Brooklyn’s mother writes “Meet our hero, Brooklyn, and experience her ever touching story that she will later in life share with others as her testimony. Brooklyn is a beautiful energetic one year old! On December 12, 2009, we welcomed our little angel into the world not knowing she was going to have to fight for her life. After the nurses at Athens Regional Medical Center realized Brooklyn had no Anus, she was sent straight to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Within a few hours later, she was rushed to the NICU at Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Brooklyn was then diagnosed with Imperforate anus, Ventricular Septal defect (VSD), and Hydronephrosis of the right kidney, as well as reflux in both kidneys. The first few days were a mixture of tears and emotions. After a month of being in the NICU, we were able to bring our sweet newborn home. Every day was very challenging as we had to perform procedures on Brooklyn to get her bowels out. Even though it was very painful and heart breaking to do, we knew it was imperative to do in order for Brooklyn to live. At two months old, she had her first surgery, which was to have a colostomy put in, and she did amazing. While getting ready for her second surgery, “the pull through” for her anus, we were told she wouldn’t make it two more weeks. Therefore, the pull through surgery was cancelled and at six months old she had open heart surgery to correct her VSD. That was very overwhelming to go through. During her surgery, a nurse would call every hour to update us. When we received the updated call letting us know they had stopped her heart and she was now put on a ventilator, our hearts felt nothing but pain. However, we knew she was in the hands of God. After 8 long hours of surgery, Brooklyn came out with a pure and whole heart! She gave us a few scares through recovery but we came home with her after thirteen long days of praying and praising God! A month later she was able to have the pull though surgery and she did wonderful with 100 plus stiches on the outside and many more on the inside. We couldn’t keep her still. After eleven months of painful procedures, Brooklyn had her fourth and last surgery to remove her colostomy bag. Her wonderful doctors told us she would have everything fixed and corrected before she turned one, and she did. Although she still has Hydronephrosis of the kidneys and reflux, her kidneys are correcting themselves. We continue to claim healing over her every day. Despite Brooklyn’s rough beginning, she is a happy and joyful little girl. She is also beautiful, funny, silly, rotten, sneaky, cuddly, bossy, and she is our daughter!! Brooklyn amazes us every day, and her resilience teaches us volumes of the human spirit! As Brooklyn continues to thrive, we are confident that God has huge things in store for our little girl.“
I would never know there was ever anything wrong with this spunky little girl aside from two big scars and how tiny she is. I had to tighten both the front and back of the dress as small as it would go and even then it was a little big on her. She runs, she jumps, she speaks her own little language. I kid you not, her talking in nonsense to us was SO adorable. If I was her mother, I would be waking her up at night just to hear her talk more, seriously. She took a bit of time to get warmed up and decide that I wasn’t going to bite her, but once the grins and the chatter started, they didn’t stop. She positively danced through the photos, like a tiny ballerina in the grass. The sun seemed to follow her wherever she went, a little bright spot in the shadows.
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