We Can Find a Way
From the moment this month’s Hear the Hope song starts, and you hear little Hudson Lambert laughing and saying he likes rock n’ roll, you know “We Can Find a Way” is no ordinary song. It’s a song about an extraordinary little boy whose life was saved by the amazing doctors, nurses, and support staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Well, you never ever know how hard it is till it hits you
Toby Christensen, who wrote the music and lyrics for his friend CJ Lambert, “We Can Find the Way” did so a few years ago, never knowing that CJ’s son Hudson would live to contribute to the recording. You see, Hudson’s start in the world was not an easy one. As soon as he was born, he was taken from his mother and transported to Cincinnati Children’s within the hour to receive a life-saving surgery.
Diagnosed at 27 weeks in utero with Down Syndrome, Hudson faced many physical complications. One was an annular pancreas, where the pancreas grows around the first part of the small intestine, just below the stomach. As a result, he couldn’t eat. And he needed to have surgery to correct it. He spent his first 23 days of life in the NICU. During that time, Hudson’s parents also learned that Hudson had a ventricular septal defect (VSD), and would also need surgery to correct it. VSD can cause complications such as pulmonary hypertension. Hudson ultimately also needed to have open-heart surgery to patch the hole when he was seven months old.)
Throughout Hudson’s first stay at Children’s, CJ and friends were hoping little Hudson would pull through. And as a way to cope, Toby did only what he knows how to do — and he took pen to paper and scribbled out the lyrics to “We Can Find a Way.”
“I just wanted CJ, Hudson, and his mom to know that there were lots of people pulling for them,” Toby remembers. “That’s what this song is all about, what our foundation is all about. We know that our children are the most important things in the world and we’ll do anything to save them. And the doctors and experts at these hospitals are working so hard to help.”
There are doctors working hard to help our children to get better
Little Hudson was a fighter and he did, in fact, pull through with the help of the incredible Children’s team. And CJ and his wife were monumentally grateful for all who made Hudson’s survival possible. Additionally, they were grateful for the financial advocates that helped them navigate insurance and medical bills. He felt so grateful for the care that Hudson received and the financial advocates’ assistance that he wanted to do something to give back. So, he and his friends Toby Christensen and Chris Lah founded Hear the Hope in 2015 to do just that.
If we support them in their work, raise the money that they need to do it
Toby and CJ headed back into the studio recently to record the song, hoping that the song would reach as many people as possible. “We started this foundation because of Hudson. We saw what amazing work could be done when people put their heads together — doctors, nurses, parents, financial advocates — all of them. We want to give every child the chance Hudson got to live and be made well,” Toby says. And that’s exactly what Hear the Hope is trying to do — finding ways to bring doctors, patients, families, and resources together to help save as many lives as possible. And with a little music, and a little hope, maybe, just maybe, they’ll find a way.
Lyrics
We can find a way if we put our heads together
We find a way if we give it one more try
We can find a way to make the children better
Yes we can
We can find, we can find a way
Song Credits
- FEATURED SONG: “We Can Find a Way”
- OUR HERO: Hudson Lambert
- ARTIST(S): Toby Christensen
- COMPOSER: Toby Christensen
- LEAD VOCALS: Toby Christensen
- BACKGROUND VOCALS: CJ Lambert
- SPECIAL GUEST: Hudson Lambert
- INSTRUMENTS: Toby Christensen (rhythm guitar, bass, drums), CJ Lambert (lead guitar)
- PRODUCED BY: CJ Lambert, Toby Christensen
- ENGINEERED BY: CJ Lambert, Toby Christensen
- EDITED, MIXED & MASTERED BY: CJ Lambert