Aurora-Jade Maxwell is my name.  I am thirteen years old.  I live in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with my mom, dad, and my younger brothers, Giovanni Patrick and Corwin Blaze, who are ten and eight.

I was named Aurora because I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Jade because mom liked the name.  We moved to Michigan when I was two.  I really don't remember my early life; I'd like to go to Alaska so I can see the place where I was born, plus I hear it's beautiful up there.

I was born with spina bifida.  Now, before you go feeling all sorry for me, I am not in a wheelchair.  I can walk.  I wear braces on my lower legs and use crutches, but I am not totally paralyzed:  just my lower legs and feet are.  I can go to the bathroom all by myself and have no feeling from just below my shins on down. I can feel my butt and my hips.

My spina bifida is one of the more milder cases.  In medicalese, it's called meningocele.  (The severe, more common form, is called mylomeningocele.)

I have had a surgery or two, but I really don't remember most of them.  I last had surgery when I was six, when my shunt malfunctioned and I kept having headaches and seizures.  It was a bad time for me.  I have a shunt in my head so the CSF (that's cerebral spinal fluid) doesn't build up in my brain and cause serious problems.  With it in, my CSF goes where it needs to, and everything's all hunky-dory.

Like any kid, I love to have fun.  I love going to the mall with my best friend, Marciela Olivarez, spending weekends with her, singing in the church choir on Sundays (we go to a Baptist church), drawing/painting/sculpting (I am very artistic; I want to be an artist when I grow up), reading (my current favorite book is "Big Nate" by Lincoln Pierce; it's hilarious!), and writing (I write stories mainly).

People remember me mainly because of my name.  It's very unusual, but I love it.  Aurora-Jade.  Doesn't that just roll of the tongue?  They also remember me because I have such an outgoing personality and they remember me because of my eyes.  They are an intense green; they are about as green as green can be!  LOL

I don't like being disabled, but I try not to let it rule me.  Other than my lower legs being partially paralyzed and the shunt in my head, I am doing very well for myself.  I am grateful that I wasn't born with the more severe form of spina bifida.  I have seen kids with my problem who have tracheostomies or breathe with respirators, or can't do much.  Suddenly, I realize just how blessed I really am; I give thanks to God each and every day.

Next year, when I am fourteen, I plan on becoming a junior counselor at summer camp.  I go to summer camp every July for kids who have spina bifida.  I want to be their mentor and let kids know that even though they might have spina bifida, they can have a rich, full life.  I think with all that I am able to do, I would be an excellent role model for them.  I also plan on teaching them about Christ.  (I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was nine.)

Well, I gotta run.  School, y'know.  Oh, shoot!  Just remembered:  no school today.  Labor Day.  Guess I'll plop down in front of the television later this morning and watch the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.  Now those are people who have problems.  Muscular dystrophy (and the other 41 neuromusucular diseases) makes spina bifida look like a walk in the park.  I'm just thankful I don't have that!

In the meantime, I'm going back to bed.  Goodnight!

~Love, your new friend, Aurora-Jade.  :D