My Friends and my Legos are my Lifesavers!

Kiki is famous here at Family House for his love for Legos. Kiki first came to Family House in February of 2010 for treatment for a major blood disease called Beta Thalassemia. A disease which inhibits an individuals red blood cells from carrying oxygen throughout the body. Kiki was lucky enough to receive a bone marrow transplant on March 31, 2010 from the international donor bank. Kiki had to spend fifty days in the hospital after his transplant.

While Kiki was in the hospital for those fifty days he played with Legos and built different models every single day. One day Kiki said, “My friends and my Legos are my lifesavers!” Kiki’s grandmother, Katia thought that was a great title for something, and so the idea for an exhibit of Kiki’s legos was born. Katia was the person who actually gave Kiki his first Lego set and from then his love only grew. In only 120 days while staying at Family House Kiki built 130 Lego Toys from more than 50,000 parts. The exhibition was held on July 26, at St. Anne’s Church in the Sunset district and over a hundred people came out to support Kiki.

Katia said that the people here at Family House were a crucial part in making Kiki’s exhibition a reality.

 She said “the people who work here work with their heart and soul, it is as if this were what they were destined to do. Family House is better then a regular family. A regular family will bicker and fight. This is more than a family. But there couldn’t be a better name for it then family.”

Katia went on saying how comfortable and at home they felt here. When she told Kiki that thety were coming back to Family House last Monday from Hawaii where they live. He replied, “I am going to my home. I get to go home again.”  

While talking to her, she could not say thank you enough. From the beginning she said they felt at home here. They felt as though they had a support group who was always happy, and excited to celebrate when good news came, or be there when things went south.

She said, “You meet friends for a life here, like the Garcias. People become more than relatives. The individuals who work here don’t just go the extra mile to help you, they go a 100 miles out of the way to do it. There will not be enough in my life to give back what they have given to us. My heart, soul, everything, our family, our entire family would help out in anyway and volunteer for Family House if we could.” 

Though Kiki still has his ups and downs, the doctors say he is one of the most successful cases out of all the research studies.