5-year-old El Paso girl fighting rare disease offers inspiration to family, friends, community

EL PASO, Texas -- Victoria De La Luz was born at only 27 weeks as a premature baby. Only five days after Melinda De La Luz's emergency c-section, her daughter had to undergo a heart surgery to solve a heart murmur. 83 days later, she was finally taken home by parents Andrew and Melinda.

"Honestly that's where our world changed- when she was born," Melinda told ABC-7.

Victoria, now is now 5, hasn't has the easiest life. Little Victoria is diagnosed with arthogryprosis in her feet and ankles, which is a disease that causes tightness of the tendons, as well as an unnamed disease that causes severe muscle weakness throughout her body. Her dad told us she wasn't able to have head control until after she was a year old.

Although Victoria uses a wheelchair to get around, don't let her illnesses trick you- this little girl has a dream to walk one day. Her dad recalled the day when she shared her dream.

"'When I grow up, I'm going to walk.' And when she said that it hit us both pretty hard. She said it with so much confidence, and we believe her, and we believe that one day she's going to."

Her parents have certainly been there for her every step of the way. Victoria used to have a wheel chair that she had to move herself with her own arms. With her severe muscle weakness, moving around became a challenge. Her parents started to research power wheel chairs- ones that Victoria would be able to move on her own, without tiring out. The De La Luz family reached out to their insurance, who had seemed very helpful in times past, about getting a power wheel chair but were denied.

At a loss, and unable to pay for the power wheelchair, Victoria's parents used her quote and her signature and began to sell t-shirts to anyone who would buy them in order to afford the special wheelchair. The wide attention they received surprised them.

"With the help of her therapist, family, friends, honestly complete strangers also, we were able to raise the money very fast in order to get her the chair," Andrew told us.

The De La Luz family made sure that everyone who bought a shirt would be able to meet little Victoria who it was all for. Now, Victoria loves to use her chair.

"I like it. I can go in circles. You can go in circles, what else mama? I can go outside," was the exchange between father and daughter.

Victoria is an inspiration for many, including her own parents:

"Honestly she's my inspiration, because honestly she showed me strength that I didn't know I had before," her mother told us, and her father admitted, "the biggest thing you gotta know about her is how strong she is. I mean, I know muscle weakness is what her current issue is, but don't let that fool you. She is the strongest little person Ive ever met."

The De La Luz family isn't looking for more monetary donations as they've reached their goal to buy the power wheel chair for their daughter. However, if you would like to buy a shirt to support Miss Victoria, they are more than happy to create one for you.

The instagram of Andrew De La Luz (father) is linked here: https://www.instagram.com/delaluz_21/

The instagram of Melinda De La Luz (mother) is linked here: https://www.instagram.com/mel_d/