Happy 20th Birthday Christy!!!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Angel!!! We love you and miss you very much!!!

With lots of love, hugs and kisses,

Papa, Mama, Emmy and Tony

In memory of Christy

To all the dear souls that have shared in this journey, we appreciate all the love and special memories that you have shared with us. We are hoping to plan a remembrance get-together for Christy in July..She would have turned 20 on July 15th. Please email us at pray4christy@gmail.com if you have any ideas or suggestions or if you just want to express yourself..We would love to hear from you! It is a great comfort to us to know how many people think of her and keep her close to their hearts...

Love,

Anna

Dearest Christy,

...Seems like yesterday that we lost you. Our pain has been intense. We try and we try again to remember only the happy times with you to make our hearts lighter but find ourselves missing you desperately, wishing that we could turn back time to hear your laughter and feel your arms around us, wishing that we could have done something to protect you more. Tears roll down my cheeks as I write knowing that I have only memories to comfort me but they are tears of healing..I know in my heart that you do not want me to be sad. You have touched so many hearts my sweet daughter and I know that I am not alone on this journey. Your strength of spirit keeps me strong. Please keep visiting in our dreams as it helps us find peace. We love you more than words can express...

Love,

Mama, Papa, Emmy and Tony

Thank You

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you all so much for your love, support, smiles, hugs, prayers, and shared tears during the services for our dear Christy this past Monday. The love and warmth that was extended to us from so many friends, old and new, gives us such comfort...it is hard to find words to express how very grateful we are. As everyone is aware, these past weeks have been excruciatingly difficult for our family and we had to come to realize through prayer that as much as we desperately wanted to keep Christy with us...we had to trust in God and release her to Him...she is fulfilling the plan that was set out for her. We are at peace knowing that, in the beautiful sunshine that came out on Monday, in the wind overlooking the ocean, in the moon and stars that shine down on us at night and in the wonderful memories of her that we hold deep within our hearts, she will continue to watch over and be with us all...We will always love you our sweet, sweet, baby girl Christy Sophie...Hope you are having a blast in heaven!!!

With Special Thanks:

For all the many prayers sent up to the Lord for Christy and for our family this past month...We are very blessed by your love...

To Grandpa Joe, Amma, Auntie, Abuelita, Grandma Nancy and all of our Tios, Tias and cousins...for all of your never-ending love, prayers and support for Christy and for us...

To our dear friend Noreen King for being there with us day and night to love Christy and to comfort us and hold us until the night she left us...we will never forget your love and support...

To our dear friends Bryan, Ashley, Breann and Cailee King, for your hugs, for being there to love Christy and us...To Bryan for your help by openly supporting our very difficult decision as a family...And to Ashley for helping to type up the mass program and give your beautifully delivered prayers of the faithful at her service... :)

To Alex for being there with your constant loving support for Emmy, Tony and for us...And for all your love and prayers for Christy..

To Christina Clark Siegfried for the daily uplifting prayers and messages, for visiting and giving Christy her angel and memory frame, for helping to organize everyone and everything for her service, (even the wonderful little bees for our shoulders) (: We couldn't have done this all without you...And to Doug Siegfried for all your support, help with Christy's service and love for her also... :)

To Sherry and Kevin for all of your constant prayers, comforting scriptures, and visits to hold our hands throughout this journey until the night she left us...You have given us such strength...

To Mark Cantrell for all your prayers and love for Christy, for introducing us to George and praying together with us...

To George Park for your spiritual guidance, prayers and comfort for our family and being there for us on the night she left us...

To Father Stanley Poltorak for giving Christy a wonderful memorial mass that we will always remember...and for blessing her before her journey to heaven...

To Brynn for your love and positive energy, for the sparkly nail polish so the girls could do Christy's nails, and for going out of your way to print her memorial programs...(twice!!!:) :)

To the Sutter Roseville Trauma-Neuro ICU doctors, nurses and staff who together as a wonderful caring team, delivered the best possible care for Christy... Special thanks to Karen Farwell LCSW for going above and beyond her job duties to make sure we were always well informed and to show extra care for our family ...To Dr. Perlstein for his excellent care and his willingness to talk with us and keep us informed ...Special thanks also to Ethyl, Jamie, Chris, Jackie, Alvina, Renee and Barbara for the extra special love and attention you showed to Christy and to our family...Our heartfelt thanks to all for treating her as if she were your own daughter...

To Lisa Whitesides and her son Alex and Kathy and Bryan Graves for picking up, delivering and setting up the Mexican food at the reception for us...

To all the friends and family who brought the delicious food, desserts and coffee to the reception...

