Kylie’s nominator, Kandace writes “I have an amazing little girl that I would like to nominate. Her name is Kylie Hill. Kylie is three years old and has been down a rough road from day one. She was born at 27 weeks and was in the NICU for 2 months and while she was there she was diagnosed with Poland syndrome which affects the muscular system. Kylie had to go through several months of intense therapy to help her move her arms. After winning this battle, at 19 months, Kylie was diagnosed with AML which is a type of leukemia. Kylie was in a children’s hospital for 6 months. Kylie is now in remission but will not be released as a leukemia patient until the age of 6. After reading about your contest, I believe strongly that Kylie is deserving of the title of the Second Annual Memorial Princess. Thank you for your time and consideration.“
Kylie’s mother, Brittany writes “Our Courageous Little Fighter – One Battle After Another
I am here to introduce you to my hero. This is my daughter Kylie Hill. She is an amazing little girl. Kylie has been a fighter all her life.
Kylie came to us April 24, 2008 weighing a whopping 2lbs 4.4 oz. She was 3 months premature. I didn’t see how she could survive. Prayers started immediately. She was in the hospital almost 2 months. I would go and hold her during the day. She finally became big enough where I could feed her. After 2 months, she was able to come home.
Kylie got home and was such a blessing. She was the sweetest baby in the world. She never crawled because of a weak muscle in her arm but she made up for it. Kylie would hop like a bunny. It was so cute watching her hop through the house. I often worried about her knees but it didn’t seem to bother her. I never knew a child could bring so much joy to my life. Kylie got sick one weekend with a cold. She didn’t act like herself. We took her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with patch pneumonia. She was sent home not to get any better. We were back at the emergency room the next week. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2009, as she turned 19 months old, she was diagnosed with AML leukemia. Our hearts were crushed. What was going to happen to our little angel? Not knowing much about leukemia, we were terrified. All I could remember about leukemia was it was a disease that usually led to death. How could God do this to our little angel?
The treatments started. Kylie was in the hospital for 6 months going through chemo. She was able to come home a week every three weeks or so. It was a long journey in the hospital. Trying to keep a small child with a lot of energy confined to a hospital room all day. She had to wear a mask if she left the room. That in itself was a job. She didn’t understand why she had to wear the mask.
I, being a young mother, knew I had to be strong. I learned all about blood counts and knew what numbers I needed to be listening for when labs returned. I could always look around and see someone not having the results we were getting. Luckily the hospital kept activities going to keep your mind off of what was really happening.
We had visits from clown doctors. Nellie, the rapper, came by for a visit with Christmas presents. Football players, baseball players and hockey players visited. It was an eye opener to see the community support for my daughter and my family. Kylie is now in remission. She has more energy than we can keep up with. We do have a team in the Light the Night Walk for leukemia. We thank God for our little angel. We also thank Children’s Healthcare and all other organizations for helping us make it through the experience of leukemia.
In life we have role models and people we look up to. For our family, it is a little 3 year old girl name Kylie Kenimer Hill. She is our fighter and hero.“
This little girl is SO adorable. She has the most amazing eyes and the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen. I thought her mother might have been putting mascara on her or something, but it turns out that Kylie was born with really dark straight hair but it all fell out during the chemotherapy and came back in honey colored and curled at the ends! Her eyelashes fell out also, but came back dark. Plus, she’s missing her two front teeth. I asked about that and apparently being born so premature meant that Kylie couldn’t develop enamel on her teeth. When the chemotherapy was going on, brushing would introduce bacteria that Kylie’s body couldn’t fight off. Her poor baby teeth just gave up and fell out, but her permanent teeth will grown in just fine in a few years. It just means she looks even more adorable now! We were in two different outfits for this one because the owl fairy ears kept falling off her head and the fairy wings kept slapping her in the face, so we went with a burgundy princess second. She didn’t chatter or talk a lot for her photos, she sings. Humming to herself for over an hour. I loved it.
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