Jingle Luis was born with spina bifida, a disease that affects the spinal cord and often significantly reduces a child's lifespan. When her doctors noticed that the newborn girl also had severely clubbed, "upside-down" feet, they decided not to operate: The child probably wouldn't survive for long enough to learn how to walk, anyway.

But against the odds, the Filippino girl has grown into a strong, healthy, fifteen-year-old. Unfortunately, because her feet were so misshapen, she wasn't able to walk, or even put on a pair of shoes.

Luckily, in 2003, a staff physician from Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, took notice of Luis when he traveled to the Philippines with a Christian relief group. He invited her to come to his hospital, where specialized surgeons would treat her rare foot condition, free of charge.

Last month, Luis took the long-awaited trip to New York for the surgical procedure, in which doctors inserted screws into her feet's bones and adjusted them into normal positions, to allow her to stand and walk. Finally, last Wednesday, the exuberant teenager took the first steps of her life in a brand-new pair of pink-and-white sneakers.

"I'm very happy," Luis told the Associated Press. "It was exciting."

Her mother, Jasmine Luis, who sells fish in the Phillipines, was even more touched by her daughter's fortunate twist of fate. "This is a miracle," she said. "I am very thankful to God."