juliana wetmore one more time
UPDATE -- Juliana has been seen on a lot of televsion specials lately (especially the Discovery Channel's "Born Without a Face"). I am trying to update this post as it seems to receive a lot of traffic every time her story is told. If you have any information for me to add (you're in the family or you've heard news that I haven't), e-mail me or leave a comment. Let's all help this little girl who's story has touched us all enough to find out more about her! Thanks.
If you've visited this page repeatedly over the last week or two, you may have noticed I took away the donation information regarding Juliana Wetmore, the little girl born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. Though I am no longer accepting donations to send along (not that I received any), I want to still make it easier for people to send their own.
Why, you might ask. Well, her father works for the government (I believe the military) and so has excellent insurance that will cover her dozens of surgeries, but that insurance doesn't cover the expense involved in her family's traveling to the hospital which comes to around $6000 a year. It's also good, I think, that the family have some extra cash lying around as a "just in case" fund (can you imagine if her dad lost his insurance?). That said, I'm going to keep the donation information posted here and in the earlier post (which is the main page coming up in google searches). That said:
If you would like to donate flier miles to the family, read this
For other posts I have made which include other news and info I have come across, check here, here, and here.
For a story not yet linked to by myself, read about Juliana's visit with a teacher also born with Treacher Collins here.
If you've visited this page repeatedly over the last week or two, you may have noticed I took away the donation information regarding Juliana Wetmore, the little girl born with Treacher Collins Syndrome. Though I am no longer accepting donations to send along (not that I received any), I want to still make it easier for people to send their own.
Why, you might ask. Well, her father works for the government (I believe the military) and so has excellent insurance that will cover her dozens of surgeries, but that insurance doesn't cover the expense involved in her family's traveling to the hospital which comes to around $6000 a year. It's also good, I think, that the family have some extra cash lying around as a "just in case" fund (can you imagine if her dad lost his insurance?). That said, I'm going to keep the donation information posted here and in the earlier post (which is the main page coming up in google searches). That said:
Donations can be made mailed or wired to:You may also want to check out a progress journal set up by the family at CaringBridge.org.
Vystar Credit Union
PO Box 45085
Jacksonville, FL 32232
account number 2102465
wire routing number 263079276
If you would like to donate flier miles to the family, read this
For other posts I have made which include other news and info I have come across, check here, here, and here.
For a story not yet linked to by myself, read about Juliana's visit with a teacher also born with Treacher Collins here.
22 Comments:
I am utterly in love with Juliana and her family.
I am also in love with this family. Juliana is a beautiful little girl and I pray for them every day.
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"Beautiful"? Um...are you blind, by any chance? The child is hideously deformed, or did you maybe not notice?
Sheesh. It's sort of sad when people have to lie to make themselves look like good people. "Beautiful" my hind foot.
It's kind of sad that people, who are afraid to leave identifying information nonetheless, need to leave negative comments on the internet about a bloody toddler. Do you get off on this? I assume you are the commenter that I already deleted once as the messages are similar.
What a sad, sad person you are.
What is the old saying? Beauty is not skin deep. The beauty of Juliana is her spirit and there are obviously a lot of people that can look beyond her face and see that. I think that she is an amazingly strong little girl. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ugliness in this world - people with ugly souls that make nasty comments about an innocent child because she does not look the same as everyone else. The Wetmores set a wonderful example as to how and why parents should love their children and devote their lives to them.
This story seems so tragic, and I really dont know how I would deal, so when I see how much love they give their daughter and how they look past her deformities they almost dont seem as bad. The whole thing is just soooo touching and that right there is so beautiful. Melinda is right, there is more to beauty than the surface, and I respect that. Whoever can get on the internet and say she is ugly because she has a rare disease is a SICK SICK person! Especially because other than her face there is nothing wrong with her. She is mentally fine, a little 2 year old girl. She also deserves everything you and I do out of life.. Maybe you could look at her story for a little more compassion in life "give me a break"! And by the way, saying she is a beautiful child isnt something said to be seen as a better person, and the fact that youre so cynical you cant see her pain AND the joy she still finds in life is sad. For goodness sakes, YOU could use a line to make you seem like a better person. Julianna may have deformities, but she's even more beautiful than you in much more important ways.
