This is the story of a brave little soul.

Her name is Mikayla Ann Cyndie Howse.

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Mikayla is a beautiful 7 year old little girl, she

has blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.

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Mikayla was born ten days late on

March 2nd, 2012 and we were raced

to CHEO 6 hours after her birth.

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This should have been a happy time for

all of us, but times were dark.

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I, Mikayla's mom was holding on as

long as I could to my beautiful

little daughter.

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We were told she would be born stillborn but then after she was not we were told she would only live for two days.

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She spent the first 2 weeks of her life

living at Roger Nielson house with the

palliative care team.

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See, Mikayla had a fetal stroke, a very rare condition, since then Mikayla

has been diagnosed with several conditions, bilateral schizencephaly being

one of them and spastic cerebral palsy being another one.

Mikayla and I probably know CHEO like the back of our hand,

the appointments, the tears, the tests, it was a very hard

start to a very inspiring little girl's life.

She did not give up though, she shined like the beautiful star that she truly is.

She was not supposed to walk but she does assisted by a walker, she wasn’t supposed to eat on her own but she has been eating solids for a whole year now.

She continues to blow our minds and the minds of

the professionals who didn’t see a bright future for her.

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I won’t ever give up because she is such a true motivation to me and

everyone else around her.

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Malakai is a happy 5 year old little boy.

He loves music, cars, colouring and playing with his big sister Aaliyah.

Malakai was born 6 weeks early by emergency C-section, weighing just 3.8lbs.

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He spent 12 days in the NICU.

As Malakai grew we realized he wasn’t hitting the usual milestones and we started to suspect that he had cerebral palsy.

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At 17 months old he was officially diagnosed with Spastic Quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy.

Malakai does physio, occupational, as well as speech therapy at Cheo.

At home he has his own set of equipment that we use everyday.

We doing daily stretching, playing and physio activities to try to strengthen his muscles as well as eliminate the tightness.

Malakai always has the biggest smile on his face that can light up any room. He has gone through so much but never complains or gives up.

He’s such a hard worker.

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At just 3 years old he is an inspiration to others.

We can’t wait to see what this little guy accomplishes!!