To Kathie and Erin Davena for all of your love and delicious grub at the hospital... :) And also to Marcia and Jim Brewer, Colleen and Steve Devine and family, Noreen, Breann and Cailee King, Angela, Avonlea Montague, Mayra and Jasmine, Alex and the Villalobos family, the S.F. Marriott Union Square, and Christy's Starbucks family in Lincoln for all the wonderful food, coffee, and love, throughout our hospital stay...

To everyone who donated your generous gifts to Christy's memorial fund...we are forever grateful for your help...

To Angela, Erin, Hillary and Lisa for being there day and night to love Christy and to spend time reading to, joking with and loving her until the night she left us..Thank you also for the constant messages of support and love to us...You all are such a blessing to us :) and also for the help in the planning of her memorial...To Hillary for the beautiful photo board, scrapbook and making the cd's of Christy's favorite music. :)

To Angela for taking the time to put together such a wonderful slide show, it will always remain a beautiful, loving tribute to Christy and we will watch it often...You are such a sweetheart... :)

To Taryn for all your love and visits to Christy and for creating such a beautiful memorial program for her...(even with only moments notice from us) Thank you so so much for your help..we will forever be grateful to you.. :)

To Annie, Ashlee, Kyle, Megan and all of Christy's close friends who came to visit her often and give their love to her...and to all her friends and family (including her friends and family from her Lincoln Starbucks :) who visited with her, wrote her cards, drew her pictures, sent messages on her blog, prayed for her and loved her...she heard all of your messages and still feels all of your love for her...

To Austin for always loving Christy and keeping her close to your heart...You will forever remain in her heart as well...

And to Hillary.. You will always and forever be the Bumble to Christy's Bee... :)

(Hope we didn't leave anyone out..Please forgive us if we did)

We love you all very much :)

Victor, Anna, Emmy and Tony Betancourt

Photos needed for Christy's Celebration of Life Reception

Hello to our dear family and friends,

We first would like to express our thanks for all the tremendous love and support everyone has shown our family these past few very painful weeks...We do not know what we would do without all of you and are humbled at the thought of how much we are blessed by all of your love...As we celebrate our dear Christy's beautiful life this Monday we hope to meet and thank everyone personally and if you somehow are unable to attend-PLEASE make sure we have your address and/or contact info at our email-- pray4christy@gmail.com

Special thanks to Christina and Brynn and all of Christy's long-time good friends- Angela, Erin, Hillary, Lisa and Taryn for helping to co-ordinate everything and everyone to make her celebration so special..

Also,  Angela is requesting that we continue to upload pics for the slideshow that she is making for the celebration. Thank you everyone for all the pictures that you have sent into photobucket so far..they have been continually lifting our spirits:)  Thanks again everyone and we hope to see you on Monday..

Love, The Betancourt Family

Christy Betancourt’s Memorial Fund Update. . .

A few people have had trouble locating Christy’s memorial account at Wells Fargo. Please be sure to give them the entire name, “The Christy Betancourt Memorial Fund.” If they need to verify this account, you can either give them the last four digits of the account... 5498 or the city we live in which is Rocklin. This should work, so sorry if there have been any mix-ups.  We are calling Wells Fargo in the morning to make sure that the account is easily accessible. If you need our home address: 6420 Sonora Pass Way Rocklin CA 95765. Thanks again for all of your support during this difficult time. 

To the Family and Friends of the Betancourt's and Christy;

The past two weeks the family has endured a pain the most of us will never encounter.  The task of now remembering their daughter is not something that anyone knows how to plan for.  The burden this loss has caused their family is something that no one can imagine.

 

The Betancourts would like to do mexican theme food at the celebration of life.  The family was thinking of supplying the food.  I know there are many of us that would be more then willing to prepare food with this theme in mind or any other food of your choice and honor Christy without the additional burden falling upon the family.

 

If you would like to contribute food to the event, please let me know.  I can be contacted at 916-316-5615 orclassyldycc@hotmail.com.

 

Also to honor Christy I am making a storybook for the family.  I would like to gather stories and pictures to place in the storybook.  This will be a hardbound book with graphics photos and the stories of family and friends to be preserved forever.  We would like to be able to remember Christy from her first day she blessed everyone, through her years of growth and the memory that will forever live on.

 

The things I would like to know are:

 

1) Favorites

      Food

      Color

      Music

      Places

2) How you first met Christy?

3) A story about Christy

4) Something funny you remember that she did.

 

Anything else you would like to contribute.

 

We will have 150 pages to remember Christy and honor the gift she gave to all of us. The book will not be ready in time for the memorial but will be presented to the family once it is complete.

 

Please send your comments, contributions and pictures to classyldycc@hotmail.com

 

I have obtained the blessing of the family to create this storybook.

 

I will see everyone at the memorial and celebration of life on Monday to honor Christy. 

 

May God provide strength to the Betancourt's in the days ahead.  I know they will have all of our support in the days ahead.

 

Christina Clark Siegfried

Christy’s Rosary and Funeral Mass Services. . .

