Three life-saving open-heart surgeries to repair a birth defect have defined the life of a four-year-old girl, and plunged her family into debt. (Arizona Daily Star) View

John Nese is the Willy Wonka of carbonation. His L.A. specialty store offers more than 500 types of fizzy beverages -- but no Pepsi. (Chow.com) View

Disguised as a frumpy businesswoman, the pop star triumphantly performs some of her classic songs to an unsuspecting but completely dumbfounded audience.(Funny or Die) View

Recent Maryland high school grad Joey Baker has one of the most promising baritone singing voices in the country. (WP) View

Working for Union Pacific Railroad for 38 years enabled Lee Wesley Gibson, now 100, to create his most cherished legacy -- his progeny. (LAT) View

Working with a certified nurse-midwife, an Ohio couple has a positive experience with home birthing for their second child. (Soul of Athens) View

Hopefuls audition at an open casting call for a coveted position that requires you to drum, wear paint, act with your eyes, and not speak a word. (Las Vegas Sun) View

A 13-year-old Haitian girl adjusts to a prosthetic leg provided by a New Hampshire team that aids earthquake victims. (Boston Globe) View

After the housing market crashed, Robert Rudolph, 53, left his formerly prosperous career as a mortgage broker to pursue his first love: choir music. (AARP) View

A young couple finds that a relationship formed at the Smiling Skull Saloon can work -- even when a baby arrives. (Soul of Athens) View

Seventy years after being sent to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, Bessie Kawachi Chin, 87, receives an honorary college degree. (SJMN) View

With the onset of puberty, a young girl navigates the fluid space between genders with the help of understanding parents and friends. (Media That Matters) View