Oh no -- a stranger on the Internet has told me I have a "sad soul" and that I lack inner beauty like Juliana and her parents! Please excuse me while I rend my garments and tear my hair out.
To call this child "beautiful" is to rob the word of any meaning. If you want to say she's "brave," or "courageous," or "inspirational," or any one of a number of things, fine. She is not, by any ordinary meaning of the world, beautiful. By the ordinary uses of the word "beautiful" and "ugly" referring to physical traits, the child is ugly, period. That's a fact, folks, not an insult. To say anything else is getting awfully close to Orwellian doublespeak. Isn't that the sort of thing you were all falling over yourselves criticizing Bill Clinton for?
Anyway, what would you all do without people like me? I mean, how else would you get to congratulate yourselves about what wonderful, generous, big-hearted people you are?
I'm sure the moderator of this board will be too cowardly to moderate this comment up, though, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering.
To Anonymous who said, "other than her face there is nothing wrong with her" sorry you're wrong. This child cannot breathe without a trach tube, eats through her stomach, and cannot speak. Life is hard enough for us "normal" people without the suffering of endless surgeries she is being subjected to. The truly compassionate thing would have been to let her die, there I said it.
I know it makes you feel so good to say your opinion and that everyone should think the way you do and if they don't they are wrong because that is what you believe.
What makes us normal. We all have problems, deformities and something wrong with us. Who said that your definition of normal is right.
I know that the only thing you will do is comment on how someone else has said that you are a "sad soul" and your so sad that someone has attacked you and your sarcasm will get you through.
I hope that maybe one day you will truly be blessed, and see joy in life.
It is sad that you really don't see what kind of child Juliana is and that she is incredible, courageous, inspirational, and beautiful.
Take Care
FANS FOR LIFE!!! IF you've never walked in their shoes, you do not have the right to pass judgement. They (the Wetmore's) are an AMAZING family, and Juliana could teach us ALL a thing or two about acceptance, love, and just how to get about in this ugly world in which we live. She's the FUNNIEST, smartest 4-y-o kid I've ever had the priviledge to meet and get to know a bit, and I'll tell you this: God made her special, just as He made us ALL that way, IN HIS IMAGE!!! Now, maybe there are those of you who are too shallow to see beyond physical challenges. I feel WAAAY worse for YOU than I do for this little firecracker of a kid...SHE is AWESOME!!! I am blessed to have ever met her, and her entire family is a blessing to us ALL!
We love y'all and will continue to pray for you all daily. Let us know how the surgery goes this week! Tonya, Jeff and Chloe
Deeply, very deeply moved by this little girl. Smiling and smiling as those who count, get it. They get what it all means. Do we all have the same ability to love and be loved....FOR OUR TRUE SELVES? Are we more on the inside than what we "display" on the outside? I wonder and know, sadly the answer. A short story....a true story. As a young teenage girl, I had begun a career in the modeling field. A dear friend of mine also was working as a model. She had "everything" going for her. Beautiful, intelligent, kind....but too centered around her looks (as I too, was becoming). I received a phone call from my mother, telling me to rush to Bernalillo County Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My mother explained that my best friend had been involved in a car accident. I left immediately to go and see her. The hospital refused to let me in. Her older sister finally demanded they let me in to see her. I went in and was aghast at what I saw. Where she once had two beautiful blue eyes, a beautiful perfect nose and lips...was a mass of skin, mangled in a freak car accident. I had to leave the room to gain my composure. Over the course of the next few weeks, I visited her daily. She would have recovered...had she been able to get past her looks. But instead, the prospect of being so hideous was unbearable and she committed suicide. I immediately gave up modeling..and decided to grow from the "inside" out.
What a beautiful soul this "FAMILY" have developed. Far more beautiful than many things I have ever seen in my life.
Hope is always within...and my friends life was dimished far too early for such trivolity as "looks".
Blossom well my dear girl...Blossom well! God Bless you and your loved ones lucky enough to share in your beauty!
