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Shelby is our whole world! We had no idea that anything would be "different" about her during pregnancy, but I work and delivered at an AMAZING hospital (OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria IL,.recently named best NICU in the country!) and we were lucky enough to have found out very early! She was diagnosed with PKS at 12 days old, which is VERY early in the PKS world! Shelby was in the NICU for 12 days because she had a cleft palate and an anteriorly placed anus. At day 5 she had surgery to correct her anus and her palate was repaired at 12 months.

She is a very agile, happy, loud baby! She is delayed mentally and physically but is making great progress with the help of occupational and physical therapy. We have A LOT of appointments with A LOT of different doctors, but we have had nothing but wonderful experiences with all of them so far. We have had problems with recurring ear and lung infections. But the only thing left to do now is to love her all we can, and give her EVERYTHING we can. She makes our lives complete and we wouldn't know what to do without her now!

I try to never focus on what Shelby can not do, but instead what she can do. And what she can do is bring a joy to my life that I have never known!