Meet Berlin. Author Julieanne Reeves told me about her.

She’s a charming little girl with a beautiful smile, a shining countenance and a debilitating disease. You see Berlin has Osteogenesis Imperfecta — Brittle Bone Disease.

 Berlin was born with Brittle Bone Disease and though she's only seven she already knows what it feels like to have a broken arm, leg, and fractured vertebra — repeatedly.  But you’d never know by speaking with her that her life is anything but normal. Even when Berlin's slowly making her way across campus with her mobility walker, she always has a bright smile, and will shout out to friends and parents of friends with a warm welcome and a friendly wave.  

But Berlin isn’t walking these days. You see, she recently fell and ended up in the hospital, where doctors discovered she’d re-fractured her tibia — the main bone in her lower leg — and a pin from a previous surgery had shifted through the bone.  That shift means that Berlin can’t walk until she has surgery.

Due to lack of insurance coverage, they treated the new fracture and sent her home, denying her the needed surgery.  Every day children right here in America go without needed medical care. Every Day. It is heart-breaking.

Don’t get me started on the issue of health care in the United States. As someone who lived in Denmark and Sweden, where health care is paid for by the state, where infant and mother mortality rates are lower, and quality of life is higher, I’ve never been able to tolerate the for-profit model we have. Ka-CHING should not be a sound associated with the saving of lives and the ending of human suffering.

But lamenting our pitiful health-care system won’t get Berlin the care she needs. Until her family can come up with a very large sum of money, she won’t get the needed surgery and will continue to be in pain and unable to walk. I am one of many authors participating in this auction, put together by Julieanne Reeves, hoping to help raise the money Berlin needs. Some incredibly generous members of the writing community and local businesses have contributed to this online auction, as well. 

The auction began on Friday, May 11. To participate, or to make a simple donation, click here, and start bidding on the great gifts and services donated by award-winning and bestselling authors, artists and local businesses. You’ll find everything from signed books to “Meet and Greets” with your favorite authors and artists, and a wide array of everything in between.

In addition, there are some great items up for bid from local businesses. Don’t see anything you want to bid on? No problem, keep checking back for new auctions to be added over the next week or check out one of our donation auctions.  

And thank you for caring! What better way is there to celebrate Mother’s Day then by helping a child? That’s what we moms do.

Feel free to tweet about this, to post a link to your Facebook page, to copy this text and put it on your blog or to raise awareness among your friends or in your faith communities. With determination, we can help this child.

Quick update:

Skin Deep is done! It’s in the process of being edited and proofread right now in hopes that we can get it loaded before I leave for New York next week. Right now, I’m starting the I-Team Extra, “Marc and Julian Make a Beer Run.”

If you’ve signed up for my newsletter, you’ll get an announcement when Skin Deep has gone live on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. (It takes a bit longer for Apple to make it live as an iBook via iTunes, but at least you’ll know to start checking.)

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