Charles Mike Dole is feeling optimistic, considering his 3-week-old son just had open heart surgery.

Not to mention a fire consumed the family's Plummer home last week while he was with his child at the hospital.

"We're pretty much taking it just one day at a time, living by God's grace," said Charles, 45. "It's either that or curl up into a ball and cry."

At the very least, friends and family are holding a benefit for the Dole family in early April to abate the impact of costly medical procedures on top of the fire.

"We've learned a lot of things (this month), like when to rely on my friends," Charles said.

The tough luck began with the birth of the Doles' ninth child, Jethro, three and a half weeks ago.

Charles and his wife, Tracy, had discovered at an ultrasound check 20 days prior that Jethro was experiencing big problems with equally big names, like Ebstein's abnormality and pulmonary atresia.

"To people like you and me, basically his heart was taking up the whole inside of his chest cavity," Charles said, adding that this wouldn't allow the baby's lungs to expand. "It was wait and see. They didn't expect him to live."

And Jethro didn't. During an emergency C-section, Jethro's heart rate dropped, stopping completely by the time he was extracted.

Doctors resuscitated him, and a week and three days later they proceeded with open heart surgery.

"They really didn't want to do it, but there was no other choice," Charles said.

But it worked better than expected.

Jethro is off the ventilator after the surgery, which involved installing a shunt and dissecting the heart to make it smaller.

"Every day we walk in and see him and he opens his eyes and looks at you," Charles said. "It's an awesome feeling."

But there are more surgeries to go, he said. Doctors are planning to rework Jethro's heart so it can rely on one ventricle and the enlarged one can be removed.

"There's a lot of uncertainty," Charles said. "He'll never be the football player his brothers are, but that's not a big deal."

For now, Charles and Tracy are watching over their newborn at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. The pair are living in an RV parked outside, he said, their other eight children staying with the grandparents.

"It's a lot of stress," Charles admitted, adding that his children range from toddlers to 19. "Mama being gone, the smaller children are having a harder time of it."

Everything got a little harder, he added, after March 17, when the Doles received a call that their house was on fire.

What wasn't lost to the blaze - thought to be caused by an electrical short - was subject to heavy smoke and water damage, he said.

The family doesn't have word yet on what their insurance will cover.

"Some of our clothes are salvageable, but until the insurance settles, we're just kind of in limbo," Charles said.

He's just thankful no one was home, he added.

"Things are just things, especially the possessions in your home," he said.

A benefit for the family will be held at 1 p.m. April 10 in the Plummer Elementary School gym.

The fundraiser will include a spaghetti meal, silent auction and banjo music.

Monetary donations can also be sent to: FBO Jethro Storms Dole, Sterling Savings Bank, P.O. Box 285, Plummer, ID 83851.

Auction items can be sent to 235 10th St., Plummer, ID 83851.

The family's Facebook page asking folks to pray for Jethro has already garnered more than 1,000 members around the world, Charles said.

"People care, contrary to popular belief," he said. "We're holding onto hope."