Home Makeover, South Dakota Edition

Siehera is much like any other 13-year-old. She's learning to play the guitar and likes to exchange instant messages with her friends. Her shy smile reveals the glint of pink braces.

But there is also something is markedly different about Siehera, a grim past that accounts for her pixy-like stature.

"Siehera was born with a incorrectly formed heart," says
Nila Thibodeau, Siehera's mom. "She had her first heart
surgery when she was six months old. She has now had 4 heart
operations."

The Thibodeau family -- Siehera and her brothers, Kyle,
8, and Kevin Jr., 12, and their father, Kevin -- lives on an
acreage a few miles south of Toronto, SD.

"We are the king and queen of bad luck," says Kevin, who
grew up in the small town of Cohasset, MN. "We had just
bought this place when a hailstorm knocked out some windows.
After we got those fixed, the house was struck by lightning."

But perhaps the most troubling development came from
downstairs. "The septic system backed up and we got a foot of
sewage in the basement," says Nila.

The moisture caused fungus to move in. Mold tests
conducted on the house were off the charts, and Siehera began
to have trouble breathing at night. Arrangements were made
for her to live with a neighbor. Then came the operation last
May to replace her defective mitral valve.

After the surgery, Siehera developed Post Cardiac Injury
Syndrome. Her temperature soared, one of her lungs collapsed,
and her kidneys began to fail. "We were just hours away from
putting her on dialysis when she turned a corner and began to
get better," recalls Nila.

What should have been a short stay in the hospital
stretched into a month. As the Thibodeaus hovered at
Siehera's bedside, events that would radically change their
lives were already in motion.

"We were in the hospital when we got a phone call from a
producer of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition TV show," says
Nila. "It seems that my sister in North Dakota had written
them, and they were interested in doing a makeover of our
home."

That initial phone call launched a long process of
interviews and background checks. "By the time it was over,
they literally knew my jean size!" says Nila.
The Thibodeau family spent the summer in a state of
limbo, not knowing whether or not their home would be chosen
for a makeover. "They did a very good job of keeping us
guessing," says Nila.

The day when Ty Pennington addressed the Thibodeau
family with his bullhorn, he snuck up the driveway on foot to
avoid being detected by the family dog. "I was totally
shocked," says Nila. "We were told that 5 other families were
in the running, but that was just a ruse."

Ty spent two hours with Siehera, playing guitar with her
and learning about her hopes and dreams. The following day
the Thibodeau family was flown off to New York City.

"I couldn't figure out why they chose New York," says
Nila, who grew up on a dairy farm. "We are country mice and
felt very out of place. This was especially true at the
Waldorf-Astoria, the hotel where we stayed."

The Thibodeaus were squired around the city by one of
the show's producers. Some of their most memorable activities
included a visit to Dylan's Candy Bar, where the kids behaved
like, well, kids in a candy store, walking out with more than
$200 worth of sweets. Nila was taken to Macy's and told to
choose an outfit for a special occasion. "I just wish they
had given me more than half an hour!" smiles Nila.

The special occasion was a private audience with the
renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli. But the music-related
surprises didn't end there: near the end of their visit,
Siehera was given a chance to appear on MTV.

"The trip to New York made sense once we learned about
the MTV part," says Nila.

After their week in the city the Thibodeau family was
chauffeured, blindfolded, to their new house. "It was scary
to hear all those people cheering!" recalls Nila.

The Thibodeaus were overwhelmed by their spacious new
home. But perhaps its most important feature is in the
basement, where a state-of-the-art filtration system cleans
the air and makes it possible for Siehera to breathe easy.

"The whole community has been so great," says Nila. "Our
lives have been touched by a lot of people we didn't even
know, but who genuinely cared."

Siehera will face another surgery sometime during the
next 5 to 15 years, when her bovine mitral valve wears out.
In the meantime, she can much be like any other teenaged
girl, strumming her guitar and putting up with a couple of
annoying little brothers.

And the king and queen of bad luck can at last smile a
bit, now that Fortune has seen fit to smile upon them.