Crusade kid Lillie throws out first pitch
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Lafayette Township Fire Dept. Open House
Lillie throws out first pitch
We’ve all heard the phrase “angels among us”. Now we’d like to introduce you to the Dodson family who with help from the Family Enrichment Center and the WHAS Crusade for Children is truly saving the life of three-year-old Lillie.
Lillie is a testament to the resilience of a child. “She weighed just over four pounds when she was born. They gave her a 10 to 20% chance of living,” said Debbie Dodson, Lillie’s Aunt.
“She is my baby sister’s daughter. And my sister got on drugs. She got on meth. While she was about seven-and-a-half months pregnant she OD’d on meth. They thought the baby was going to die but she didn’t.”
Debbie says for a while Lillie’s biological mother tried to take care of her newborn daughter. When Lillie was seven-weeks-old, the Dodson’s visited her and found she was quite ill.
“We took her to the hospital and…turns out she had an upper respiratory infection. She had an ear infection…a bacterial and yeast infection to the point where her whole top layer of skin was gone,” Debbie continued.
The Dodson’s began the long and painful process of nursing Lillie back to health. They received help from Nancy Booth at the Family Enrichment Center, an agency you support through the Crusade for Children.
Nancy said, “Crusade for Children has been just so instrumental in the Parents as Teachers Program. Without the Crusade, we would not be able to serve special needs children such as Lillie.”
Lillie’s aunt continued, “They’ve been a God send, I tell you. And with her OD’ing on meth we don’t know what to expect with Lillie…as she gets older. So she (Nancy) would always bring little information packets and let us know what she should be doing at that stage.”
Thus far, thanks to the Dodson’s and some timely help from the Crusade, Lillie is hitting all her milestones.
“Ii love you,” said Lillie.
More good news for Lillie, the Dodson’s have worked through the court system and now are legally the proud parents of this ever-energetic three year old.
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