18 hours after birth, our sweet Randi Mae was flown from Yuma Regional Medical Center to Phoenix Children's Hospital. She was being treated for two rather large holes in her heart, a non-closed PDA, and coarctation of her aortic valve. The game plan was to monitor her  for six months until she was strong enough for surgery, but that didn't happen. At just eight weeks old, Randi Mae went in for open-heart surgery. It's an incredibly overwhelming feeling to hand your baby over to a surgeon, knowing the severity and conditions that are going to happen. I watched them wheel her away until the doors shut and I could not see them anymore. The operation lasted just over eight hours, and between the recovery process and transporting her to her ICU room, it felt like eternity. The weeks following we had a couple of setbacks, two collapsed lungs and bruised vocal cords. 

Fast-forward 10 years later, and Randi Mae is a beautiful, vivacious, heart-healthy 10-year-old! She is currently in the fifth grade and loves her teacher Ms. Jimenez and all of her friends & classmates! Every morning she wakes up, ready to go to school! She absolutely loves to play soccer, dance, blow bubbles, EAT and go swimming! She participates in 4-H showing swine and she is involved with Special Olympics of Arizona, being on her Unified school soccer team and through their swim program.