NaDajiah
by Kathy

My daughter NaDajiah is my chocolate girl; she is blessed, beautiful, intelligent, kind, loving, giving, and an angel from God. I say this because NaDajiah has been fighting since she was conceived. She fought to stay in my belly, she fought her way out and at 2 lbs 12 oz and she fought to survive.  She's been a fighter all her life and a survivor and she continues to do so.  I’ve never been so upset or hurt in my life about one of my children, I have always been able to control what happens to them, make things better for them when they are sad, sick or just need a hug, whatever they need and want.  This is just what parent’s do we are always there, but right now my heart aches for her because I can't help her the way she needs me too
I cannot take away the pain she feels when she is laughed at, stared at, people pointing, making fun of her calling her names taking away her self esteem all the time We work to build it back up. Can you imagine another kid rings your bell and tells you your daughter wants to die at age 8 (or any age because she has asthma, allergies and most of all as she calls it “this stupid vitillo”)?  I try not to cry in front of her but sometimes I am so frustrated with how ignorant people are I can't help it.  Her brother Ricky is fifteen and sort of paranoid every time he sees a spot he thinks he has have vitiligo. He told her how cool her toe looks because it is completely white, which she now thinks is cool.
 
NaDajiah at age seven developed a spot on her face just a little spot by her right eye, we took her to the doctor and they told us it was a form of ringworm, which we knew it wasn't but we were prescribed some cream and were told it would go away.  Instead of it going away it started to turn lighter and lighter. She went back to the doctor and he saw how light the spot was and told us it was a skin disease called vitiligo, which I had never heard of in my life. Now she was given a different cream, which we tried for a couple of months, but more and more spots started appearing and she was sent to a Dermatologist. Well to make a long story short she has been discharged from four different Dermatologists because she was spreading so rapidly that they said it was too advanced for them
We are now on the fifth doctor.  We have used several creams including Desowen/Spectozole/Clobertasol/Elidel. We are now using Protopic. Honestly I don't thing this will work and it seems the doctor doesn’t either but wants to see. We were told to just use it on her face and hands no need to use the cream all over and lets see what happens with her face.
 
At this point I just sometimes want to give up and let nature take its course. God didn't put this angel on the earth for nothing and I think maybe she was meant to be one a spokesperson for vitilgo. There are days she handles herself so well I am so very proud of her. The other day she said “Mommy thank you for putting me in shorts so everyone in school can see my legs and get it over with”. Her cousin who is only four told her she should just wear long pants because that’s what she does when she doesn’t want people looking at her scars. Dajiah said “no, I want them to see so they can be aware of vitilgo”, that put a big smile on my face she’s strong for a little girl but it’s a lot to carry for someone so young. Would you believe most adults are the most ignorant of all?  Dajiah will explain about vitiligo to anyone who asks, she has no problem with that. Its how you ask and how you look at her.  She took the AVRF vitiligo calendar to school and became a celebrity, and made so many more people aware. One teacher recently asked if she could borrow the calendar because her class was asking questions? All the kids thought she was burned but now they know about vitiligo. My baby is a very beautiful girl and she is reminded everyday of her beauty either by me or someone in the family.  It's funny because I am a very dark person and my husband is very light and people use to say that we would have one dark child and one light child, I just tell her she took after both of us, regardless if she is a hundred different colors she will always be our pretty little princess.

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