02/23/2019
Carlie’s story
Carlie Nolen is a 5 year old girl from Red Level, Alabama. Carlie is the daughter of Ashley and Kyle Nolen. Carlie has a twin sister Charlie and a brother named Jonathan. When I found out I was expecting the twins there were so many emotions that flooded my mind. I was so excited to have the first little girls born on the Nolen side. Life began to change fast for our family when I was about 20 weeks into the pregnancy. I was told the twins had twin to twin transfusion syndrome and that one or both of the girls might not make it. I was sent to Birmingham for weekly visits and then was sent to a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio for further testing. The girls were born in Montgomery, Al on September 12, 2013 at 27 weeks. Dr. Christopher Duggar delivered the girls around 10:00 pm that night. We continued to pray over the girls during the NICU stay at Baptist South in Montgomery, AL. After a month in the NICU Carlie developed necrotizing enterocolitis and was then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham where she spent the next 221 days. While Carlie was at childrens hospital she underwent intestinal surgery which left only 10cm of intestine therefore she hasn't been able to absorb regular food so she is TPN dependent. She had a feeding tube placement, 3 port placements, and she has had removal of the feeding tube. In October of 2018 Carlie was diagnoses hydrocephalous and had brain surgery in September of 2018. She has been recently diagnosed with Chronic Liver Failure due to the TPN. Children’s hospital wants us to fly Carlie to Omaha, Nebraska for a small bowel transplant evaluation. We know God has a plan, although it was hard for us to understand or know what that plan is. We know within our hearts that God has a purpose for our sweet Carlie.
Carlie loves to smile, laugh, rock, sing, and she laughs when she hears others laughing. We pray daily for children who are fighting any type of battle. I have had people ask me how do you make it through each day, and honestly the only way I make it is depending on Jesus Christ to guide me every step of the way. Carlie has taught our family that life is full of surprises and that each day is a gift from God. She has taught us how to love unconditionally.
Carlie has had several fund raisers in her name to help others. Her most recent was Wagons for Carlie. Carlie was able to help deliver over 68 wagons to Children’s Hospital in her honor. She also, sold t-shirts with her name on them and she raised over 1800.00 to give to a patient who was going to Nebraska for a small bowel transplant to help with her and her family’s expenses. If you would like to order a shirt, please let us know!
