This is our daughter Catalyn Alexis, she is now 15 months old. When we found out we were expecting another child we were so excited and hearing, after two boys, that she was a girl made our family complete.

The first 20 weeks of my pregnancy went really well. I was considered high risk due to difficulty in my other two pregnancies, so I was having an ultrasound every two weeks and during my 20 week ultrasound our world changed.... The tech was having trouble finding her pulmonary arteries, so they referred us to have an echo. Two eeks later we had the diagnosis that she had double out right ventricle and would have to have surgery shortly after birth. So to make sure they had everything upfront so they didn't have to waste any time. We had the amnio done and the last result of the test showed positive for chromosome 22 deletion.

After having our family divided in two different cities, so I would be close to the Riley's children hospital in Indy. She was born at 38 weeks weighing 7 lb. 12 oz. and was immediately taken and placed a central line in and ran tests. That is when they found out she had Pulmonary Atresia with extra collaterals. She didn't require that surgery but since then she has had two open heart surgeries at four months and nine months and more to come. Her other symptoms were feeding issues, low calcium deficiency, and low immune system. Today she has a repaired normal heart, Catalyn is off all her medicine and her immune system has improved 40% in the last six months!

Catalyn is walking, working and learning to talk. She is so strong and nothing seems to stop her. She is a little behind on her milestones, but other than that you wouldn't even realize that she has had such a rough road. She is Mommy's Little Firecracker.