Hello all, this is our sweet Stella who just celebrated her 5th birthday.

I am Linda, Stella's Mimi. I am doing this Go Fund Me to help offset the travel costs for Morgan and Austin so they can be with Stella for this life-changing surgery.

She is an amazing young girl who has had a very rough start in life and keeps a smile on her face and always sees joy in all she does.

She was born with many birth defects but her most severe is her myelomeningocele and scoliosis. Stella has been through one surgery as well as PT over the last 4 years. CHKD was fantastic but had reached a point where they could no longer help her and referred her to Shriners Philadelphia.

Shriners have recommended surgery as she has diminished capacity to walk, and it has become detrimental to her daily life.

Because it is so severe and rare, this is only the 4th case they have ever seen since they have been opened, they are unsure what her outcome will be.

We are praying for her to be able to walk, but most importantly that she is free of pain.

The myelomeningocele is located where the spinal cord goes into the diaphragm, the rare part is it is in her thoracic, usually they see it in the lumbar. She will have fusing of her spine as well as an attempted patch of the myelomeningocele to keep it from intruding any further into her diaphragm. Morgan will be with her for the whole time, which can be 6 to 8 weeks. Austin will be taking off work to be with them for a few days for the surgery. They must travel over 700 miles round trip, they have not heard back about a vacancy at Ronald McDonald house, so they also must pay for a hotel as well as food for the time Morgan is there, gas and tolls.

Any support whether it is prayer, which is much needed, or financial is appreciated.

If you would like to follow her journey you can ask to join her FB page Stella's Journey

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.