I began writing letters to Sitarra a few months before her birth. I knew that one day I’d show them to her so she could expand the wisdom of her very life and see events unfold through my eyes. They begin before I knew she had a genetic mutation; before I knew my baby would be born with clubbed feet and wouldn’t learn to walk until three years old – with braces.

Sometimes, the Universe wraps its priceless treasures in puzzles. The puzzle of my daughter’s first-generation genetic mutation will not go unsolved. This is her story, from my perspective, as we venture on this mission together.