“The Lord brought him back to us,” Pierce said tearfully.

‘Without CMN ...’

It has been a long journey for Tristen’s mother, Amber Lancaster, of Webb City. Tristen’s medical problems were unexpected, she said, and she was a frightened first-time mother who just wanted to see her baby.

“He just stayed in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for what seemed like forever,” she said of Tristen’s 45-day stay in the hospital. “The hardest part was all the tests they ran, and no one could figure out what was wrong with him.”

Although Tristen continues to improve with weekly therapy, he still has difficulty with his motor function and speech. And doctors still don’t have a diagnosis for his overall condition, Amber Lancaster said.

“We don’t fall into enough categories for any one condition,” she said.

CMN funding has helped pay for some of Tristen’s equipment over the years, as well as some of the equipment in the Freeman NICU.

“Without CMN’s help, we really couldn’t do it,” Amber Lancaster said. “We couldn’t provide the necessities that we needed.”

That help continued Tuesday when Wal-Mart’s corporate office, the sponsor for CMN’s Champion program, gave Amber Lancaster a $500 gift card, and the employees of the Webb City store gave her another $500 gift card.

“It’s going to be great for them to buy the things they need for this (upcoming) trip,” said Dave Warden, manager of the Webb City Wal-Mart. “They can use it for things that they don’t normally plan for.”

Local money

Locally, Children’s Miracle Network assists children from birth to 21 years old in a 14-county area of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Money that is raised helps furnish and maintain the Freeman neonatal intensive care unit, funds local organizations’ pediatric needs, and buys pediatric emergency equipment.