Jian Jackson: A Will and a Way

Jian Jackson was born healthy. At about 5 months old, she had a high fever at the orphanage where she lived in China. Four days later, she wasn’t moving her legs anymore. “By then they took her to a doctor, but it was too late,“ explains Stacie Jackson, Jian’s adoptive mother. “The doctors here think it was polio.“ The 8-year-old suffered nerve damage to both legs, and she now uses her hands to move, with her legs and feet hopping or dragging behind. She’s amazingly agile, and her upper-body s