Meet Juan Carlos Bueno. He is 8 years old and has advanced Rheumatoid
Arthritis. He has been coming to the school for about 1-1/2 years now. He lives
with his father and two sisters about 2 miles north of Genesis and one of his
sisters brings him on a moped each morning. His mother passed away soon after his
birth due to complications during the birth. His father, Santos, works as a
farm worker in the fields each day. Juan Carlos is just beginning to learn to
use a walker as his Rheumatoid Arthritis is progressively getting worse and his
walk is getting more unstable. He is close to non-verbal, saying maybe a few
words each day. He does a lot of nods with his head for yes and no and other
than that it is difficult for him to communicate anymore. He does the same
school work as the others in his class and at times he has homework that his
sisters help him with when he gets home. To offset his tuition cost of $13.00
per month, his two sisters come once a week and help to clean Genesis. He is
one of 5 students that have a “scholarship” like that to offset the cost of
tuition. He is a real joy to have in school and always has a bright smile for
us all. His sisters are also very good about attending our monthly parent meetings. They are very involved in the school.
Being one of the first ones there each morning, he greats the others with his face full of joy as
the others start to arrive at school. If you have any interest in helping with
Juan Carlos' costs, you can email me back and let me know what your wishes are
and I can tell you how to go about sponsoring him. There are sponsorships avaliable for all of the kids that attend Genesis.
Juan Carlos has
special place in my heart because I have a cousin Jane in Iowa with a similar degenerative
condition and Jane also has the same positive outlook and encouraging spirit
that Juan Carlos has.
When Jane was in her low 30’s she
was diagnosed with Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. Not really
experiencing any noticeable symptoms for a number of years, but by 1995 she was
in a wheelchair and has been using one since.
I try to have some email contact with her once in a while but it is
getting harder for her to type now and more and more movements that you and I
take for granted are a struggle or impossible for her.
Every day when I look at Juan
Carlos, I see Jane setting there smiling back at me. I give thanks to both of
them for the encouragement that they give me.
