Our sweet Camila was born in 2021 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which requires a three-phased reconstruction of her heart. We spent most of her first year of life in and out of the cardiac ICU. Her first open-heart surgery (the Norwood) was at 9 days old, and we spent two months by her side in the ICU while she recovered. Her 2nd surgery was at 4 months old (the Glenn), and we spent 3 weeks in the ICU while she recovered. We unfortunately live 3 hours away from her amazing medical team in Gainesville. We knew when she was born that this would be a commitment for life, but we wanted our girl to have the best chance at life, and we knew in order to do so, she needed to be at UF Shands Children’s Hospital. So, we have been going there for the past 4 years for all of her cardiac care. The last 4 years have been such a blessing to watch our little miracle baby grow and thrive. Camila is the definition of a warrior princess! She is brave and strong, loving and compassionate. She has truly grown into such a bright little girl despite all she’s been through.

Well, we are now about to embark on what will be (God willing) her last open-heart surgery (the Fontan) and are hoping we can lean a little bit on our community of friends and family to help us with some of this burden. This time around, we have our 1-year-old son, our dog, and the logistics of living in Gainesville for 3 weeks have been tough. This money would really help us with room and board for those three weeks, as well as gas for trips back and forth, not only for us but our little village who is going to help us care for our son and dog. We appreciate whatever is on your heart to give, and if all you can give is your prayers, we sincerely would appreciate that too.

We are looking forward to our girl being past this and running around with her friends back in school in time for the holiday season.