SAN ANTONIO – Life changed for Natalie Moncivais and her family on April 3, 2015. That is when Natalie, who is now 11, was diagnosed with 11-year-old with leukemia gets special birthday celebration.
The treatment and worries were put on hold while Moncivais celebrated her birthday.
"Everything is girly-girl like me,” Moncivais said. “So that's why I like everything here."
The room was filled with family and friends and even a puppy.
"Despite what she's going through, every day you see her, she always has a smile on her face," Ruiz’s teacher, Holly Brown, said.
Moncivais was given a special birthday party thanks to the generosity of McDonald’s franchise owner Michele Hoskins.
"Her story was so compelling to me because not only is she a little girl who is struggling with an illness, she has such a big heart,” Hoskins said. “She's more concerned about other people than she is about herself."
Moncivais still has six months of chemotherapy treatment remaining, but for a moment that seemed a world away.
"I don't want to think that I have this illness,” Moncivais said. “I just want to think that I'm a normal girl."