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I Wish...

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62 Days and counting until Disney World!!  Abby has a super cute Elsa countdown chain that our friend and wish granter made for her.  It starts at 60 days and Abby is uber excited to start the "official" countdown!

I ordered some adorable Make a Wish shirts (we get one from the organization, but lots of people suggest having multiple) and they came yesterday!  Naturally, we had to wear them today...all of us...Matt was thrilled about that!  :)  My intent was to get a family picture this evening, but Caleb had art today...enough said.  Ugh.  Here are the kids this morning before orange paint splattered all over the front of the boy child...




So, I wore my wish shirt to run a bunch of errands...I was in several stores, several medical buildings, and a school.  I realized something as I wore it.

I was someone to be pitied.

I cannot even tell you how many sympathetic looks I got as people realized what my shirt meant. 

Now, I was not the least bit offended by their looks of pity.  I get it.  To most, Make a Wish is for terminally ill children to have one more family memory before they die.

But guys, that's just not it.

Like our new shirts say, Make a Wish is Hope, Strength, Joy, Life, Excitement, Motivation, Smiles, Family, Life, Compassion, Fun...and soooo  much more!

Make a Wish is all about granting wishes.  Well...

I wish people understood that Make a Wish is so often a bright light in a family's world of medical chaos.  Sometimes, it's the motivation to keep going!

I wish more people realized that Make a Wish is for children with life-threatening illnesses...not necessarily terminal illnesses.  Simply getting a wish granted does not mean the child is going to die.

I wish I could accurately describe the joy in my daughter's eyes whenever she receives a little gift from her wish granters.

I wish you knew how often the thought of this trip got us through the tough days.

I wish Caleb's excitement could be bottled up and shared, because he deserves this trip as much as Abby--life as Abby's Big Brother is hard!

I wish you could see Abby's smile every time she tells someone she is going to be the REAL Elsa in Disney World.

I wish you could see people's reactions to hearing about Abby's wish.

I wish you knew how thankful we are for Make a Wish!!!

So if you ever happen to see someone wearing a Make a Wish shirt, smile and know that while he or she has certainly had quite a journey, Make a Wish has been a bright light during that journey.

Don't feel pity; feel JOY!  (And ask them what the wish was!)  :)




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