Megan and Tyler Anderson's daughter Brielle was born on December 17, 2013. They were overjoyed.

After her birth, Brielle began suffering from everything from pneumonia to ear pain. Their car was practically driving itself to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, almost an hour away from their home in rural southern Ohio.

In October 2016, they received a call they will never forget. Brielle’s team of doctors had diagnosed her with GRIN2A, a rare genetic disorder characterized by the lack of a 16th chromosome. There was no cure.

In subsequent years, Brielle has been diagnosed with seizures and asthma, she has weakened muscle tone and a compromised immune system, and she is non-verbal. She has also been diagnosed with severe intellectual disability. Recently, she had a gastrostomy tube (G-tube) put in to ensure she receives necessary nutrients. Within the last year, she has regressed.

Tyler and Megan wake up with Brielle in the middle of the night when she gets restless or experiences a medical situation. They carry her up and down the stairs and around the house when she doesn’t have the strength to do it on her own. They give her several types of medicine twice daily. Then there are the times Megan has needed to administer emergency medication, as their younger daughter Reese looks on. The family has made hundreds of trips to the hospital over the last nine years; Megan has two grocery bags filled to the brim with hospital bracelets and visitors’ bands.

Throughout it all, Reese, who is 18 months younger than Brielle, does everything she can to make her family's life a bit easier. She knows how to administer oxygen and medication. She helps with the laundry, she lets her parents and grandparents know when Brielle is hungry or needs something, and she helps her mom organize Brielle's extensive medicine cabinet.

But Reese doesn't just help out at home. She also volunteers to assist her school custodian in emptying wastebaskets in the classrooms, she got up early one February morning to make a classmate’s Valentine’s box because the little girl didn’t have one, and she asked a teacher for an extra treat bag at a school holiday party to give to a boy who was sick that day. On her days off from school, she asks to help her grandfather at a local church's food pantry.

Reese does all of this without realizing she’s even helping – she just sees it as a normal part of life. And she’s only seven years old.

Filmmaker Jill Craig is following Reese and her family until the summer of 2023, to film a documentary short that provides a glimpse into the lives of children helping to care for their siblings with disabilities.

She hopes that this film will shed light on the extreme struggles and joys faced by so many families around the world, by highlighting one sister's incredible journey.