Date: Monday, February 15, 2010
Rosary Time: 10:00am
Funeral Mass Time: 11:00am
Celebration of Life Reception: To follow after funeral at the Church’s hall
Church: Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 4450 Granite Drive, Rocklin, CA 95677
Our Home Address: 6420 Sonora Pass Way, Rocklin, CA 95765

In lieu of flowers, we would appreciate any donations to be made to “The Christy Betancourt Memorial Fund.” This is a special account made through Wells Fargo to help pay for Christy’s arrangements. If you would like to contribute, you can make a deposit into this fund at any Wells Fargo branch. If you need help locating this account, the last four digits are 5498. Thank you so very much for all of your support.

Love,
The Betancourt Family

Christy is in Heaven : )

God took our precious angel Christy last night, February 7th, 2010 at 11:25pm. She had a peaceful passing and our parents were by her side the entire time. Christy will be so dearly missed by all of her family and friends. Christy’s smile and laugh were contagious and warmed our hearts. She always had a way of living life in the moment and to its fullest. Christy truly touched the lives of many people while here on earth, and we know that God has a special plan for her. We love you Christy with all our hearts and souls and know that you will be watching over us now.

Information on Christy’s memorial services will be posted soon. . .

New Photobucket account for Christy

Christy's good friend Erin has started a photobucket.com account for everyone to share pics of her and their good times with her. Feel free to log on and start and album...We'll add to it also when we can.

Thank you Erin and thanks everyone:)      username: prayforchristy   password: betancourt

Christy’s Prognosis Day 10

The doctors and the social workers caught wind that we were praying for a miracle, and may have felt compelled to call an unplanned conference about the reality of Christy’s condition. This doctor was a different trauma doctor than the trauma doctor we have met with the previous two times. Apparently, this doctor avoids family conferences at all costs unless it’s absolutely necessary. The doctor mentioned that this was the hardest part of his job, and having children himself, he realizes the pain we are in. All the doctors and nurses are looking at Christy as if she were their own. The doctor wanted to further explain Christy’s prognosis and her potential recovery process. The doctor explained first that we are now into the second week and Christy’s CT scans have not changed at all and her physical exams are still very poor. Christy’s brain is suffering from diffuse axonal injuries as well as frontal lobe damage, which depending on the amount of trauma, may be very difficult for her to progress further than the vegetative state. Her left eye is completely disconnected from the muscle behind it, and would need to be replaced with a prosthetic eye. Her right is detached from the retina, which signifies blindness. The doctor also explained the stages of recovery from this point, which run on a 1-5 scale. A 5 means that the person is 100% back to their normal self. A 4 means that the person is still able to function independently but their social functioning or ability to keep certain jobs may be affected. A 3 means that the person is handicapped in some way and may need help with daily functions such as being fed, bathed or changed; their personality may not be there and they may still have a permanent feeding tube. A 2 means they are in a persistent vegetative state, with no return of interaction with you, even though they may be awake and have their eyes open; they might be able to breathe on their own but would still have a feeding tube. A 1 means that they are in a coma and may never wake up, which is the state Christy is currently in. The doctor told us that based upon his experience, the trauma to Christy’s brain is so severe, that there is a 1/1000 chance that she would even make it to stage 4. There is a 99.9% chance she will remain in either stage 1, 2, 3. Right now, since Christy has been stable, we have to consider moving hospitals from Sutter to Kaiser, which would be more of a long term care facility versus a trauma unit. They also want to place a tracheostomy in Christy’s trachea instead of using her respirator, which would eventually cause damage to her vocal cords if used for too long.. The doctor has asked us to consider the probable quality of life that Christy may have, and also to consider what Christy would have wanted us to do in this case. We have been through a roller coaster of emotions, and still have many more questions for the doctors. We may have tried too hard to keep Christy here on earth, when maybe she belonged in paradise. Where does science end and God come in, and visa versa. We of course are still hopeful for a miracle, but at what point do you let that go and face reality, and realize that God wants her with him?  Please continue to visit Christy and let her know much you love and care about her. We love you Christy, and all we want is the best for you!

