Alfonso was born on October 8 2002. He was born a few weeks early because of an early aging of his mother's placenta. He was born weighing only 1.7 kg (3,7 lb) so he had to spend his first four days in a incubator. He was released of the hospital a week later with a murmur on his heart. Since the murmur did not disappear the pediatrician sent him to a cardiologist to be sure it was harmless.

Alfonso was diagnosed aortic stenosis because of a bicuspid valve when he was only two month old. So far he hasn't have any problem. He goes to check ups with his pediatric cardiologist every 4 month. His narrowing is developing "as expected", meaning that his stenosis is slowly getting worse. We will continue doing the checkups until something else must be done.

Besides his AS, Alfonso is a very healthy kid, he has luckily never been sick, has never lost his appetite and loves to eat fruit. Every time you take an apple from the fruit basket, you can see he got there first because of the "tooth marks" on them! When we go to the supermarket and he gets to see the "apple piles", his eyes almost get out of his face and starts shouting for them "MANA" (manzana is the Spanish world for apple)? I guess he thinks he is in paradise!!!!

Alfonso is growing fast, he is learning to swim, is a big fan of "Barney the Dinosaur" and loves to watch any sport that includes a ball. He also loves music and to dance and sing. We also got some walls "colorfully redecorated" with crayons by our little artist.

Even though Alfonso is still asymptomatic, we don't know what to expect for the future, how long his condition will last, if there is any chance that he does not become symptomatic at all or not. CHD is something that does not go away and will be with him his whole live. The only thing we want is our son to grow up as normal as possible, we want him to have the chance to enjoy life the same way we have.

We feel really lucky that Alfonso has done so well so far. Finding this wonderful group made us find out, that our little boy belongs to a very special group of people, the brave ones, the ones who enjoy live and give happiness to others without end the ones who make the sun shine brighter every morning with their smile. Our kids have made us discover the things that really matter in live, they teach us every day how nice live is.

Please feel free to write us.