Support Jacklyn's Journey to the World Stage

Jacklyn is my daughter and she's 3 years old. She was born 3 months premature back in 2021 and spent 88 days in the NICU. During that 88-day stay, she received small liver damage due to an ill-placed IV at birth (thankfully it healed), 2 heart murmurs, MRSA, and the inability to breathe without a nasal cannula up until day 85, which caused chronic lung disease. By age 3, she seems all clear. Also, her entire first year of life, she had to eat via an NG tube down her nose. Safe to say, her first year was tough!

As time progressed, we noticed she was developing slowly and showed autism traits. We ultimately had her tested and she indeed has non-verbal autism. We do take her to speech therapy, which is costly but worth it for sure! Starting around 2 years old or a bit before, her mom and I started putting her in pageants to increase autism awareness and also try to build confidence in Jacklyn, and to make special memories for all of us. It's been a fun journey thus far with each new crown or certificate exciting Jacklyn as she learns more and more what it means.

We recently put her in an East Texas preliminary pageant for the OLM pageant system and Jacklyn won 3rd place or "mini queen." This means she qualified for state, which we are ready to take her to as well later in May. However, looming in July is the world pageant, which we so desperately want to take Jacklyn to. (She can enter it regardless of how she does in state, btw). The world pageant is in July in OK and will be approximately $3,000. Not sure how on earth we could swing that. I hate asking for help and I know there are way more important GoFundMe campaigns out there, but as a parent, I had to take a chance. If anyone is willing to help my baby go to the world pageant, I'd be eternally grateful!