Happy New Year! We hope 2018 will be the year Elena receives her new kidney! She is doing great, putting on weight and growing into such a big (little) girl. She is around 19 lbs, only 3 lbs away from the 22 she needs to be referred to the transplant team at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. She has maintained stable health and only required one hospitalization in 2017- truly amazing!

Elena will turn 2 in April and she is developing normally in most areas. She’s smart, funny and starting the phase where she is testing her independence. Her speech is a little delayed, probably due to not eating orally. She tries to learn new sounds all the time but we are pretty charmed by the sweet way she says “mama,” “dada” and “sissy.”

We are thrilled to announce that the COTA fundraising team met the goal of $50,000 in the first six months of our campaign! Our family cannot fully express our gratitude for all of the people who contributed, helped out and attended events. We feel so supported by you all and it means the world to us. As we approach transplant, the comfort of knowing we have the funds to pay for all the extra medical expenses is a tremendous help. THANK YOU! Team Elena is the best and so is our Tiny Superhero!