28 Feb Giving Day 2025

Providing A Sense of Normalcy for the Schmidt Family  

“The thing that was the most shocking during our stay was how much you crave normalcy. The Atlanta Ronald McDonald House does the little things to make sure there’s some of that normalcy, and that meant a lot,” says mom Kearstin Schmidt.

Two years later, we sat down with the Schmidt family to check-in on their journey with now 5-year-old Callen and the newest addition to the family, Clayton.  

Both Callen and Clayton have congenital heart defects.  They’ve stayed at the Houses on multiple occasions during their surgeries. 

During these visits, Callen saw the House as somewhere he could play with kids going through similar situations. Callen’s mom says for Cannon, the oldest son, “the House was nothing but a big playground for him.”

The Atlanta Ronald McDonald House was a space where Callen’s parents, Kearstin and Jake Schmidt, could focus on their family and decompress after long days spent at the hospital.

Callen is awaiting another open-heart surgery and a valve replacement, so they’ll be returning to the hospital for another extended stay. “It does make it something that’s a little bit easier to look forward to because we know that we have somewhere to land and a safe space to call home,” says Kearstin.