|
Yolanda, Alan, and Ylsin
stand
outside their new home.
|
Yolanda Paredes is
the single mother of two children, trying to make a
living cleaning four to five houses a week. When
her son, Alan, needed to go the bathroom, Yolanda and
her daughter Ylsin wheeled him to the hallway, picked
him up and carried him there.
When he was hungry, they fed Alan in
the living room.
When Alan was sleepy, they hoisted him
and toted him to Yolanda's bed. |
| When he was
born more than eight years ago, Alan didn't cry for
the first two weeks and couldn't breathe without the
aid of a respirator. So he was air lifted to
University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, where he
was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is a chronic
condition that affects the nerves controlling the
body's muscles. Often accompanied by multiple
medical, social and educational challenges, the cause
of most cases of cerebral palsy is unknown, according
to the Alfred I. Dupont Institute's Cerebral Palsy
Program.
Unable to speak, walk or feed
himself, Alan has been under constant care ever since
his diagnosis. A nurse tends to him from 7:30 am
to 1:30 pm, Monday through Friday, during the summer.
When school starts in a few weeks at Edison
Elementary, the nurse will be in the home from 2 pm
until 5 pm.
"We had no handicap
ramps," said Ylsin, "so we had to bump Alan
up the steps on his wheelchair."
But that all changed on July
20. That was the day the Paredes family was
blessed with its new home, becoming the first family
in Hobbs to receive a home built by Habitat for
Humanity.
Read
the rest of the story>> |
