Baby Girl Back Home After Beating the Odds : Medicine: Anaheim toddler Stephanie Rudat spent three months in Seattle, where she received a risky bone-marrow transplant to treat leukemia.

Waddling along an airport concourse and waving for television cameras, tiny Stephanie Rudat was clearly enjoying her newfound health.

Swept up in a crowd of family members, the 20-month-old girl was welcomed back to the county Saturday at John Wayne Airport after the toddler spent three months in Seattle for a bone-marrow transplant operation, a treatment crucial to her fight with leukemia.

“I dreamed about this day,” said the youngster’s mother, Farhat Rudat, tears streaming down her face. “My baby told me every day that she was going to come home, by her smile.”

The homecoming was especially emotional for Farhat Rudat, who along with her 3-year-old daughter Christine had accompanied Stephanie to Seattle and spent the entire time there, keeping a vigil at the hospital and later aiding in her recovery. Stephanie’s cancer is now in remission.

“When they told me we could go home, I couldn’t sleep for two weeks,” she said. “We’re very tired, but we made it. This is what it’s all about.”

In the family’s extensive greeting party, no one was happier than the child’s father, Kelly Rudat. Months of commuting between the family’s Anaheim home and Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center had been visibly draining to the former beer salesman, who recently lost his job because of the constant travel.

“Things are looking up now,” he said. “We’re just going to relax tonight. The doctors told us not to have too much excitement.”

Stephanie was found to have non-lymphocetic leukemia when she was 6 weeks old. Chemotherapy helped send her illness into remission.

When the cancer was not eradicated, the parents were told the child needed another transplant, this time from an outside donor. The treatment was described by doctors as an extremely dangerous procedure.

Last June, the family suffered another setback when the parents discovered that their insurance money had run out after costs reached $1 million. Medi-Cal agreed to take over the expenses, but balked after a donor was found out of state.

But Medi-Cal changed its decision when it was argued that the Seattle donor was Stephanie’s last chance for survival.

Family friend Martin Dadlami was among those who came out to welcome the youngster home.

“It’s hard to explain the feeling,” he said, trailing the family through the crowded airport. “They have gone through a lot--a lot of pain. It’s something no one would know about unless they went through it. We prayed for them. We were so excited when she (Farhat Rudat) called the other day and told us they were coming home.”

Saturday, the child who had learned to walk during her recovery bore little resemblance to the sickly toddler who left Orange County three months ago. And her parents, although still unemployed and living off their savings, were in a celebrating mood.

“My husband has made a special dinner for us,” Farhat Rudat said. “We are going home to be with our family and friends. It’s like Christmas. I am so very happy.”