The holidays are a time of joy, family, comfort and home. But illness and complications don’t take a break for any season.

“This happened 24 years ago, and I still tear up when I talk about it,” Florence parent Corey Austin told NBC Montana.

The Austins’ daughter was born 13 weeks early. They lived in a tiny Wyoming town and drove through a blizzard to get to the hospital in Jackson Hole.

“We couldn’t see the end of the truck beside the highway,” Austin’s wife, Lora, told us. “We had no business being there. They had closed the canyon, and Corey gets out and moves the barricade, and into the canyon we go. And it took us four hours to get to the hospital in Jackson Hole.”

But they arrived to more bad news.

“It took us two and a half hours to open up the Christmas presents that were given to us from strangers,” Lora said.

“They asked him if he had family in Salt Lake City, and he said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well sir, you need to get some family there, because your wife and baby are probably not going to make it.’

“I didn’t believe what they said because there’s no way we made it this far and then it not work out OK,” Corey said.

They got to Salt Lake City, where Lora’s two days of intense and terrifying labor delivered a beautiful baby girl.

“She had quite a bit of complications even though she was big,” Lora said. “Three times they told us she was going to die that day and to say our goodbyes.”

Their daughter spent weeks in the NICU, and that’s when they first heard about the Ronald McDonald House.

“It was another blessing,” Cory said.

It wasn’t home. “This was our first year of not being home in Indiana for the holidays,” Lora said. “We didn’t have a Christmas tree. And our baby’s fighting for her life right now.”

But it was stability, with comforts a hospital room can’t provide, including a huge bag of gifts Christmas morning.

“It took us two and a half hours to open up the Christmas presents that were given to us from strangers,” Lora said.

Fast forward to today, and you’ll find their daughter, Courtney, just graduated from the University of Montana. She’s engaged and healthy. And the Austins have spent 24 years giving back to an organization that got them through the hardest point in their life.

“It’s been 24 years,” Corey said before a long pause. “And I’ve not talked about it for 22. It’s a success story, it’s a good story, but man, was it hard.”

Corey is now on the board of the Ronald McDonald House for Western Montana. His daughter spent senior skip day there volunteering. Their youngest daughter now works there. Their experience changed the path of their lives.

This year, when you’re spreading cheer and wrapping presents, they hope you’ll also remember the families staying in the rooms at the Ronald McDonald House going through some of the hardest days of their lives.

“Even if it’s just a picture that a child draws, it’s very powerful,” Lora said.