I am scared of the day Juliana will REALLY recognize how she look like. She will never find a husband and get children or even get a kiss as a normal teenager in love. The daily environment is not so nice to her as you all believers. Your God made her deaf and horribly deformed! Without all the medical technique, she wouldn't have survived only the first day of her life. If she died, you would have said: God is so merciful, he doesn't want that she suffers her whole life. But she made it and you say: God has a special plan for her! What a merciful, nice God - thank you for the pain! You turn things around long enough unless they fit the situation. If a young boy has lost his leg from a shark attack, you say: Poor boy! When he recovers and accepts his fate, you say: God is always on his side and is watching him. But WHERE was God, when the boy was attacked from the shark?? How on earth could you really believe that there is someone in the sky above us who affects every human being in every second of his live? To you I let happen a car accident, you get the big money, you deserves a life in the slums of India and you a life in a rich household??
The worst thing is, that Juliana is smart and intelligent. That is something only a devil could think of.
Yvette, France
She is not beautiful. She is hideously deformed and probably lives in horrible pain most of the time from these surgeries. She will never have a normal life. And taxpayer funded health insurance is helping keep her alive.
In the old days this baby would not have survived. And what in the hell purpose is her life going to have? God forbid something happens to her parents and we'll end up paying for her upkeep. Maybe they'll revive a side show and she can tour with it.
To the previous anonymous who posted the comment, "...And what the hell purpose is her life going to have?...."
If I were you, I would be gravely concerned about the universal concept of karma.
Who gave you the right to decide whose life is worth to live? It's quite obvious that you have experienced a miserable, non-fulfilling life (due to your self centered personality) and you have no concept of what true love really is.
Julianna, on the other hand, is full of life and love and is God's beautiful angel on the inside. You, on the otherhand, are a disfigured demon on the inside.
Wouldn't it be ironic if a future car wreck created the same disfigurement in your outward appearance to match your inner soul?
i dont know what to say about all this other than if she was my kid i would have put her out of her misery, i wouldnt wanna live like that so i wouldnt make my kid live like that
shes happy now but what about when she gets older and realizes how "different" she really is, little kids dont realize how much physical differences mean in this world, little kids ARE more focused on the inside than adults are, adults pass a lot more judgement
its a shame society puts so much importance on looks, and thats never gonna change though
i think its good shes enjoying her life while she can, but who knows how long that will last, till shes 13, 14, 15 maybe, and then i think shes gonna have a moment that hits her hard where she realizes the severity of her deformity....
i think its cruel to have kept her alive
ask yourselves a question
would YOU wanna be in her position?
would YOU wanna look like that?
if not, why do u keep defending her right to life, saying things like "shes happy"
all little kids are happy, but theres gonna be a time when shes not a kid anymore and shes not gonna be happy being ridiculed on a daily basis, having people stare at her, point at her, laugh at her, not being able to get a job or be in a relationship
i think true compassion would be to let her just die, and spare her from her future
Anonymous,
It sounds like someone should have put you out of your misery.......especially if deformity (mental in your case) and imperfection (spiritually vapid)are valid reasons to do so.
Hope you never have to face anything but perfection in your life, you apparently don't have the ability to handle it like Juliana does!!!
I'm gonna go scrape my eyes out now
How about your sorry heart and soul? And your typing fingers as well? Maybe you need to find a hobby that is not malicious and mean spirited.
You are clearly a desperate, angry and superficial person. I am guessing you are self-loathing and lonely.
My mother would have said you should be pitied not criticized.
Perhaps a minister/priest or counsellor could help.
This is practically a case of child abuse. How dare the parents put this child through all the surgeries, torture and pain she has and will have to deal with. I would never put anyone I loved through this kind of life. But taxpayers are paying for it and the parents seem to be enjoying the attention. This situation could almost be considered Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP)
The Chrome Divas of Jacksonville Beaches is a group of women that share the love of motorcycles and our community. We support local organizations or individuals who seek our help, especially those organizations that support women and children. Through our support, we hope to improve our community while sharing our love of the open road.
Over the past 3 years we have hosted an annual motorcycle poker run to benefit Juliana. Our efforts have raised over $55,000 to off-set the added expenses the family face when traveling to South Florida for her numerous surgeries. Many people in the Jacksonville area and beyond have been more than generous in their donations and support. The Jacksonville Beaches Chrome Divas are honored to have become a part in helping Juliana and her family. We all love and cherish her in ways that would bring tears to the eyes of even the most hard-core biker. Our event this year will be Saturday, June 7th and our hopes are to beat last year’s donations and continue to make life a little easier for her and her family. You can check out our web site for info on the event at www.jaxbeachfl.chromedivas.com
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