU families, but one family stands out.
Megan Easley was expecting her first child. Doctors knew something was wrong with his heart but weren't sure exactly what the issue was. Three days after her son Matthew was born, he underwent open heart surgery. Doctors found that 1/2 of his heart didn't work correctly and the other have was nonexistent. Five months later he received a complete heart transplant.
A few years later Megan was again expecting. This time with identical triplets and Caiden's Hope Foundation was able to help again. It is a real blessing to be able to help NICU parents, but Caiden's Hope Foundation is just a conduit from God. It's our friends, both new and old, people attending our fundraising events and corporations that see the good in what we are trying to accomplish that allow us to help. But don't misunderstand, we need donations every day. In fact, if you are moved to help, be sure to visit the Donate page on this website. No one at Caiden's Hope Foundation receives a salary, we are all volunteers who work tirelessly to help.
It's now been fifteen years, and I finally was able to write the blog I anticipated writing years ago. I hope you understand the faith it has taken to take an idea and translate it into meaningful assistance. I also hope you'll check in from time to time to see what else I might have to say.
Thanks for reading. May God continue to bless you and your family.
Wayne
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