Hello, good people!

We are Vasko, Eli and Lubcho, and I want to tell you about his and our struggle to be here with us! Everything "officially" started in 2016. After years together, my husband and I decided it was time to seek help for our dream of having someone to love, someone to care for, someone to fill our days. That's how fate met us with Zvezdelina Lutfi - the woman without whom nothing would "be", the woman who today I can call my sister, my daughter even.

She took, as it turned out, the rather difficult path with us, towards the little bundle we wanted to take in our arms. Encouraged by the first conversation we had with her, we began. Research, tests, clinics and IVF attempt after IVF attempt... It was days of waiting, hoping and a lot of disappointment after the first and second failed attempts... again research, treatments, preparing the body, searching for the reason why it wasn't happening.

And oh miracle, the third time we saw the cherished two features. But our joy was not for long.

After a severe pre-eclampsia at the beginning of the seventh month of pregnancy, 20 days of fighting for life in intensive care, our world came crashing down again. We lost our much awaited treasure. The days and nights were endless. After two years of recovering my health, we made another attempt. And yes, we succeeded! And this time, armed with the experience of previous mistakes we thought everything would be fine. But alas, it wasn't.

Due to our unborn little one's bad tones, I was admitted to the hospital in my 30th gestational week. On day five, after an emergency section, our little big hero came into the world. Lubcho was born at only 1.120 grams. From day one he needed high doses of oxygen to survive. Unfortunately, he spent 99 days in neonatology. 99 days that we waited for that all so important phone call once a day to find out how he was. We were told dozens of times to prepare for the worst. But he survived! Defying all the prognosticators. But the bad days were coming. After the first BPD diagnosis, came the second, scarier one. As it eventually turned out, due to the reduced oxygen to the brain, Luby would have motor problems. The diagnosis was Perventricular Leukomalatosis. We started rehabilitation as soon as we got him home, which continues to this day. We work with specialists every day, sometimes in the morning and afternoon. Our little hero is fighting and working tirelessly to recover, but unfortunately he has not yet walked.

A speech therapist is working with him and we are about to start aquatic rehabilitation. But despite the initial bad prognosis, at this stage we can say that he understands everything, with a lot of hard work, every day he learns something new, says words, counts to five, performs and understands everything that happens around him. The smile never leaves his face, despite all the difficulties he goes through every day. Our main problems are that he did quadriparesis. And his arms and legs are very tight. He still can't sit up on his own and he can't walk because of this. He was a few months old when we discovered epilepsy, which thank God we were able to get under control and he is no longer taking medication for it. She had to have eye surgery abroad, which was necessary - and she handled it heroically. Today, 2yrs later there is great progress but we are still very, very far behind. We recently contacted a doctor overseas who has been doing stem cell research for over 20 years.

He has approved us for a course, and we hope with all our hearts that these infusions will help our sunshine baby to progress and have a normal childhood. The professor said that the younger the child, the better chance we have for the stem cells to work. Our dream is to see the first steps of our miracle, to see him playing and running with friends in the park. We are willing to try anything for that. And we believe, we believe in good, we believe in miracles, because our miracle has him in our arms today. So far we have handled all the treatments, surgeries and rehabs ourselves, but the amount needed for the stem cells is out of our reach.

So we ask you from the bottom of our hearts, dear people. Help our sunny boy to have a normal childhood, help a mother and a father who have begged their offspring in the hardest possible way to smile and see their child on his feet. Bow down to all the good people who reach out to people in need like us.