Meet Damaris!
It is my absolute honor to nominate my beautiful daughter Damaris Rodriguez for the adaptive bicycle. The world was blessed with her presence on August 5th, 2008. She was born prematurely and diagnosed with Angelmans syndrome. As a mother we know how difficult it is to see our kids go through any pain or any difficulties but we all remain together and strong. What has kept us going through this? Her beautiful, infectious smile that could no doubt light up an entire stadium. Her most sincere hugs. The syndrome she has holds her back from being able to talk and being able to express herself. Her bones were not strong enough as a child, so much so that it held her back from not being able to walk her first few years.
Things have not been easy for her sadly. This affliction has also caused Damaris to suffer kidney failure, as well as high blood pressure.
As parents we know that bills and expenses are the least of our worries when it comes to our kids health and lives. Blood pressure and kidney failure requires a lot of dieting, healthy eating and being active. Every day we make sure Damaris is fed only the best of the best green juices, healthy food, and Healthy shakes to bring her blood pressure down and prevent her kidneys from failing. The price of this does add up, making it impossible to buy special equipment for Damaris. We work with what we have. We take her on walks around the neighborhood or to the park. We have found used equipment at thrift stores for her to use in our apartment to keep her healthy diet in order. But of course after a while they break down since they are second hand. Where we live is a very small apartment, making it impossible to have her run around like any other child can or have her have her own space for her to have any physical therapy. Damaris doesn’t worry about our income circumstances and is always grateful for what’s given to her and is always a happy girl. I wish could give my daughter the world and make every Illness she has go away but it doesn’t work like that.
That being the case, she is very deserving of this bike. The love she shows to everyone even though she may not be able to use her words brings tears to our eyes and swells our hearts. To be given this gift for her would show our gratitude for the life she has given us. She shows us that no matter what we go through we should always go through life with a smile on our faces. We owe her this, even though it’ll never be enough to show her our love for her.
No child deserves to go through this pain Damaris has been through and no parent deserves to go through seeing their child go through so much. May you all be blessed, and thank you so much for considering my beautiful Angel for this precious gift.