In life, family means everything! I have been incredibly blessed to have a huge and supportive family. And when I say huge, I mean, my amazing maternal grandmother had 12 children, my mother being number 4 in the line up. So growing up, my childhood memories were playing with my cousins and being so close to them. When one of us becomes sick, or has a tragedy or some sort of situation, my family will always be right there; supporting, praying, calling, advocating, or finding the right doctor.

My beautiful and amazing cousin was working at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in 2020. She was the Director of Pediatric Surgery Operations and was a wealth of knowledge on EVERYTHING!! She knew all the doctors and surgeons. She knew about specialty clinics that were at the children’s hospital. So we went over to my sisters house and all got on her back porch and called my cousin. She told us that there was a Spina Bifida Clinic at the hospital and it was wonderful. Then she told us that there was this surgery that you can have while the baby is still in utero. The surgeons will sew up the babies spine and then put the baby right back in the womb and the mother will continue to carry the baby for about 34/35 weeks. I just couldn’t imagine something like this. How does it work for both mother and baby? We called the Vanderbilt Maternal Fetal Medicine to inquire about this fetal surgery. But what do you know: COVID!! They told us they were not performing this type of surgery right now during covid. Remember, most elective surgeries were being canceled around the world. If the surgery wasn’t life threating then they were postponing it. So Vanderbilt referred us to Texas Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We called The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and got an appointment to fly up there and see if I was a candidate for the fetal surgery. Once again, family was there for financial help and emotional help.