Lisbeth Juarez-Lopez was three years old. She was playing on the balcony of her third floor house with a friend, when he accidentally pushed her off. Her mother rushed her to the hospital, but the doctors could not do anything to help her. Juarez-Lopez had sustained a crack in her skull, and the injury was quite severe. Doctors told her mother that she would not live, telling her that only a miracle could save Juarez-Lopez.

After hearing this news, Juarez-Lopez’s mother turned to God for the first time. She prayed to God, asking him to give Juarez-Lopez back, and if he did she would show her daughter the way. She did everything she could for her daughter and after a long time, Juarez-Lopez finally woke up.

It was as if nothing had changed. She remembered everything and when the doctors looked at her head, the crack was gone. That’s when Juarez-Lopez’s mother knew that it was a miracle. She knew that God had listened and fulfilled her prayers. Her mother told her that she was a miracle and that God was always listening.

Juarez-Lopez lived in Quetzaltenango, the second largest city in Guatemala. Commonly known as Xela by the indigenous people and boasting an estimated population of almost 225,000 people, Quetzaltenango is located in a Guatemalan mountain valley.

This city, celebrated in Guatemala as “The City that is the Soul of Culture,” home to the most successful non-capital soccer team in the Guatemalan league, is the birthplace of freshman Lisbeth Juarez-Lopez. And while Quetzaltenango is almost universally known in the country of Guatemala, to her, it is a place of only vague familiarity.

Juarez-Lopez moved to Kansas City when she was 4 years old. Her father had already been working here when the opportunity arose to finally move his wife and two children to live with him. Juarez-Lopez grew up in Kansas City, attending Red Bridge Elementary and eventually choosing to attend Sion.

Juarez-Lopez doesn’t remember much about Guatemala. The memory that came to mind first was about a house that her family was building. Her family was building a smaller house in a suburb of Quetzaltenango. Juarez-Lopez remembers going with her mother to check on the progress of the house when it was nearly finished. She also remembers living there for about one year before finally moving to Kansas City. Now the house is used only when Juarez-Lopez goes back to visit her few family members that still live there.

“It’s different,” Juarez-Lopez said, comparing Guatemala to Kansas City. “Over there you have more liberty. You see people walking around all the time. It’s not cooped up like here.”

Juarez-Lopez stays true to the roots of her heritage, and while admitting to not having a favorite school subject, she acknowledged that Spanish II Honors was probably the easiest subject for her because Spanish is her first language. But she still has to study for tests and quizes, saying that she learns new ways to say words she already knows.