My Story

Stella was born on March 28, 2007 weighing in at a healthy 9 lbs 11 oz. Her name which means "star" was the most appropriate name we could have picked for her! At one month of age, she lost all muscle tone and we started our journey with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

We headed to Mayo in Rochester, MN at one month of age and spent a week having every part of her body looked at. After a week, they were pretty certain that her diagnosis was SMA Type I and it was confirmed in June that it was indeed SMA. We were devastated of course but will never forget that day back in May when we held Stella while rocking her . . . we cried and cried knowing the statistics that most SMA Type I babies don't see their first birthday and if they do, they typically don't see their second birthday. As we rocked her and cried, it suddenly hit us as her parents that she saw us crying and was very concerned that we were crying as if to say, "Are you giving up on me?" From that day forward, we vowed that we would not give up fighting for this little girl and would NOT give us hope for her life until God showed us a different plan.

Stella's story is that of a little "star" who touches lives everywhere she goes. While there are some bumps in the road that can be somewhat depressing, we hope that Stella's story is also a story of hope and of the miraculous power that God still exhibits here on earth. Through her, we have learned so much about strength, courage, and the incredible healing power of our Lord. You can almost SEE the angels that are always wrapped around our little girl through all that she has been through. She handles it with ease and fights the good fight. She will ALWAYS be our little star.