Tulsa, Oklahoma, April 4, 2013.

Dear Journal~

Hola! Como esta usted?  

It's me, your friend, Sonrisa Gomez!  I hope this finds y'all well!  As for me, I'm still recovering from surgery; had some major surgery done on my legs about two weeks ago and am currently in a body cast.  It's not very comfortable, but at least the pain isn't as bad as it was.

I am currently being taught here at home.  Mami y Papi have a teacher coming here; my regular teacher, Mr. Quick, couldn't take time out of his busy schedule to teach me.  At first, I was really sad 'cause I love my teacher, but the teacher I have here at home (Mrs. Consuelos) is very nice, and I am able to keep up with the rest of my class, so I am very happy about that.

I don't like having to have so many surgeries or hospital stays, but that's the price I have to pay with having spina bifida.  At least I can walk (though right now I can't!) or have the option of using my wheelchair if I get too tired or have to go somewhere there is a lot of extra walking.  I can take care of myself and I do a pretty good job, all things considering.  Mami y Papi both say I do a terrific job and are very proud of me.  That really makes me feel good.

The weather here in Oklahoma is cold.  We are in the forties, but by week's end, it's supposed to warm up into the upper seventies to lower eighties, and according to the weather, we may have some bad weather come here Monday or Tuesday due to a strong cold front.  We could even have tornadoes.  I hope not; I don't like tornadoes, but at least we have a shelter where we live.  We have to.  Tornadoes can be scary, especially if they're like the one that hit Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.

That tornado was one of the big ones; it was an EF-5, the baddest of the bad.  Over 30 people died in that storm and hundreds were injured or left homeless due to all the damage.  I'm just glad we didn't have that here in Tulsa, but I wouldn't be surprised if a big tornado hit our city one day.  Still, whenever the weather gets bad and I'm home, we hunker down inside our shelter and wait 'til the danger has passed and pray we didn't have any damage.

My brother Manuelo (he's 11; I'm ten) got into trouble the other day.  He scratched Mami's new truck; he is grounded until further notice.  Some of his punk friends dared him to scratch on a vehicle; well, he did, but he did it when Mami was looking out the window.  Stone-cold busted!!  And then what made it bad was he lied even though Mami saw him do it.  So he's grounded.  The only place he can go is to school, but he has to come home immediately afterwards, or he will only be in worse trouble than what he already is.  He also cannot have any friends over and the computer is off limits.  He really got it good!

Around Christmas, Abuelo got real sick; he had a heart attack and was in the hospital for two weeks; he then had heart surgery on New Year's Day; I'm happy to say he's feeling a lot better.  He's still a bit weak, but most of his strength (and his appetite) have returned, and he looks so good!  It was a huge answer to prayer!  Abuelo could have very easily died ... I'm so glad he didn't!

Well, I hate to go, but my teacher has come, so it's time to buckle down and do some schoolwork.  Boo!  I will write in here again soon; hopefully by then I'll be back up and runnin' around on my crutches; this lying around in bed in a body cast is not fun at all!  Take care and God bless!

~Love, your friend in Oklahoma, Sonrisa.  :)