T.E.A.M. Kaleigh History.........

As many of you know T.E.A.M. Kaleigh has two separate and unique meanings.

First, it is the most amazing support system we are blessed to have.  It is made up of classmates, dancers, parents, neighbors, students, teachers, administrators, co-workers, friends, relatives, churches, and hundreds of people we have never met in person, but have said thousands of prayers for us. 

Second, TEAM stands for: Take a stand, Embrace life, Accept diversity and Make a difference.  All of these are traits that Kaleigh expressed and made her the amazing young lady she is.  We look forward to hearing from you and please continue to stay in contact with us.  God Bless.

Kaleigh's story....

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Kaleigh Anna Faeh is our 13 year old--she is an amazing daughter, a caring granddaughter, a typical sister, a fun niece, a loving cousin, a cool friend and a beautiful, smart young lady.  She is the oldest of 3 kids, with sisters Grace and Gabbie.  She was in 8th grade at Rosemount Middle School and enjoyed academics, activities and friends.  She participates in competition dance line at The Dance Connection and is awesome at any kind of dance she does.  She loves to boat with family and friends in the summer and has enjoyed several family vacations to Florida and Mexico.

On Sunday November 14th, 2010 Kaleigh began to get sick.  Unfortunately on Wednesday November 17th things got quite bad and Kaleigh ended up in the emergency room at Children's Hospital in St. Paul.  She was taken up to ICU shortly after that and they put her into an induced sedated state and intubated her. That was the last time she was awake.  She had an infection (strep A) that resulted in septic shock and her organs began to shut down. On Thursday morning November 18th, Kaleigh had emergency surgery on the area under her left shoulder to drain the infection and stop the spread of the necrotizing fasciitis. The surgery was successful but she was still having difficulty fighting the infection and sepsis so it was determined that she needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis to be placed an ECMO  machine that would take over for her heart and lungs.  This would allow her body to have more strength to fight the bacteria and sepsis as the machine took the stress off her heart and lungs.  She responded well to the ECMO process but other complications developed that weren't reversible and on evening of Saturday November 20th, 2010 she passed away surrounded by family.

Hardly a day or hour goes by where we don't think about and miss her.  She had a bigger than life personality and truly left this earth way way way too early.  We obviously are heart broken but we are also sad for all of you who don't get to enjoy her along with us.  She was determined to accomplish great things in this world but now she is accomplishing great things, only in heaven.

We continue to look for and receive signs that she is still with us.  Maybe it's the rainbow after a storm; or the dragonfly buzzing around our heads when we put the boat in the water and ask "who wants to go first?"; or the time we are feeling very sad and her favorite song comes on the radio telling us she is there with us; or standing at a dance recital snacking on M&M's, wishing she was there and then the next two out of the bag or green and orange.  We hope and pray these signs continue until the time we get to see and hold her again.