Hometown Rankin - June & July 2017

Love is an incredible
& powerful force.
It tests your courage, strength,
dedication, patience, kindness,
perseverance, and a million
other little things.
The people we shower with our affections will put that love through a lot
— sometimes by their actions, or sometimes by their circumstances. But of all
the different people you love, the love for your child is perhaps one of the purest
and strongest. When they hurt, you hurt, and you’d give anything to make them
better — even give a part of yourself. That is precisely the decision Matt and Ashley
Dykman made when they learned that their beloved son would be born in need
of a kidney transplant.
When Ashley was 17 weeks pregnant, she and her husband Matt made the trip
to the doctor that everyone looks forward to when they are expecting: the one
where they would learn the sex of their baby-to-be. Unfortunately, along with that,
came news no new parent hopes to hear — that their son was suffering from a rare
birth defect called Eagle-Barrett, better-known as “Prune-Belly Syndrome”. His
abdominal wall was not forming correctly and affected the development of his
organs, particularly his kidneys.
When he was born, Sawyer’s kidneys did not function at all and his parents were
forced to put him on dialysis. Many surgeries were performed to help him with
different issues that commonly arise with his type of syndrome. Seeing the stress
that the Dykmans were going through, their hometown community of Florence
banded together and held several fundraisers to help ease the financial burden of
hospital bills for the family.
Hometown Rankin • 59