My Top Moments of 2024 by Damian Soto Gama

January 24th - Day of Adoption

1068729_3 — 2025-01-11 22:09:31 UTC

January 24, 2024. That was the day that my brother Benji and I were both legal and officially adopted by our foster parents. You see, the process of adoption takes a pretty long time. Lots of paperwork. Anyways, on that amazing day, we woke up very early. It was cold and crisp outside, just for a little bit. We got our very fancy suits out, ironed, and ready to wear. I must say, I looked VERY professional in my reddish suit. Once it was 7:30 A.M., we were all out of the doors of our house. We needed to be there by 8:00, so we only had 30 minutes to get there. Let’s skip the boring part of being in the waiting room. Once we got into the courtroom, both me and my brother were seated in front of everybody else. So were our parents (foster, at this point I haven't been in contact with my biological parents for around 2 years). It was almost like marriage I think. The Judge (a very kind but powerful looking old lady) asked our parents “Do you accept Damian and Benji as your legal sons?” They had translators helping them understand, as spanish is their main language, but they didn’t need the translators for that question. They immediately said “i do”(seeee kinda like a wedding). Then the Judge asked my brother and I “Do you accept Lilia and David as your legal mother and father?” I spoke with my deepest big boy voice that I could muster. “I do!” we both said. Then all four of us had to sign a paper, to make things LEGAL! Afterwards, we ate breakfast at polly’s pies. The end.

June 24th - Visiting Yellowstone National Park

1068729_3 — 2025-01-13 20:32:31 UTC

June 24, 2024 was the day, was the first time for my whole family EVER, to go visit yellowstone. You see, my family is big on roadtrips. Every summer, as long as we (children) have been good during school, and nobody needs to do summer school, we drive far away. This time, we planned on visiting Yellowstone National Park! We got there around a week after leaving our house. That is because we spent four days in Denver, Colorado first. We had cousins there and we wanted to explore Denver (so far it’s my favorite place!). We were approaching Yellowstone fast, we were able to tell not just by the GPS, but by all the Buffalo that we passed by. Once we arrived to Yellowstone, we realized that it looked exactly as beautiful as it does in the pictures. We saw Old Faithful, a very famous Geyser. Oh the area with all the Geysers smelled like rotten eggs, because of all the sulfur that was being ejected. We were also lucky because the day after we left, we found out that the Geyser area exploded.

November 15th - I Speeched

1068729_3 — 2025-01-14 19:28:24 UTC

November 15th, 2024.That was the day that I was supposed to present in front of over 100 adults a ten minute speech. You see, my mom works for a nonprofit organization called conexiones educativas. They basically provide helpful tips and resources to parents with children with disabilities. In eighth grade, I wrote a 6 minute speech for an assignment and I guess it was really good and my mom showed it to everyone. In October, my Mom said that the Boss lady for the organization sent a voice message for me to hear. The Boss lady invited me to do a 10 minute speech at her big convention event. My initial thought was “am I getting paid?”. My Mom asked me if I was going to do it or not but she was so happy and excited that I couldn’t have refused even if I had wanted to. Now as I mentioned before, this was in early October. I had well enough time to start writing and practising my speech. I. Did. Not. Write. Or. Practise. I was confident that I could wing it (I know, not very smart.) It worked! I made half the room cry (no joke). Afterwards, A Lawyer Lady called me over and gave me her phone number (I guess I’m just that charming huh). She said she wanted to be my mentor. It was so awesome and I even got an award at the place.

Early November - Surgery Plan

1068729_3 — 2025-01-14 19:54:39 UTC

Another major event of the year was in early November. You see, during the summer, I had this idea in my mind. An idea that never left me. A chance. I might’ve figured out a way to get me to walk, and gain more independence hopefully. It involved surgery, bilateral leg amputation. My upper legs can move and I can waddle on my knees (imitating real walking). The lower part of my legs did not really work. Almost dead weight. During my vacation, in a cabin at Big Bear, I was watching Youtube. I stumbled upon an interesting video. It was about a girl who had an accident with a train and lost both legs. She only was left above her knees. Then it showed her getting prosthetic legs, her making motions with her remaining limbs that I could make. That is when I knew that I might have found proof that my idea could work. I asked my mom the day later about what if I had an amputation surgery. She wasn’t for it. She said it would cause me unimaginable pain. I knew this. I was ready. I kept asking and asking and explaining my ideas and before you know it, I was at my yearly Orthopedic appointment. I asked the specialist many things (he was impressed!). When I asked about the bilateral leg amputation, he immediately said “No.” He said he would never opt for surgery, he wouldn’t put that on anyone. My heart sank. I felt despair inside. It wasn’t over though. He referred us to Shiners Hospital, a place that specialized in prosthetics and such. Right when we got home, my Mom called and made an appointment. Three months. I had to wait three months to unleash my ideas on another group of people. Once it was time though, I got nervous. My chest tight. My Mom told me to be prepared for the worst, and that if worst were to come, it was for the best. At first they were confused as to why we got referred to Shriners. A bit after clarifications, we got down to business. I proposed my ideas. I got x-rayed. Then the Surgeon came in. Okay, so one of my ideas was to get my femur bone turned to face forward, because it was facing sideways, to help with walking. She told me it wouldn’t work. Again I felt my heart drop. All this waiting. All this hoping. For Nothing. I didn’t know what to say. Then she said that it might work if and ONLY if below my femur got amputated. I immediately lit up. That had been exactly what I was ready for. And on that day, a surgery plan got approved.

August 10th - My Birthday!!

1068729_3 — 2025-01-15 16:32:08 UTC

August 10th, 2024. My 15th Birthday. 15 years ago the world was blessed with but the most amazing gift possible, my birth. Usually, in my family, we throw big birthday parties. Dad invites his friends, Mom invites her friends, relatives. Heck, even the neighbors get invited! This year was different though. It wouldn’t have been right. You see, very recently, a very close friend of our family died. Motorcycle accident. So my parents decided that it’d be best NOT to throw a party. I was fine with that. Instead, we went to a pool in the morning for a good long while, until dinner time. We drove all the way to Spectrum Mall. We didn’t bring a change of clothing, so we went to a random store to get changed. Afterwards, we went to the place of my dreams…CHEESECAKE FACTORY! I got myself a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It was delicious, not spicy though. For desert though, ohhhhh for desert. We got this huge I don’t even know what it was called cheesecake. It was kind of like a tuxedo cake, and a mountain high mudpie cake. $80! $80 for the best cheesecake ever that lasted me two days!