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