Joao is Coming To America in Jan.2024
•Posted on December 14 2023
We are in full fundraising mode for Joao. All purchases from our Website with Joao's name in the note section through Dec 31 2023 will help with his estimated $50,000 in expenses.
His Bio:
Coming to the USA for Medical help January 18,2024
Prayer needs from Joao family:
1. We get our visas in time.
2. That we have favor on us
3. That we are able to have all the funds we need.
4. That our two dogs are safe while we are gone.
5. Travel mercy
6. Good health
7. That we get a good and perfect plan for Joao from the specialist.
João is the love of our lives. He is such a fighter and has had a hard life filled with medical disappointments. At times, we have often lost hope after going through one failure after another, causing more harm than good.
João has had 12 surgeries and procedures. Unfortunately, they took the mobility that he had away from him and left him in a full-time wheelchair and bedridden.
Because of this, Joao has spiraled into depression and a lot of pain.
During my pregnancy, I had all the follow-ups and imaging tests and none of them showed deformities.
In an imaging exam, João had his foot in his mouth. We had all of the usual dreams for our family.
I had João through a natural birth in a city in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
After His birth, my husband abandoned me, and so did most of my family. I felt very alone. I was so young and scared. My mother stuck by Joao and me. He was born with twisted legs, club feet, and clubbed hands. His elbows were/are stuck, and he also has internal problems.
João was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Larsen syndrome. Getting medical care was confusing because no one understood how to help us.
When João was three years old, I went to São Paulo to seek medical treatment.
I entered an institution where there were very few Larsen cases and was seen by a doctor who said that João was on a list for surgery, but this did not prove to be the case; no one knew how to treat him.
Years later, I found a doctor named Fernandez who took on João's case.
He had his first surgery, and a week later, João had an infection, and his stitches opened.
João was passed on to another doctor named Rafael Yoshida.
This doctor put fixators on João's legs, and he spent a year on each leg, and Joao got numerous infections. The fixators were not the correct procedure and caused many more problems and hardships for Joao. Because of this wrong procedure
I spent more than a month in the hospital with João with an infection; he had to have a blood transfusion. After another year, the fixators were finally removed, and Joao began Physical Therapy. We can’t get braces that are correct to help him. We struggle to advance in Therapy.
After the surgery, he had a problem that caused his knees not to bend (stiff-legged), making it challenging to enter buses and small places.
I felt a lot of pain in my back and live with this still.
Today, João is 15 years old and has a minimal life, stuck in a chair. We could not get the proper medical care.
I am blessed with a great and selfless mother.
She works hard to take care of me and João. As a result of poor care, Joao is also incontinent. He needs
Medicine, diapers, clothes, fruit, everything else. Unfortunately, João's biological father never helped or became a part of Joao's life.
João, when he was little, was very fragile and had several hospitalizations and many respiratory problems.
He was a child who cried a lot, and no doctor knew why.
My mother works until the early hours of the morning and would accept any job to be able to support João and me.
I became depressed because I was too young to take care of a child.
But God has always been very good and helped me.
I was blessed to meet a caring man who became my husband; he takes care of João with my mother and me.
My husband is so great with Joao, and they love each other; it is a blessing.
They play and watch cartoons together; they are great companions.
Before this surgery, João was very independent. In his own way, he could climb stairs, get into a wheelchair alone, and play on the floor.
After these surgeries, he stopped everything and lost all independence.
Now João needs me and my husband for everything. I can't do it alone because João is too heavy to put in the shower chair wheelchair and to get into the car. My husband has to pick him up.
João's chair is big and doesn't fit on any bus here.
João suffered a lot in schools here in Brazil. Because he requires so much help, the teachers are unwilling. He is easily distracted.
I decided to be his school companion and started going to school with him every day.
The desire to study inclusive education arose in my heart. I am in my second year of college.
This college is to train me to teach children with disabilities. It is a four-year program.
I started working at the school three times a week to take care of the disabled children who study there.
João's relationship with my mother is beautiful.
The two love each other and watch soap operas together.
My mother stays with him so I can study and work on the days when João doesn't have school.
My husband works nights so he can take me to João's medical appointments during the day.
We are a close family, and we treasure each other so much.
João is very loving and gentle. He is a boy with his own opinion, a defender of those who suffer injustice.
He loves video games and makes bracelets to sell when he wants to buy a video game.
As you are reading this and considering helping us change Joao's life for the better, thank you with gratitude that I cannot fully express. We are humbled that we have your attention.
May God bless each one's life and thank you for bringing hope of a better future with more independence to João.
While it is hard to believe that we will leave our home, country, and all that we know to travel to America to get help, we are trusting God over our fears and believing that He has our best interest at heart. We have been studying Philippians 29:11. We trust God for a future and Hope for Joao.
The picture below is of Joao with his dog Polly.
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