Like most families, videogame animator Sarah Barnes never expected to stay at San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House. But when surgery for her daughter’s heart condition took a turn for the worse, the Ronald McDonald House was the home base that kept her going. Sarah adopted 4½-year-old Naya after a visit to China. This determined and inquisitive girl had survived many challenging transitions in her yo …
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The Zimmer boys and their dad love science fiction, tabletop war games, and Pokémon. Scott’s a university librarian, and Sophia homeschools 17-year-old Andrés and 11-year-old Santiago. Santiago seemed low energy on a particularly hot July day. Then he was screaming in pain. After rushing to the emergency room, the family was shocked to learn that a tumor on Santiago’s liver had ruptured. They’d ne …
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Life was busy during May 2014 for Robe and Meridith Whittemore, a firefighter and event planner raising a toddler girl in Point Loma. These active, beach-loving parents were eagerly expecting their second child. Yet everything changed at 37 weeks, when routine ultrasound showed blood on their baby’s brain. Doctors ordered an emergency C-section, and rushed their baby to intensive care at Rady Chil …
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When Patrick Sy plays superhero, you can believe him. At just three years old, he became a super donor for his big sister and best buddy, Rina Sy, who was diagnosed with leukemia shortly before Mother’s Day last year. Parents Marianne and Keith Sy spent several months at Rina’s hospital bedside, helping her endure three initial grueling rounds of chemotherapy. Anxious and exhausted, they tried to …
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