July 25th, 2024, a day that will stay with me as long as I live. In the early morning hours of that day, my apartment was broken into where I laid with my 6-year-old daughter. Going out the front door wasn't an option. The only option left was to jump out my second-story bedroom window. As I hung my daughter out of the window, trying to pray she would land safely on an AC unit instead of the hard ground, I wondered who it was on the other side of the door. My daughter lands fine, and next is my turn. I didn't have time to try and focus on landing anywhere potentially safe when I heard the door opening, and I jumped. What came next was the sensation of the most excruciating pain radiating throughout my legs. Instantly, I knew something was wrong when I couldn't feel my lower half while I tried to reach my daughter. EMTs and policemen reached us while I lay on the ground screaming at the top of my lungs from the pain. All I remember next is a poor attempt at administering pain meds while I'm rushed to the hospital behind another ambulance that carried my daughter in it.

After arriving at the trauma bay and being asked a million and one questions by doctors in order for them to assess me, I'm rushed into surgery for a spinal fusion. I wake up and still cannot move my lower half. Doctors tell me I shattered my L1 and even though it was an incomplete injury, they don't know how much I'll get back and if I will ever walk again. The rest is history. I spent over a month in the hospital and fought like hell in therapy to make advances, and that I did. I started to get some motion and sensation in my legs back. I even got to the point of being able to stand up and push my legs to make steps with a bilateral walker and some assistance. Now there isn't a question in my mind of if I will walk again, it's a matter of when. I lost a lot that day, but I gained a fire inside of me I had never felt before. There's no giving up or quitting. There's only the moment I visit all the staff that took care of me, and I walk through the same doors I rolled out of a wheelchair in.

I'm fundraising to cover the extensive medical bills and ongoing therapy costs that are crucial for my recovery. This fundraiser is for me and my 6-year-old daughter, to help us rebuild our lives after this traumatic event.