09/02/2026
Good morning, my AzikStrong 🩵 people.
I didn’t want to give a giant update, but there is so much happening in this next chapter of our story that I wanted to bring you along.
We are officially 13 months post-heart transplant, and by the grace of God, we are doing VERY well. 🥹🩵
We’re back in school, navigating sophomore/junior year of high school, and Azik is doing so well adjusting.
With his autism, he absolutely LOVES routine, structure, and having other people care for him and take him places besides his mama. 😂🩵 Honestly, I truly believe he enjoys the break from me being his one-woman show for 10+ hours a day during the summer. And because I work from home, summertime isn’t exactly filled with exciting adventures every day. So, needless to say, he was READY for school to start. 😂
And then we got another piece of incredibly beautiful news:
✨ Our Make-A-Wish journey is officially beginning! ✨
We’ll be assigned our caseworker, and from there, we’ll be able to start planning and moving forward.
I am SO incredibly grateful.
Grateful that God gave my son a second chance at life.
Grateful that his life-altering experience brought our family closer to the Lord.
Grateful for every doctor, nurse, therapist, donor, family member, friend, prayer warrior, and person who stood beside us.
And grateful that even in one of the hardest seasons of our lives, I can finally see the light.
It’s still a little dim.
But I SEE IT.
I know that eventually, we will be back on our feet financially, structurally, emotionally, and routinely. And right now, I am simply enamored by God’s grace, His mercy, His miraculous power, and the way He has carried our family through something I never thought we would survive.
Because the truth is…
This story could have ended very differently.
I could be telling you that I am mourning my son.
But I’m not.
I get to tell you that he is HERE.
And because he is here, I believe God has a purpose for his life.
I believe there is purpose in our pain.
Purpose in our survival.
Purpose in his testimony.
And I believe Azik’s story is only the beginning of something much bigger.
🩵 THE AZIKSTRONG ACT 🩵
This is something I am going to be working toward day and night for the next several years.
My goal is to advocate for legislation that would require athletes to receive an echocardiogram before each sports season, regardless of age or level of competition.
Because we continue to hear about athletes collapsing, fainting, experiencing cardiac events, and tragically, sometimes dying during practices, games, and competitions.
And many underlying heart conditions can exist without obvious warning signs.
Athletes are trained to push through.
Especially those determined young men who don’t want to admit something hurts. They may think their body is simply changing, they’re exhausted from training, or they just need to work harder.
But what if it’s something more?
What if we could catch it BEFORE it becomes catastrophic?
Azik wasn’t diagnosed until his heart was already dangerously sick.
We almost lost our child.
And I will spend the rest of my life trying to make sure another family doesn’t have to experience that same phone call, that same hospital room, that same fear, or that same “what if we had known sooner?”
This isn’t about fear.
It’s about prevention.
It’s about awareness.
It’s about giving parents, athletes, coaches, schools, and communities another opportunity to catch something that may otherwise go unnoticed.
And it’s about doing everything we can to protect these kids before they’re standing on a field, court, track, or sideline fighting for their lives.
So I’m going to start documenting this journey.
The good.
The hard.
The advocacy.
The legislation.
The Make-A-Wish journey.
The transplant journey.
The everyday life of a teenage heart transplant survivor with autism.
And everything in between.
I want you to follow along.
Engage. Encourage. Like. Follow. Share. Tag your schools. Tag your coaches. Tag your athletic departments. Tag your legislators.
Because I don’t want the AzikStrong 🩵 Act to stay an idea.
I want it to become change.
I want this conversation to reach families across the country.
If Azik’s story can save even ONE child…
If his story can make ONE parent ask one more question…
If it can make ONE coach recognize that something isn’t right…
If it can help ONE family catch a heart condition before it’s too late…
then every hard part of this journey will be worth it.
We love you, AzikStrong 🩵 family.
We’re praying for you every single day.
And as we step into this next chapter, tell us how we can pray for YOU.
Drop it below. We want to stand with you, too. 🩵
