Hi, my name is Isabella Vienna-Amoroso Skinner and I was born premature weighing 755 grams = 1lb 11oz. on September 6, 2004 at the UCSD Medical Center. This is an amazing place for healing little people like me.

My story began like this…

One day my Mommy participated in a compassionate communication class. The facilitator used animal puppets to represent different styles of communication. He chose the giraffe to be the compassionate communicator because they are the mammals with the biggest hearts.

A few days later my Mommy met my Daddy. He is 6'8 inches tall and the kindest man my Mommy ever met. She told her friends that she finally found her “giraffe.” They fell in love and got married. On Mother's Day they found out that I was on the way. (Pretty cool Mother's Day present) My Mommy told all her friends that she was having a “baby giraffe” because she thought I would grow up to be just like my daddy.

On August 25, 2004 for no apparent reason the nice warm place in my Mommy's tummy where I was growing sprang a leak. We got to ride in an ambulance. It was really scary. At the time I had only been in mommy's tummy for 24 weeks. The doctors and nurses looked very sad. They encouraged my Mommy to lie very still in her hospital bed, she did and I was born 13 days later on Labor Day.

When I was only 2 day old I kicked out my PIC line! Without my PIC line I continued to gain weight and do very well. My nurses nick named me fiesty. Mommy and Daddy say that I inspired them to help the other babies in the hospital – after all “We're All in this Together!” They asked the director of nurses for ideas so that we could buy something to thank the hospital for being so kind to me. Well, the state of the art incubators were really cool. They are made by General Electric and do you know what they call them? You guessed it, The Giraffe! What a coincidence!

That gave my mommy and daddy the idea to raise the necessary funds to purchase a “Giraffe” for the NICU in my name. I don't really need a lot of stuff. So I told Mommy that instead of friends and family giving me gifts for my birthday that they could donate any sum of money to my Giraffe Club and we could get a “Giraffe” for the hospital so all my little friends could thrive and survive! And so when I was only 2 days old Isabella's Giraffe Club was born. My Godparents Kanga Lori and Uncle Paul rolled up their sleeves and got to work!

My Story doesn't end there... My Mommy and Daddy will tell you the rest...

Please click on Our Story to hear more...