Warning: This episode talks about infant loss. If you have experienced infant and/or pregnancy loss, please proceed with caution. In this very special episode, my friend Maria (the winner of my giveaway!) shares her story with us about her beautiful daughter, Camila.  Maria's Bio Maria “Eva” Itriago Rivera is a 25 year old woman from Venezuela (South America) currently living in Southwest Kansas Area. She is a Licensed Nursing Assistant, CPR Instructor and Spanish Interpreter with personal and professional experience on the medical field. Eva is a wife to Reinaldo who is a hard-working and loving man, mother to Camila who went to heaven on 5/9/2019 due to a CHD and Di George’s Syndrome and Aurora who is expected to arrive on November 2020. She enjoys singing, working out, spending time with her family and going to church. Since 06/19 she is working for a non for profit organization in Kansas as an Administrative Assistant and Spanish interpreter, helping families receive free early intervention services for children 0-3 years old that have a delay or a disability. This organization also helps mothers who are pregnant get education about their pregnancy, lactation consultation, and connecting them with the community resources available to help them meet their needs. Eva is passionate about helping others, as the only child of a single mother she grew up facing many challenges, but at the same time her mother was a role model for her, a true example of how to be unstoppable. The many struggles she has faced in her short life have made her understand that regardless of your current situation, you always need to “Fight to Flourish – Jennie Lusko”. Maria's Birth Story December 2018 was the due date for the birth of my firstborn daughter “Camila”. My belly was enormous to use a more graceful term. At 35-weeks my doctor found out I had high levels of amniotic fluid, per ultrasound report: severe polyhydramnios. The doctor checked me out, but he did not understand the cause because I was “healthy”. At 39 weeks on 12/07 I had a scheduled C-section early in the morning, I was taken to the OR for the surgery, and I was very scared and excited about the birth of Camila. My anesthesiologist placed the epidural but it did not numb my body, and then they put me to sleep immediately after that under general anesthesia. Little did I know what was waiting for me. When I woke up from the C-Section there wasn’t anyone around me, and I immediately knew that something was wrong. I just wanted to hold my baby, but instead my husband got into the room with a face that told me something was wrong. He told me that my baby was having trouble breathing and she needed to be flown out in an emergency flight to a bigger hospital 3 hours away from us. I was so confused, panicked, hurt, I felt that the weight of the world was over my body and I just wanted to really wake up. With the strength I had left I stand up, got into a wheel chair and kissed my baby good bye at the NICU, with no guarantees she would survive the flight. That moment broke my heart forever, my expectations and dreams of the birth of my daughter, and to this day this moment hunts before I go to bed. The nurses wanted me to pump, but  I had no energy knowing that my baby was away from me and I was still hospitalized, and couldn’t go with her. She made it safely to the other Hospital, and a few hours later my cellphone ringed with the worst news: Camila has a severe heart problem that we cannot fix here in Kansas, she needs to go now to Colorado. I think my own heart skipped a beat after that call, and after that call our lives and my expectations of motherhood changed forever. Camila's Story At 1 day old Camila had to be taken in an emergency flight from Kansas to Colorado (her second medical flight in a little over 24hrs). I asked the doctor permission to take a flight to Denver after I was discharged (4 days after my C-section). That flight was the worst nightmare of my life, I was goin