Alizas Recovery

In early November we learned that our beautiful and strong 11 year old daughter would need to have her second open heart surgery. Her first surgery was when she was 3 weeks old. As her parents we again needed to do one of the hardest things in our life, hand our baby girl over to a surgeon for a 6 hour surgery. Her chest would be opened, she would be placed on heart/lung bypass and her heart would be repaired. We have done this before, but this time it was different! This time she was the big sister, a best friend, our family's jokester, a swim team member, and an inspirer to so many. She is well loved by so many in our community, she is recognized every where she goes because of her perseverance and dedication and hard work. She is my hero and a hero to so many others, and she doesn't even realize how inspiring she is to so many people. Aliza has Down syndrome and there is nothing about her that is going to keep her Down! Alizas favorite song is Roar by Katie Perry. The first day after her open heart surgery she wanted to create a video for her friends to see that she was okay. She was barely awake, but danced in her bed to Roar. 5 days following the surgery she wanted to make another video (attached) This kid is amazing.She is determined that nothing, including open heart surgery is "going to keep her down." She Roars like I have never seen someone Roar. She has taken this challenge head on and has made remarkable progress. So many physicians have commented that her recovery is like none other!
http://youtu.be/w8KKE0vsTBg
Here is her story
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/alizapidgeon