Thank you for supporting me and the more than 300,000 kids worldwide who will be diagnosed with cancer this year. By sharing the gifts of your time, talent and money with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, you're supporting research to give all kids with cancer a better chance for a cure. August 19, 2014 at 8:37 a.m. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at 4lbs 10oz. 18 3/4in.long. Jared and I have tried for many years to build our own family, and after 4 miscarriages and 10yrs of trying...at last and behold our miracle baby! Although she was premature she did well and only needed to gain weight to be able to go home, the happiest day of our life. Months went on and our lives were so full of joy, that is until she caught a "virus". After about the 3rd "virus" she caught it didn't go away like the other two. Slowly her appetite decreased the first week and the second week was the diarrhea and vomiting. After several emergency room visits and pediatrician follow-ups my baby monkey still wasn't better. On the fourteenth day of her sickness I noticed she wasn't peeing no matter how much (or little) she would drink. I knew something wasn't right, but instead of it being dehydration it turned out to be acute renal failure. At first we were told all was fine in the emergency room and were about to be sent home yet again with this "virus" but I knew in my gut it wasn't no virus. Inexperienced new mother or not I just knew something wasn't right. If it wasn't for the male nurse rechecking blood work to reassure me who knows what could have happened to Mariela that day. Sure enough her BUM and creatinine levels were way off. So began our journey. After being in the PICU for 24hrs. being given diuretics and have a folley put in she was still not peeing. They performed a ultrasound on her kidneys and had told us she had a birth defect in her ureters...so we were transported to Amarillo to see a Pediatric Nephrologist specialist. Upon arrival she needed to have surgery to drain all the fluid she was retaining in her kidneys, she had a tube on each side of her kidney to drain the excess fluid. At the same time while she was sedated they went ahead and performed a scan on her...that day changed our lives again for the worse. A grapefruit size tumor was compressing her kidneys which was causing the severe edema and renal failure. CANCER, they said. After blood work and biopsies later confirmed, NEUROBLASTOMA Stage 4.! Thirteen months old, hasn't even begun to walk yet and experience one year old shenanigans and my baby has to fight for her life now. Right away she had to start an aggressive introduction to chemo for we were told the cancer could double in size in 24hrs if left longer untreated. My heart sank and I thought I was going to lose the baby I longed for so long to cancer. Being pregnant also with a Down syndrome baby boy, I didn't think we would recover. Northwest Texas Hospital doctors and nurses have helped with our fears and have brought much joy and love into my family's life and after much blood work and scans she would have to undergo eight rounds of chemo every twenty-one days counting day one of every chemo she received. 95% cure rate...is what her doctors have said and after going to Dallas to Childrens Medical Center our hopes have become even high. In February of 2016 she received her first tumor removal surgery. It was a very risky surgery, one that the surgeon and specialist believed they would not be able to remove not even half due to the location of it being wrapped around her main arterial vein and ureters. After five hours of surgery and only needing 7 oz. of blood transfused my baby made it out of the surgery fine without any complications. The news of that along with the removal of 80% if not MORE of the tumor was successfully removed! Filled with joy and reassured hope I knew in my heart my baby monkey will be fine. She is so strong, so much stronger than I am. I look at her and realize how much love and strength is inside this little person, my baby monkey...my miracle baby Mariela.