I participated in the 2019 Courage Classic to raise funds to help children like Maddix.  See his 2019 Story below.  My daughter Shannon, a nurse at Children's Hospital, provided loving care to Maddix in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit there.  

I'm participating again this year, and my ride is again dedicated to Maddix.  I'm so happy to provide the 2020 update to his story below.  I'm riding in his honor again to raise funds for Children's Hopital.  

If at all possible, please make a donation of any size to support this worthy cause.  

2020 Story of Maddix:

Since last year, Maddix has made leaps and bounds. He doesn’t need his helmet anymore. He is crawling all over the place, cruising along everything, and just about ready to walk. He can now communicate with some words and sign language, and he has become significantly less dependent on the G-tube.
He loves food! He is always happy, smiling and laughing, and he thinks his older brother is the most hilarious person on earth. He is pure joy and sunshine every day and a true blessing to our family.

2019 Story of Maddix  

Maddix was born 7 weeks early with a rare severe heart condition, requiring 3 open heart surgeries in the first 3 years of his life. After growing in the NICU, underwent his first surgery at one month old. In the days after Maddix’s surgery, he was not recovering as expected, and Maddix’s parents were told that they may lose their son. The next day, Maddix was taken to the operating room for a last ditch effort to open his chest again and see if his surgeons could pinpoint the issue. He was taken into the operating room and to everyone’s shock and surprise (doctors and surgeons included), the moment that Maddix was placed on the operating table his heart miraculously started working. The surgeons spent two hours simply observing him with fingers crossed and were able to close his chest back up without requiring intervention. Despite his survival of the first surgery, Maddix’s road to his second surgery was not an easy one and it would take him over 4 months to be out of the weeds and successfully recovered. However, he was able to recover much more easily from his second open-heart surgery at 6 months of age. After spending the first 7 months of his life in the hospital, he was finally able to come home to be with his family, just in time for the holidays. Maddix has a lot of work to do to catch up to his peers, including one more major heart surgery. However, despite all that he has experienced and continues to navigate through, he is the happiest baby, with a sweet soul and a constant smile on his face.