A few months ago, the social worker at the Oncology clinic approached me and talked to me about the Make-a-Wish Foundation. I was always under the impression that this organization granted wishes for children that were terminally ill, but Jana (social worker) explained to me that that's not entirely true. While they do grant wishes to terminally ill patients, they strive to make wishes come true for children that have been diagnosed with a life threatening illness, such as ALL. So, she asked if we, as parents, would be okay with them submitting a referral for Katherine. We accepted, and her name/case was submitted. A few weeks later, I was contacted by the make a wish foundation to get a little bit of information from me as well as to get a little info on Katherine, i.e. her favorite color, her favorite book, what she likes to do, if she has any siblings, etc etc. A couple of months after this initial call I was contacted by the volunteers that had been assigned our case. It took a while to get a meeting lined up, mainly because I kept forgetting to call them back, or we just played phone tag--but we were finally able to set a meeting up for this past Friday. We met with the ladies, Sherri and Leah, who were super nice and very amicable with Katherine, Joshua and with us. Dan and I had been hyping up the meeting to Katherine, so that she didn't retreat into her shy-side, as she does when she meets strangers, and we had been probing her for ideas of what would be the wish that she requested be granted. Needless to say she was excited that she was going to get a wish, and a few times this week she would tell Joshua, "Joshua, I'm going to get a wish, because I'm super special..." She also asked us/me, once or twice, if Joshua would also get a wish. That was a hard question, that made me a bit teary eyes, and my response to her was "no, baby. He is not going to get a wish", when on the inside my heart was hurting and I thought, "no baby, we hope he never has to have a wish granted through the make-a-wish foundation".
We arrived at Braum's, where we agreed to meet, and Katherine was asking "were are Sherri and Leah...??" When we met them, she got a bit shy but quickly came out of that when she got a bag of goodies that the ladies had brought to her, filled with stickers, coloring books, and crayons. Joshua also lit up to see that they had brought him a little gift as well, and what better than another car for my little man. THe meeting went smoothly, Dan and I had to fill out some forms, and sign some papers before we got to the meat of the meeting. Leah turned to Katherine and asked "Katherine, if you were to wish for something, what would it be?" Katherine got a little quiet, and retreated into my arms, but with a little bit of encouragement, I got her to open up and tell them her wish. She looked at Leah, with a huge grin across her face and said "I wish to see Shamu, and Nemo and swim with the dolphins"...it's a loaded wish, huh?? This all came from her though, we didn't coach her or tell her what to say, this is what she wants. Leah and Sherri took notes, and then asked for a second/back up wish...to which we helped respond to since Katherine was stuck on her first wish. You remember that we were recently in the hospital, and that one of those times we came back from the lake to take her in. Well, our plan at the lake that afternoon was to ride in a pontoon boat, and she's been asking when we are going to go out and ride on the boat...so as her second wish, we said "she'd like to ride in a boat"...of course I had to interject more specific, "a big boat, maybe even a cruise"...I know, wishful thinking, but they did ask for a WISH right?? well, we will see which wish will be granted and when. Stay tuned...
