About Cristina
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I would like to tell you a little bit about my little sister Cristina. This amazing girl can steal your heart with her sweet smile and catching laughter. Once you've met her, you honestly cannot forget her. She is now 11 years old on Blessed Mother Mary’s Birthday (Sept. 8)and is growing up so beautifully.
She loves all animals, and when I say all, I mean all; especially our family dog and two cats. She adores animals so much in fact, that every birthday, Christmas, and basically trip to the store she manages to find some animal related toy which she begs for. It doesn't surprise anyone who knows her that she wishes to become a veterinarian! She always has a hard time with deciding which stuffed animal of hers to sleep with because she doesn't want to hurt any of their feelings!
As a fifth grader she seems to enjoy learning very much and has no problem sharing her knowledge. She amazes me often with her ability to quickly pick up on her studies, as well as learning new prayers. Cristina loves hearing about Our Lord and how much He loves us all, as well as our Blessed Mother Mary and all the angels and saints. She is an avid reader, much like our mom and I, and is constantly reading stories. You see, in our house we have several bookshelves, but one is especially dedicated for younger books. Cristina and our dog Ginger can be found sitting beside it quite often; Cristina reading and Ginger listening. Whether acting out one of the self-made plays she and our little brother Andrew have written, reading aloud, or practicing her piano, she likes to please the audience (even if it is just the family animals).
She loves to run, swim, read, practice piano, and play outside with her friends. She and Andrew are almost always together and getting into one thing or another. Especially mud. A couple months ago, she informed our mom that she would like all of us (the girls and Andrew), to go to a spa together. When my mom asked her why, she responded, "because we can all have mud baths!".
For Cristina, Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth. Her favorite character is Stitch. At her request, rather than having birthday parties, we have spent her past 6 birthdays at both Disneyland and California Adventure. She can never get enough of Splash Mountain. In fact last year for her 10th birthday, we stayed at a hotel next door to the amusement park for the ENTIRE weekend.
Regarding her disease, for those of you who don't know, NF basically keeps her body from producing the chemical that functions to suppress the appearance and the growth of tumors. Thankfully, they don't cause her pain and are not cancerous, but the doctors say that they are likely to change and more will develop as time goes on. This disease affects her motor skills and balance which keep her from writing and running like the average 11 year old would.
Her digestive system has not been working well lately and she gets nauseous a lot as well. She has also recently been suffering with irregularly high or low blood pressure and headaches which her doctors can't explain. What amazes me the most is that she doesn't let any of this affect her. She has had MRI's of her brain taken every six months since she was diagnosed and several of her s pine, but the past year everything looked stable so she was able to skip it. Unfortunately, she is due to have another one soon.
An MRI is basically a large machine which takes a clear picture inside your body. It takes usually about an hour, but Cristina has to take it twice, one without contrast (a type of dye) and the second one with it. That's the part she hates the most because they insert the dye through an IV. In order for this picture to be taken, she has to lie down and her whole body is slid into the machine. Although most adults have a difficult time being in an MRI tube, Cristina pretends to be Snow White in a deep sleep and says that the loud knocking noises are the Seven Dwarfs digging for diamonds in their mine. Each time the buzzer sounds, it means that they have found a diamond!
Every night she says her prayers with her favorite stuffed animal of the day. Her strong faith and love for God truly help her take so much of this in stride. She is such a joyful and loving girl and seems to touch the life of every person she meets. She is most definitely one of my greatest role models.
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