Her Wish

Several months ago I mentioned that Ashley Kate had been approved by the Make a Wish foundation to have a wish granted. I struggled with the thought of what that meant. I mean, technically the guidelines state that the child has to be interviewed and that it is their wish not to be influenced by the parents. So...in the case of our Ashley just exactly how does that work? To be honest I never dreamed she would be eligible because she can't be interviewed to express to them what her wish might be. Imagine my surprise the day I answered the phone and they announced to us that they would like to grant a wish to our Ashley.

Like I said, that was several, several months ago. As you all know Ash has not been well for quite a while. The whole wish granting process was put on the back burner and almost forgotten about until recently. When we realized that Ash's quality of life was quickly and drastically changing once we stopped giving the drug Rapamune Dave and I caught the twinkle from her eye and contacted our wish granter.

Tonight is the night of our "interview". They are coming over to meet our smiley baby girl. I was told last night that we will have 4 interviewers/wish granters. I was also told that they all have followed or are familiar with Ashley's story. That can sometimes be a little bit weird. I often meet people around town who "know" me much better than I know them and it brings a feeling of enormous gratitude across my heart to think that they would take the time out of their days to read about ours. So weird, but incredible all at the same time.

Anyway, we think we have come up with a form of a wish for our Ashley. I have tried to incorporate things that I think might come tumbling out of her if she could speak to share with them all that she loves. Who knows, she might even sign to them some of the things tonight if she's feeling especially cooperative(those last two words cracked myself up. When has she EVER felt that way? Oh, well. I can hope can't I?)

So when dreaming of a wish for our Ashley I started with a list of things that I know she loves. Things like stars, apple trees, books, swings, music, etc. Then I took this list and dreamed about it. I read through several definitions of what a wish is and the one I loved the most was from Disney. "A dream is a wish your heart makes. So with that in mind we will present Ash's "wish" tonight and see if it can be transformed into something tangible.

From speaking with our wish granter briefly over the phone I think everyone is excited about her wish. I have no experience with the Make a Wish foundation and have no idea how it all really works, but from what I have read they are incredible people with huge hearts who love to put smiles on the faces of critically and chronically ill children. How could you not fall in love with people like that? I'm excited about the opportunity to meet them.

I'll let you know how it all comes together. I'm sure the details and the taking of the wish and making into something tangible for Ash are going to be fun and exciting. Just think if our Ashley had a place where she could play underneath a huge apple tree every afternoon or sit on a swing that hung from its branches, or could read a book under an actual starry sky, and had a library full of all the books she could ever imagine, wouldn't that be an amazing wish? What if real bubbles floated down from the clouds and sweet music played over her head with the sounds of birds softly singing on a sunny day? We are so hopeful that we can provide such a place as this for her to play, to be taught, to learn to walk, and to relax. Our sweet girl has quite a surprise laying in store for her and it is my hope that we have done a good job for her in choosing what her wish might be.

Stay tuned. I'll fill you in on all the good stuff as it comes along. Have a great day. Trish