Ice.  Yeah, that's me.  Ice Jasmine Esquivar.  I am sixteen years old, and I live with my family in Trenton, New Jersey.

I have black hair and light eyes that are befitting for my name.  Maybe that's why I was named Ice; I don't really know.  I am half Latina (on my daddy's side) and half Polish-American on my mom's.  People say I am very pretty, almost exotic looking.

I have two younger sisters, Fawn Jerrica (13) and Nevaeh Grace (6), and two younger brothers, Bronson Miguel (8) and Jesus Guillermo (11).  Two of my siblings are disabled:  Fawn has brain damage due to being abused as a child, and Bronson has autism.  (Bronson and Fawn are adopted.  They were adopted last year; it's been a huge adjustment for our family.

We've since gotten used to having Bronson and Fawn around, but they are a lot of work.  Bronson can't talk, and he stresses out when exposed to change:  any little thing can set him off into a rage; then it takes a while for mom and daddy to calm him down.

As for Fawn, she's in a wheelchair, and she can't walk or talk.  She's like a baby; her parents severely abused her, and they caused her to become handicapped.  It's really a very sad story; it still makes me cry to think that some parents do this to their kids.

Mom and daddy, however, don't care one bit if Bronson or Fawn are disabled:  they only know they needed a home (and a family), so they took them in as their own, and now we have a new brother and sister.

As for me, as I said at the start, I'm Ice, and I'm sixteen.  I'm in the tenth grade at our local high school (Trenton High), and while I don't particularly care for school, I do make pretty good grades. 

Some of the things I like to do include being with my family (particularly Fawn; she's really a sweet-natured child), write stories or poems (mostly about my family or about kids my age, and some of the issues we face), play the guitar, sing, read the Bible/go to church, roller blading or skating, visiting the senior citizens at the nursing home once a week, talk on the phone with my friends, and dance.

Once people meet me in person, they find it hard to forget me because I have such a weird first name.  I don't mind it, though; I think it's pretty cool.  I also love the names mom and daddy picked out for my littlest sister and my 11 year old brother.

Now we have a brother named Bronson and a sister named Fawn.  Two more unusual names to fit with such an unusual family.  LOL  (My parents have common names:  mom's first name is Josephine, and daddy's first name is Manuelo.)

Well, I gotta run; I've been doing homework, and I just got done.  I wanted to write my first entry into my new journal; it's not as hard as it looks.  LOL  I will write in here again; I feel I have more of my story to tell.  Until later, this is Ice Esquivar signing off; may God bless you always!

~Love, your new friend, Ice in New Jersey.  :D