Christy's Recovery Days 8-9

Dear  Family and Friends, 

Our heartfelt thanks go out to everyone for the tremendous love and support everyone has surrounded Christy and our family with this past week...We don't know how we would manage without you!!!! We really can tell that Christy is feeling all the love and positive energy that you all have sent her way...She looks good this morning and we truly believe that she is going to come around soon..She was lifting her hand and lifting her index finger and fluttering her right eyelid when we were with her this morning :) Her MRI did not show anything that the doctors hadn't already expected, she did show that she had additional damage that does not show up on the CT scan but that was to be expected with such a traumatic brain injury. We do know that Christy has a long road of recovery ahead of her and that she was not taken from us for a very important reason. We have to continue to give her all the positive energy we can and prove the doctors wrong!!! Please continue to pray for her and send messages.. We are reading them to her every day:)

We love you all,

The Betancourt Family

Christy’s Recovery Day 7

So today Christy had her entire family from both sides here at the hospital taking turns being by her side. She also had very many close friends come and cheer her up. The energy and support that Christy has is very powerful and I know that’s helping her recovery. We are not going to have the MRI results until sometime tomorrow. There was only one trauma doctor here today that was busy with many emergency patients, so we just have to wait a little while longer. We have been reading Christy “Alice in Wonderland,” which is one of her favorite movies. Christy continues to move and continues to posture, which according to the nurse are different. When Christy postures, her whole body tenses up and she seems a little agitated or uncomfortable. When Christy moves, she might twitch her eyelid slightly, wiggle her toes, grasp your hand, move her head, arm, or leg. While I was reading to her, Christy looked as though she was struggling to open her eyelid. This helps us to know that she’s still with us. And although these movements may not be voluntary yet, it’s still a good sign that she hasn’t given up on us and that she’s still trying to come out of this. They have told us before that Christy doesn’t seem to be reacting to pain, but it is evident that she does react to pain. Whenever they prick her finger to test her blood sugar level, or make her cough to check her respirator, Christy obviously becomes uncomfortable and tries to pull away or tenses up to show that it was uncomfortable for her. We hold her hand and let her know that we are there with her and she just needs to focus on healing herself little by little, day by day. Thank you for all of you praying for her miracle, we have to have faith that Lord is taking care of her. I know that all of our prayers can help God realize how much we need Christy here on earth. We love you so much! Sleep tight my angel.

Christy Betancourt’s Recovery Day 6

We met with one of the neuro Trauma doctors today. We have been trying to have a family conference scheduled for past two days, but they have been busy with many emergency patients that have come in recently. So today at our conference, the doctor tried to be very honest with us and tell us that they are very worried about Christy. The doctor said that we are almost a week into the recovery process, and we should have seen Christy improve slightly by now. He told us she has an MRI scheduled for this afternoon, but they are checking first to see if the metal plates they had to use on the side of her face are going to be compatible with an MRI scan. The scan is only going to tell us more detailed information of additional damage to parts of her brain, but will not change the treatment that she is given. The doctor guesses that the reason she hasn’t improved at all is because she does have additional damage to the brain that is not visible on the CT scans. Her other non-damaged eye is not functioning now either, which could be a symptom of bilateral blindness. In all of his 10 years of experience, he says that he’s only seen a couple of patients improve after this amount of time of no improvement at all, and those patients haven't gone on to be normal functioning. He told us that if Christy continues to stay in this condition for another week, he’s going to ask us what we want to do. So needless to say, the information we were given today was very grim. Christy needs a miracle to come out of this. We are staying by her side and telling her how much we love her. All we can do is pray that God doesn’t snatch her up for Himself. Please continue to pray for her as much as you can. She is in the Lord's hands. We love you soooooo much Christy!

The Betancourt Family

Christy's Recovery Day 5

Hello Family and Friends,

Thank you all for the love and support you have shown Christy in this past week. As many of you know, Christy was in a horrible car accident last Sunday, January 24th and is suffering from a severe brain injury. Most of the damage was to the left side of her face, damaging her left eye and her frontal lobe. Her eye is still intact but is not functional as of yet; the doctors aren’t sure if this permanent or not. Her skull was cracked at the time of the accident, which actually turns out to be a good thing for a brain injury, because the brain has room to swell. All other parts of Christy’s body are in mint condition. Christy is in stable condition but is still in a coma and still needs help breathing through a respirator and is fed through a feeding tube. Christy’s condition hasn’t gotten any worse, but hasn’t gotten much better as of yet. The most important thing is that the swelling in her brain stays down, which it has.
The doctors have seen patients who have had an injury similar to Christy’s and make it out just fine, and they have also seen patients with a similar injury that just stay in that condition. The doctors have conducted several CT scans, but there haven’t been changes between any of the scans yet. It is still too early to conduct and MRI to find out if there is damage to any other parts of her brain. Christy has moved a little bit which was exciting for us to see, but the nurses describe this just as posturing, or reflexes. Christy has been running a slight fever the past couple of days, but nurses are keeping this down with Tylenol and ice packs.
Christy is young and strong and we just have to believe that she is in God’s hands right now and we have to trust that He is watching over her. Christy could use all the prayers she can possibly get right now. Please continue to show your love and support for Christy, I really do believe that that will make all of the difference. If you would like to see her, just please make sure you aren’t feeling sick and contact my parents first. We love you with all our hearts Christy! Our world wouldn’t be the same without you. xoxo

Love,
The Betancourt Family

WE LOOOOOOOVE YOU!