Enough Already!!!

This is my first time to “blog” so I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do exactly….other than say what’s on my mind.  I’ve wanted to keep a journal for some time now, but I never really found time to sit down and start it.  So here we go.  I am in my 10^th year working with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and let me just say it’s amazing!   I love love love my job.  I get to help make wishes come true for kiddos that suffer from life-threatening medical conditions.  Sure, it sucks….it has sucked a lot lately.  Kids have been getting their angel wings and going to heaven left and right lately and I say, “Enough already!!!”.  The positive side is knowing that I was part of making that kids wish come true, and that is a great feeling. 

I have met soooo many wonderful people thru my job.  We are actually working on granting our 1000^th wish this year….how cool is that!!!  I may not have met each of the 1000 kids but I’ve had some part in making their wish happen.  That’s a great feeling!

As much as I love my job, the past few months have been extremely hard.  It all started with Angelie passing away from Rhabdomyosarcoma.  They say this is a “rare childhood cancer” but I beg to differ.  We have several kids right now that have Rhabdo and it’s an awful, monstrous cancer.  So many kids have lost their lives from this caner.  Angelie passed away last summer, then Brandi.  Brandi was a 10-year-old little girl who we granted a playhouse wish for.  She fought Rahbdo for several years and lost her battle late November 2010.  Not too long after Brandi; Dylan passed away.  Dylan was a 16-year-old who battled colon cancer for 7 months.  What 16-year-old gets colon cancer???   Most of you have probably heard about Dylan.  He was from Columbia and he passed away in December on a Friday….the morning of his high school football championship game.  He loved football and loved his teammates.  His courage and strength inspired everyone around him.  His team played last season for him…they won the championship for him.  I remember going to the game on the evening that Dylan passed away and I had the honor of being with his mom Heather while she told the team during half time that Dylan had requested that his wish be for “his boys”.  His wish was for the team to receive whatever the coach felt would be best for them.  She told the guys to get out there and fight…..fight like a Rebeor…fight for #25 (Dylan’s number).  It was an emotional and touching moment.  Heather also told the guys about a conversation that she and Dylan had just minutes before he closed his eyes for the last time.  She said he was in her arms and said “Did we win?" and she said “yes baby, we won”.  Even in his last moments on earth, Dylan wanted to make sure that his team won the championship.  In fact, the Columbia Lions did win.  They won the championship game for the first time in 58 years!  How awesome is that!  ESPN also did an amazing documentary on Dylan called “Do it for Dylan”.  Click here to watch "Do It For Dylan."

After Dylan passed I hoped for a new year, a new beginning of healthy kids….but nope, it didn’t happen.  My little friend Savannah was next.  Savannah battled Rhabdo for 5 years….remember, this is the “rare childhood cancer”.  Yeah, right!  Angelie, Brandi and Savannah were often referred to as the Three Musketeers.  All 3 of the girls were battling the same nasty cancer, Rhabdomyosarcoma.  Just thinking about Savannah makes me sad.  Savannah is probably one of the top 10 kids that I have gotten the closest to over the years.  I just loved that little girl!!

Savannah had a really awesome wish.  She was a huge fan of David Bromstad from HGTV’s Color Splash.  Savannah’s wish was for David to come to her house to redesign her bedroom.  After a lot of help from volunteers, we made this happen.  I have so many precious videos and photos on my facebook of Savannah and David.  The day David came to her house she was sooooo happy.  She smiled non-stop the whole time he was there.  They danced and had so much fun together.  A few weeks passed and David sent a drawing of his creation for Savannah’s new “tween” room.  Let me tell you, her room rocked!  Savannah had a long hard battle with Rhabdo.  She was having a rough time so myself and Sara, Savannah’s wish granter, set it up for David to Skype her one day.  It was awesome!  They Skyped for hours, literally.  Robin, Savannah’s mom, said that she hadn’t seen her smile like that in weeks.  (I have lots of video and photos of this too on facebook).  It was so sad when Sara and I left her house.  Just seeing how happy she was, still Skyping when we left, yet so weak and sick.  She was so weak that day that she couldn’t even pick up a pillow to put behind her back.  I said to Sara in the car that I had a horrible feeling that this would be the last time I saw her and it was. The Skype was late January, on Valentine’s Day we got heartbreaking news that Savannah had been put on Hospice.   I really think kids know more than we give them credit for.  Robin had said that Savannah said to her, “mommy, I’m not scared”  She knew that she would be going to heaven one day to be with Dylan and Angelie and Brandi…..I had also been told that Savannah asked if she needed a will.  What 10-year-old kid needs to worry about a will?!  So heartbreaking.  Sweet Savannah fought so hard but lost her battle on March 21^st.  Just a few weeks after her 11^th birthday. 

Attending her funeral was one of the hardest things that I have done in a long time.  I don’t normally go to the actual funerals of wish kids, but I did go to Savannah’s.  I literally think I cried for 3 hours.  It was awful.  I just don’t know how these kids parents do it….Diana, Heather, Rhonda, Jodi, Robin…..you guys are strong women. 

 
As if all of this death wasn’t enough…..I got a call about 12-year-old Matt last night.  Matt had a brain tumor.  He went to the hospital yesterday morning with a fever and low oxygen level…..by 7:00 he had angel wings.  I was completely speechless when I got the call…..total shock!  Bishop is also in the hospital. She and Matt have the same brain tumor.  Bishop was also taken to the hospital yesterday morning…via helicopter.  She has a 104 fever and low oxygen, similar to Matt’s condition.  Bishop’s diagnosis is pneumonia in her left lung and thank God she’s stable and feeling better than she did yesterday.

 
Okay, enough sadness.  This is way longer than I expected, sorry.  So I’m getting really excited about next week.  March 12^th my friend Devin from Utah is coming back to Nashville.  Devin and his family were here last year to meet Josh Turner.  They actually left on the Saturday that the flood started getting really bad.  Of course I have lots of photos and some video of Devin on my facebook too.  Devin is awesome.  He had a brain tumor when he was younger and now his cancer has gone into his lungs.  L This young man is so full of life!  Devin can barely see yet he doesn’t let this affect him in any way.  He’s amazing.  He loves music and as part of his “bucket list” he wanted to return to Nashville.  I’m so looking forward to his family coming to town……5 more days! 

There are so many amazing kids and families that I’ve met through Make-A-Wish.  I can’t even begin to name them all so I’m not even going to try.  If you are a wish mom and you read this, please know that I am not leaving your kid out on purpose.  We have so many amazing awesome families.  I’m just wanted to mention a few that we have lost recently.       

After hearing about all of this sadness you probably think I have an awful job, huh?  It’s really one of the most rewarding things you can do in life.  Kids don’t have to be terminal or dying like the myth that is out there.  All of the kids that we serve have a life-threatening medical condition.  We have so many kids that are in remission, and living long healthy lives.  We have an intern who will be starting with us soon, Stacy, who received a wish in 2004.  Stacy is doing great and even has her own little baby boy.  We even have a few wish recipients who are now volunteering with us as wish granters helping make wishes come true for other kids.  If you ever think that this would be something you are interested in, we are always looking for good volunteers.  It doesn’t cost anything to volunteer, we just ask for 5-10 hours of your time during the entire wish process from beginning to end.  It’s something to think about……