Maybe you digested a lot of food and football over the Thanksgiving weekend like the Royal Family. Instead of posting pictures of Eric’s multiple Thanksgiving courses, we included Eric’s first tackle football photo.

Under the “Take A Breath Boy” section on the Royal Family Birth Weight Challenge page, we shared details about difficulties Eric had eating and how he battled several other conditions, including two brain bleeds and blood in his spinal fluid, on and around his first Thanksgiving. Trust us, eating is no longer a challenge.

Given Eric’s early childhood brain trauma, as former NICU parents, Wendy and Mike were somewhat relieved when Eric chose to get a job and focus on strength training workouts, instead of playing football his senior year of high school. Eric is in the best shape of his life. More importantly, the life lessons he is learning, while balancing school, work, and exercise, will serve Eric well as he heads off to college next year.

Once Mike, as a former NICU dad, former wrestler, former marathon runner, former alpine ski racer, confirmed Eric no longer had the fire in his belly to play football, he knew it was time for Eric to pursue other dreams. As a blind athlete who dreamt of winning an international gold medal at the paralympic games or world championships, this did not, however, prevent Mike from questioning, if,” …the numerous weekends spent on the water training and the various family vacation centered around a ski tournament instead of something the other Royal Family members might have rather done were worth it. Thoughts like did I place too much emphasis on what I wanted to try to accomplish at the expense of some of my children’s hopes and dreams were running through my head.” To learn how after nearly 40 years Mike finally won a gold medal at a World Championships event, you can read Chapter 1 of the Grit Happens book that will probably never be finished or checkout the video coverage Taylor edited from the 2019 IWWF World Disabled Waterski Championships.

For NICU parents who have a child in the NICU this holiday season, we encourage you to never stop dreaming for both yourselves and your child.

Instead of suggesting a donation amount, this week we simply ask you to donate what you can to make other NICU parents dreams come true. Use this link to make a donation to March of Dimes Do-It-Yourself Fundraising – Mike Royal.

Use this link to view all of our March of Dimes posts.