Young Family

‘Why us?’ to ‘What now?’: How one couple found purpose after unimaginable loss

It hadn’t been long since Erika and Kris Young started trying to have a baby when they found out they were already pregnant. In the summer of 2022, they would become first-time parents to a baby girl.

The pregnancy progressed smoothly, and despite Erika passing her due date, everything still seemed normal. An induction was scheduled.

But the joy turned quickly, devastatingly, into loss. On August 24, 2022, Sommer Vivienne Young passed just two hours after her birth due to unforeseen complications during delivery. There were no clear answers why.

"We were dealing with a lot of grief and loss, just trying to understand, why us, why is our daughter not here?” says Kris. “And how can we possibly move forward?”

Trying again after losing a baby is never easy. But for Kris and Erika, after losing Sommer, it wasn’t just a choice; it was a necessity. However, what had once come easily—conceiving easily, carrying to term—became a complex journey filled with medical roadblocks: silent endometriosis, surgery, failed IVF cycles, and multiple miscarriages.

"Each next loss in the IVF process made our path that much harder," Erika shares. “And we got to a place where we really started to lose hope that we would ever have living children in our life.”

Despite setbacks, Erika and Kris refused to narrow their options or give up. While pursuing IVF, they simultaneously explored both adoption and surrogacy, committed to following whichever path would lead them to parenthood.

Their persistence paid off on April 19, 2025, when their son Kamren was born. Then, on July 30, they welcomed their daughter, Liv Sommer, who was carried by a surrogate named Tessa. Tessa’s desire to help others comes from the loss of her older sister, Abby, who died just weeks after birth.

"We matched with her really quickly and easily,” Erika shares. “We knew we wanted her to be a part of our life story and the story of our children."

Before they began building the family they had long dreamed of, Erika and Kris realized that healing required more than moving forward—it meant honoring where they had been. In the months after Sommer’s death, searching for answers, they came across the March of Dimes Innovation Fund. There, they learned about Radiant Oximetry, a technology that monitors fetal oxygen levels during labor—technology that, had it been available at the time, might have changed everything.

"We're pretty certain that if we had something like that during the birth of Sommer, we would have known that there were some signs and potential problems leading into birth, and she may be here today as a result," Kris explains.

They became committed donors and partners to March of Dimes, determined to help advance this lifesaving innovation and support others facing similar challenges. Sommer's legacy is already making a tangible impact: the technology supported through the Innovation Fund has partnered with GE Healthcare and is moving toward widespread hospital adoption.

“Our eyes have really been opened up to all the various challenges that can happen just to conceive a child,” Kris shares. “The thing we really appreciate about March of Dimes is they're there to help, and they can help provide tools and access and support and now improve technology through the Innovation Fund on every single step of that journey.”

The Youngs' loss reflects a broader tragedy affecting thousands of families each year. Every year, about 20,000 babies die in our country from causes like birth defects, preterm birth, and delivery complications. And the standard medical treatments and preventions for these complications often rely on access to science and research.

“When you think about any of the most difficult problems that humans have solved, it's never solved by one person or one organization—it takes a bunch of people coming together across all of these different facets to address the problem.” Erika states. “March of Dimes has the right experts, has the right knowledge across those different angles to be able to make that kind of impact and to bring together people to achieve that particular outcome.”

The Youngs continue to honor Sommer in their daily lives. Each month, they write letters to her and visit the park where her memorial was held, always on the 25^th. They plan to tell Kamren and Liv about their sister from the very beginning, and how families can be made in many ways.

“We really want her memory to be able to give good to others," Erika says. "We also hope that our journey is a story of hope and light for other people."

By sharing Sommer’s story, Erika and Kris have helped spark change. And now, they’re asking others to be part of that change too. This Giving Day, August 21, they invite you to help carry that legacy forward by supporting March of Dimes and the research, education, advocacy, and programs that could protect other families from the heartbreak they’ve known.

“There’s no way to totally fill a hole like the one we had,” Erika adds. “But we’re excited. We’re holding joy and loss in the same breath.”