The Adorable Devin
Devin is currently 6 years old, soon to be 7. Devin was born with a rare genetic disorder of chromosomal rearrangements including a duplication and a deletion on her 4th and 16th chromosomes which led to an array of health problems including multi-suture craniosynostosis, chiari malformation, severe hearing loss, vision impairments and estopia, developmental delay, and more. Devin is non-verbal although she does well at communicating her wants and needs by using vocal inflections, pigeon signs, and by using an AAC device.
Devin loves people, animals, music, and food. She is a happy-go-lucky child that constantly has a smile on her face despite the adversities she has experienced since birth. Devin has been in therapy since she was 3 months old and has numerous surgeries including 3 on her skull to relieve pressure on her brain and to reshape her skull, 2 surgeries on her spine for spinal decompression and a spinal fusion, 2 ear surgeries to remove cholesteatoma and to put in an an artificial hearing bone, ACL tendon lengthening, and more basic procedures such as tonsils and adenoid removal and ear tube placement.
The Reveal
We were so very blessed to get the opportunity to build a playset for this amazing young girl. She was so fun to be around and literally the cutest thing ever. She received this as a gift from her parents for her birthday but they had contacted SDSN and asked if this was a project we would be interested in helping build for her. We met Devin and her Mom Nichole at an event we attended and could not forget how much we enjoyed talking to them so of course we said yes we would love to do this for her and we are so glad we did. She absolutely loved it.
It only took us a day to put it together and finished up the final touches the next morning.
We had an amazing crew and even our friend Noah from the news came to join in on the build as well. We can't thank our volunteers enough for all their help.