Friends and family it has been quite a while. We have had an extremely busy and amazing
summer. When I started this blog I
tried to make it a goal to blog once a month, but that has proven to be quite a
task, especially when I started down this road of continuing my education. Katie and I started the cupcake business a
little over 5 years ago and that has taken off like wildfire in the past
year. Life just sometimes gets in the
way of things and all too often, it gets in the way of what is really important
in your life… family.
So the reason I took a minute to write tonight was because
we have something so amazing to share with all of you. Something that is still so unbelievable that
we are kind of in the “pinch me” phase.
Let me start by refreshing some of my friends on the story
of Miss K. Now, if you are new to my
blog you may not know this but she has a mild case of cerebral palsy. She does have some other problems related to
cerebral palsy that deal with her hips and her hip socket rotation. Miss K (Kherington) takes trips annually to
Shriner’s each year to be evaluated and has some shoe inserts to help her walk
a little better but she doesn’t walk perfectly. Each year she goes back and eventually she may require some
pretty invasive surgery on those hips; we don’t dwell on that topic because we
leave it to the doctors. The first year
we found out it was hard to hear and devastating, but it is a way of life and
we live it. My sister Rebecca also has
cerebral palsy and hers is much more severe than Kherington. I have dealt with disability my entire life
in my family, but it is much different seeing it through the eyes of a
parent.
Earlier this summer, a wonderful family friend of ours
messaged me with some questions about Miss K and then asked if we had ever
applied for a Make-A-Wish. Of course I
replied with a no. We were always under
the impression that the Make-A-Wish Foundation only helped those with terminal
illnesses so we knew that Kherington would be an instant denial. After much persuasion from this family
friend, we accepted the paperwork and read through it. I filled out what I could and set up an
appointment with our family doctor to get his opinion. I certainly did not want to “fake out” any
organization as wonderful as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and I wanted to see
what he thought of this whole thing…
what was his take on this? To my
surprise, he was informed and excited.
He was all for Kherington getting a wish and thought she was a perfect candidate
according to the guidelines listed out in the paperwork and her condition as
far as his medical opinion. My mouth
dropped. Are you kidding me? Ok… I finally submitted the paperwork. I guess we’ll see what they say.
We had been busy through the summer and then I got an email
from the Make-A-Wish sponsor right before school started. They wanted to visit with Kherington. Oh boy, what is this little girl gonna say I
thought… she is an iPod addict. I can only imagine what she will tell them. So the two representatives came over, and
they asked Kherington so many questions.
What her favorite foods were, what her favorite color was, her favorite
toys, and her favorite baseball team…
and yep she said The Rockies!
Wooohoo we did something right!
Then, the big questions came. If
she could go anywhere in the world, where would she go. When we asked her that earlier in the summer
she said, “to see the princesses in the big castle”. Her response to the team was Disney World. Oh man… she didn’t even hesitate. Ok, next question. If she could meet anyone she wanted to meet, who would it
be? “Michael Jackson”. She didn’t even skip a beat. So… explain that one out to a 5 year
old. Haha. We all got a good kick out of that one. After her interview, we had the grown up talk. The “pinch me” part. We were told that Kherington was being
granted a wish and we were being sent to Orlando. We would get to go as a family for 5 days. Fly to Florida, Disney for 3 days, and
Universal Studios for a day and Sea World for a day. Is this even real? I feel
like we won the lottery, we don’t deserve this. I wanted to cry. I did
cry. I still cry.
A couple of weeks ago we found out when we get to go on the
trip. We will be leaving in the middle
of November and get back just before Thanksgiving. A little bit of sunshine in the middle of winter will be a nice
break for the kids. It will be a time
that our family can just take a break, a break and not be running here or there
or everywhere. We’re not hurrying to
drive to this place or that. All
because of a friend and a wish. I feel
like we really did wish upon a star.
Our kids have brought so many moments of joy into our lives; we never
really take a minute to thank our kids for that. The memories that we will have as a family from this will be
irreplaceable. We will never, ever be able to thank the Make-A-Wish foundation
enough for this opportunity. I know
that Kherington and Lawrence will remember it for their entire life and the
smiles will take a long time to go away.
It looks like you get to see your princess at the big castle Miss K. That's what happens when you wish on that star...
