24 Jul Feeling like family: The Pickens family story

As part of our 30th Anniversary, we wanted to hear from past families about their experience staying at the House as well as how their child is doing now. We reached out to families through email and Facebook. The response was amazing – families from recent stays to families that had stayed almost 20 years ago shared their stories. One of the stories was from Amanda Colton Pickens, mother of Kace Colton Lee Pickens. 

“Kace Colton Lee Pickens was born on December 22, 2017 in Ontario, Oregon—he was 5 lbs., 3 oz., and 16 inches long. Kace was life-flighted to Boise, Idaho on Christmas Eve and we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House until January 2, 2018. Kace is thriving now at 16 pounds, rolling over and talking up a storm. He loves his daddy and going on walks. Since Kace has been born, we got married on April 20, 2018.

Being close to Kace the first couple weeks of his life meant everything to us and made us feel right at home, with nothing to worry about but our son and his care. It was so stress free and made us feel like family. I’ve never known such an amazing group of people with big, loving hearts who are big supporters of all the families in need during such a hard time.”

We will be sharing more of these family stories through social media as we celebrate 30 years of helping families stay together and close to the medical care their children need.