Eloise was born at 41 weeks - a solid 8lbs-13 oz. She ate and slept well and there were no indications of any trouble. I'd had an easy pregnancy and an easy delivery with no complications. It was not until she was 6-8 months of age that I noticed the missed milestones that came so easy for her older sister. She had poor head control, little to no core strength, only used her left hand and couldn't sit, let alone crawl.

She was diagnosed with right hemiplegia cerebral palsy due to a prenatal stroke in utero. We were told that she needed immediate intervention. That at 9 months of age we'd already missed a lot of time in order to take full advantage of the brain's ability to grow new neuropathways. As a journalist I began to frantically research, read medical studies, and reach out to other parents further in their journey than I.

What I discovered was within my own city, there was nothing available that we needed. Our own rehabilitation hospital and public health care system provided next to nothing of the intensive physical therapy I was told we needed and at the time there were no private intensive physical therapy clinics in Alberta. My research led me to numerous CP studies that were happening in both Canada and the U.S for kids with Cerebral Palsy. We took part in many of them.