Jennifer Deshaies went to a prenatal doctor's appointment in Redding in August.
She knew her baby had medical problems, but she was in disbelief when they told her it was so severe she'd be taken by ambulance to UC Davis Medical Center.
"I said, 'Shut up,' " Deshaies recalled.
A few minutes later they said, no, she wasn't going by ambulance. She was going to be flown by airplane.
Deshaies has been in Sacramento since. Needless to say, she didn't have time to collect her belongings to bring with her.
Not even a toothbrush.
After Erica Zipora Hope Chilton was born at the medical center by Caesarean section Aug. 17, Deshaies moved to Kiwanis Family House – a facility for patients and families at the medical center who don't have a place to stay in Sacramento.
"If I weren't here, I'd be sleeping on the lawn at the hospital," Deshaies said.
Like Deshaies, people often arrive with nothing.
In addition to housing people in 24 rooms, supplemented by RV spaces, the Kiwanis provide toiletries, clothing and food from a food closet for new arrivals. Kiwanis officials have asked Book of Dreams readers to help purchase items to restock their food locker.
The patients and families pay $40 a day for their room if they can afford it.
Deshaies, who had lost her Redding home in foreclosure in recent years, cannot.
Erica – a sign by her bed calls her Princess Zipora – looks every bit the perfect baby, but she is still sick. She is fed Deshaies' breast milk through a tube in her stomach, because her esophagus doesn't connect.
She also has a heart defect known as cardiac tetralogy. Both problems will require major surgeries.
"When the surgeon came and talked to me, I just cried and cried," Deshaies said.
Mostly, she is upbeat, though she gets lonely. "Yesterday, I just so wanted to go home," she said recently.
But at least she has the Kiwanis Family House to go to, whenever she is not sitting in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit, holding Erica.
There is a kitchen where she can store her food and cook, and a library with books and videos.
"They had the new James Patterson when I went in there last night," she said. "Woohoo!"
Needed: Restock pantry for Kiwanis Family House, which provides comfort and comfort food for families with seriously ill or injured children and adults receiving treatment at UC Davis Medical Center.
Total: $5,000
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