Hello friends and family,

A few months into pregnancy, my brother Renny, his wife Dunia and their 16 year old son Lucas, learned that the new addition to the family would be born with some complications. They were told Luna has rare congenital heart deformity known as DORV and would need open heart surgery within days of being born. As the weeks and months passed, through routine ultra sounds, that devastating news only got worse. Additional issues with her heart started to become apparent and the complication of her diagnosis grew. The full diagnosis wouldn’t be known until she was born.

Beautiful Luna entered this world at 10:13 am on July 11, 2022 and within a few hours she was transferred to Nicklaus Children’s hospital. Luna was then formally diagnosed with double outlet right ventricle with malposed side by side great arteries, large inlet ventricular septal defect, mildly hypoplastic straddling mitral valve, mildly hypoplastic left ventricle, and hypoplastic aortic arch with coarctation.

Without skipping a beat, this family and the team at Miami children’s put on their gloves and started to fight. Luna had her first open heart surgery at one week of age (Norwood) designed to keep her alive until the next surgery and handled it like a true warrior. Ren and Dunia took turns living at the hospital for about 9 weeks while Lucas was maintained the rigorous expectations at school. There have been ups and downs during recovery but Luna greats every battle with a smile and a graceful sense of gratitude for every breath she takes. Luna is now 6 months old and you would never guess how tough she is by looking at her. Luna’s favorite time of the day is bath time, she’s extremely observant and loves girl talk time and playing with Momma. She plays the piano with Dad but hands down her favorite person in the world is her big brother.

They are now nearing the end of the dangerous time between these two surgeries during which they monitor her vitals at home and report daily to the hospital with weekly doctor visits.

Luna is due for her second open heart surgery and the complexity of it means they have to travel to Boston for a month. Boston Children’s has the capability of repairing many of the issues with Luna’s heart while helping her grow her left ventricular with the expectation that her eventual third surgery will be a full bi-ventricular repair.

I set this up for them because all they’ve been asking for is prayers and continued support in their business through referrals. Undoubtably the prayers and emotional support they’ve received have made a huge difference. Renny is a Realtor and Dunia is a makeup artist and those referrals have helped them handle all of this up to now. That said, a diagnosis like this with treatments between states wreaks havoc on any family financially. I know there are many of us that want to contribute. The surgery is set for March 1st and approval from insurances aren’t in yet but in the best case scenario there are still copayments, travel, lodging, etc.

I am reaching out to ask for your support in raising funds for Luna's surgery as well as continued prayers. Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference in her life and the lives of her family. Ren and Dunia found a lot of people along their journey that need help too. If we are able to raise more than the necessary funds for Luna, any leftover money will be donated to families with children going through similar issues, to help them with their expenses.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support and most importantly your continued prayers.

~Aryel Rivero