January 2011~

Hello!  I know I haven't written in a long time; I hope you forgive me for that.

It's just my health is so precarious:  I have lived with cystic fibrosis all my life, and it rules my life.  There isn't a day where I don't think about it.

For starters, I have to have physiotherapy done on my lungs at least three times a day (an hour per session); I have to have this done to keep my lungs as clear as possible.  I am also on oxygen, and I take what seems to be a million different pills.  It's a pain, but I'm grateful to be alive:  doctors didn't think I'd live to be six years old. 

Well, it looks like God has had other plans for me.  :)

I am now fifteen years old.  I am no longer a little girl.  I have been with my family now (the Sanduskys) since I was a tiny tot; they're the only family I have ever known, and I love them all so much!  They have done so much for me, and they have supported me on my bad days or when I was in the hospital for yet another respiratory illness or "tune up".

I am now in the tenth grade.  I love school.  I go on the days where I feel good; if not, I stay home (that is, if I am not in the hospital).  If I live long enough, I would like to learn how to drive or maybe go to college.  I would like to become a teacher to children with special needs or chronic conditions.  I want to show people that even though I have cystic fibrosis, cystic fibrosis doesn't have me.

I am a very positive person.  I am busy with school and with church.  I go to a non-denominational church (Christ Community Assembly of God) here in Nashville, Tennessee, where I live; I go every Sunday (twice, in the morning, and again in the evening) and on Wednesday (evenings).  I help the ladies with the little kids in the nursery, and I absolutely love it!  I also help out with Angel Food on the last Saturday every month; I write the names of the people who come in to get their food and make sure that their orders are correct. 

Because I have CF, I look a lot younger than fifteen.  I look more like an eight year old.  I am very tiny, and very, very skinny.  No matter what I eat, I just cannot seem to put any weight upon my skinny frame.  I have long, wavy black hair, dark, dark eyes, and a bronze-gold skin tone.  I remain dark all year long; it's like I have a permanent tan.  :)

I don't have any boyfriends, but that's okay.  Mommy wants me to wait until I'm a little older.  I do wish people would treat me nicer instead of staring at me whenever I cough (I sound like a very old woman; I can't help it) or move away like I have AIDS or something.  I also don't like the comments or people focusing on my problems instead of getting to know the real me.

Well, I am gonna go.  Have to have supper then take my nightly regimen of pills before I go to bed.  School again tomorrow. *Sigh*  I hope you take care of yourselves; God bless!

~Love, your friend, Rhiannon.  :)