Obama sent a letter to Kiko Mina, a 12-year-old survivor of four brain surgeries, after receiving Kiko's portrait of hm Watch video
JEFFERSON -- A doctor once said Magiting "Kiko" Mina would not live longer than a year, but today he is an enthusiastic seventh-grader who bowls, plays the piano and cherishes a thank-you letter from President Obama.
"Always trying, never stopping," is how Kiko, 12, describes himself.
Last winter, Kiko -- who underwent four brain surgeries before his third birthday, including the removal of his right hemisphere at age 2 -- drew a portrait of Obama in his art class at Jefferson Township Middle School.
His teacher, David DeVries, was so impressed that he mailed it to the White House on March 3, along with a letter sharing Kiko's compelling life story.
"As a teacher, I am humbled every day by this powerful force of nature named Kiko and humbly submit his work in hopes that you too can recognize a future American adult that will move mountains," DeVries wrote to Obama.
When months passed without a response, DeVries said he regretted raising the boy's hopes of hearing from Obama.
Then, in the first week of December, a FedEx envelop appeared in DeVries' school mailbox. Inside was a letter from the White House.
Written to Kiko and signed, "Your friend, Barack Obama," the three-paragraph letter was dated Nov. 29, exactly three weeks after the election of President-elect Donald Trump.
"Mr. DeVries wrote to tell me how proud he is of you, and I wanted to let you know that I am, too," is how Obama's letter began.
"He also sent along a copy of the portrait you drew of me -- you are one talented kid!"
DeVries, ecstatic, rushed to find Kiko in the cafeteria.
Kiko had known Obama would be leaving office -- Trump is being sworn in on Friday -- and that the chances for getting a response were diminishing.
"We were just like, c'mon, he's about to leave," Kiko said.
"We were so sad it wasn't ever going to come. Then, boom, it was right here," Kiko said.
DeVries said getting the letter "was a relief," since he dreaded Kiko being disappointed.
"It could have been a lesson, in terms of reality versus fantasy, but this turned out to be a lesson in just not giving up hope and never losing hope -- which is kind of appropriate with Obama, who always talked about hope," DeVries said.
Hope is the cornerstone of Kiko's life. He prefers not to focus not on obstacles, but his remarkable recovery.
"They took out the whole right side of my brain and I survived. Pretty awesome," Kiko said.
Kiko underwent a hemispherectomy in 2006 as a last-ditch effort to end dozens of daily seizures.
It left him partially paralyzed on his left side and with a condition known as hemianopsia, in which he is blind on the left side of both eyes.
He walks with a limp but in other, more important ways, he is just like any other middle school student, said his mother, Lina Mina.
"He's cognitively intact. He understands everything. The processing is a little slow," she said.
DeVries described him as "eternally optimistic."
"He doesn't look at life as, 'I can't do this," as so many people do," DeVries said.
Kiko visited the White House in 2008, the year before Obama took office, with up to 100 other young survivors of dire medical conditions. Former President George W. Bush greeted them.
He undertook his portrait of Obama as part of a class project, "Mirror Faces."
DeVries said students chose a celebrity photo, cut it down the center and glued it to paper. They used pencils, rulers and measurements to draw the missing part of the photo, and ebony pencils to add shading.
Arlene Warncke, a school aide at his side since age 3, helped with the measuring and rulers but said Kiko "did a lot of it himself," including the shading.
In his letter to Obama, DeVries noted that "always trying, never stopping" is Kiko's catchphrase, adding, "It would mean so much to him to receive a letter informing him that you saw his work."
DeVries then told Kiko what he had done -- a "rookie mistake," he conceded afterward.
Kiko's mother said she tried to lower his expectations, but that her son was asking about it "every day."
She said she told him, "Mr. Obama is the busiest man in the world."
As the months passed, DeVries said he "gave up hope, but Kiko never did."
Then the letter arrived.
In it, Obama told Kiko he is "inspired by your optimism and drive in the face of challenges" and repeated his catchphrase -- something that especially thrilled the boy.
"I heard that you are 'always trying, never stopping,' and I trust you'll keep at it," Obama wrote.
Kiko is the younger of Joseph and Lina Mila's two sons. His brother, Dakila, is 18, a freshman at Northeastern University.
His parents immigrated from the Philippines and lived in New York City, moving to Jefferson in 2002.
Kiko is a Boy Scout -- he started as a Cub Scout in the first grade -- and is on a track and field team for children with disabilities. He bowls in a league on Saturdays and has a high score of 110.
He said he does not yet know what he wants to do when he grows up.
No matter what, the letter from Obama will remain his prized possession.
"It means a lot to me," Kiko said.
"It's not like every day you get a letter from the president, or anyone that high," he said.
Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.