Sophia, my beautiful 7 year old niece was on a road trip with her Mom (Heather) 3 sisters, brother and Papa and Grammi for an amazing trip on the beach for 2 weeks. They arrived in California on July 3rd, on this day her cousin Taylor and Auntie Holly also arrived. Before we even got checked in everyone started right off swimming and having a blast.  Shortly after everyone began swimming Sophia told Taylor “my legs feels tingly” to that Taylor told her it was probably because of the long drive from Colorado. That wasn’t the case at all. On July 4 Sophia was taken to the ER in Laguna Beach. She had a 103 temperature that they couldn’t break and at that time Sophia was unable to bear weight on her left leg and walk. Shortly after being seen at the ER she was transferred to CHOC (children’s hospital of Orange County). They discovered through some testing that Sophia was septic in her hip and the next morning on July 5 they took her into surgery to drain the fluid, scrape the infection out of her hip, and also placed a drain tube into that hip. It has now been determined that she has Osteomyelitis. This is an infection in a bone that travels through the bloodstream. Since Sophia arrived in California she has spent one day swimming and enjoying the sun. She has spent her whole vacation in the hospital on IV fluids, and a PICC line to give her long term antibiotics. She now as I type this on July 16 Sophia is still in the hospital and it is unknown when she will be released. This family of 6 needs some help. So this is where all of you come in. Due to Heather living in Nebraska, having a sick child, 4 other children, and being a disabled vet and single mom I am asking for financial assistance to help her get through this. Once Sophia is released she will need physical therapy, will be using a walker and a wheelchair, and is going to need a lot of encouragement to get through all of this. This will take several months if not longer to get her back on track. All of you are so amazing. Let’s show my baby sister and my niece love and support as they go through this process.