{"id":6206,"date":"2024-10-28T19:54:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T23:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teamimpact.org\/?p=6206"},"modified":"2024-10-30T15:06:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T19:06:41","slug":"the-stiles-family-boston-college-lacrosse-an-ethereal-game-of-pass-and-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teamimpact.org\/about\/blog\/the-stiles-family-boston-college-lacrosse-an-ethereal-game-of-pass-and-go\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stiles Family & Boston College Lacrosse: An Ethereal Game of Pass-and-Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cThe phrase that keeps coming to my head is \u2018pass and go,\u201d said Kristen Stiles when asked to reflect on her family\u2019s Team IMPACT experience. \u201cSo much in athletics, that is what you\u2019re doing. You\u2019re passing the ball, and then you\u2019re running to get free and ready for the next pass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Kristen and her husband Justin signed their daughter Lucy up for Team IMPACT, they had already seen the power that comes with team. Lucy\u2019s best friend, Charlie, was matched with the Harvard soccer team, who embraced him with love and a team of support. Before Charlie unexpectedly passed away in 2021, he passed the ball to Lucy to recognize his dream for her, a dream that she too would have a team of her own. \u201cIt was Charlie\u2019s gift,\u201d Kristen, said. \u201cCharlie saw a dream and he saw a future for Lucy that we didn\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucy was matched with the Boston College women\u2019s lacrosse team in August of 2021, and it didn\u2019t take long for the entire Stiles family to understand the thing that Charlie knew all along. \u201cIt is ethereal<\/strong>,\u201d Kristen said. \u201cOut in the ethers, you can feel alone, or you can feel like you\u2019re connected to other like-minded people and have a community and that you are part of something.\u201d That connection is what Team IMPACT and BC lacrosse brought to Kristen, Justin, Lucy, and Lucy\u2019s twin sister, Sophie. \u201cIt lifted us up and made these connections in a way I never would have thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lucy and Sophie have been fighters since even before they were born. \u201cEverything was amazing for 26 weeks, and then all of the sudden, everything changed,\u201d Kristen said. She and Justin learned that the girls had twin-to-twin fusion, meaning their shared placenta was not evenly feeding both girls. \u201cLucy was being flooded, while Sophie was being deprived of nearly all nutrients,\u201d Kristen shared. It was too late in the pregnancy for doctors to perform an in-utero procedure, leaving Kristen and Justin\u2019s only option to be an emergency C-section. Three months early, Kristen gave birth to her one- and two-pound identical twin girls. \u201cIt was a challenging road from the start as both girls fought for their lives,\u201d Kristen said. Doctors struggled to find Sophie\u2019s heartbeat, and Lucy\u2019s complications indicated a much higher risk of having longterm effects. A month later, doctors\u2019 predictions were confirmed when it was discovered that Lucy had suffered a catastrophic neurological incident that would almost certainly lead to a very severe case of cerebral palsy. \u201cWe began to deal with the grief of a life we dreamed of for ourselves and for our family disappearing into an endless sea of doctor\u2019s appointments, therapists, and a crash course in understanding the rights of people with disabilities,\u201d Kristen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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