Today is the last day of school for Conner and Chase and I just can’t believe it!  They have now completed their freshman and junior years in high school which means next year at this time we will be watching Conner walk across that stage and receive his diploma!  We went to the graduation ceremony last night to celebrate with several friends who finished up this year and it was exciting to see all the families full of pride and hope for these new adult people.  What will they become, where will life lead them? 

On this last day of school, I woke the boys up the way I always do, by softly saying their name and rubbing their arm or leg (depending on which way they are sleeping).  I remember my Dad waking me up in this gentle way when I was in school and I loved it – it got my day started in a peaceful and calm way that I think helped me carry calm throughout my morning.  I am blessed to have boys who do wake easy and don’t growl at me or refuse to get up.  I will miss seeing them each morning now that it is summer – I will be halfway through my work day by the time they get up for most of the next eleven weeks!

Eleven weeks – wow, so much can happen in that amount of time.  My prayer is that the days are full of fun and relaxation (when they aren’t working at Gordos) and that they make smart choices and surround themselves with friends who are also making smart choices.  What a fun time of life, to be 15 and 17 – but also, what a tough time of life, to be 15 and 17!

I feel nervous as I begin to tell this story – nervous mostly that my words won’t do the story justice.  My husband is in law enforcement and for more than ten years before he went into that profession he was a volunteer fire fighter.  I offer that tidbit because I want to make it clear that he has seen his fair share of car accidents and knows when he sees one where the passengers aren’t likely to have survived.  This was one of those accidents.  The teens driving the car had been drinking and unfortunately they didn’t see the telephone pole until it was too late.  They crashed into it headfirst at a very high rate of speed.  There was no evidence that they even put on the brakes (no skid marks on the ground).  The engine was transplanted into the front seat; the air bag on the passenger side looked as if it never deflated after impact – that’s because it was full of parts of the hood and engine!  When Chris arrived the boys had both gotten out of the car on their own and they were telling their version of the event on different sides of the car (where they were each being treated for injuries).  Independently, they kept telling of the girl in the car.  They described her the same – same height, same color hair but one key thing was different – they each said she was the other one’s friend.  Neither of the boys knew her name and they both indicated she was sitting in the passenger seat.  Chris said that it was virtually impossible to imagine anyone not being ejected if they had been sitting up front without a seatbelt and the vehicle didn’t have a backseat because there were sub-boxes (the big kind of boxes that hold speakers that go boom).  The boys went on to the hospital and the emergency personnel stayed on behind at the scene for about two hours, using dogs and heat seeking instruments to try and find the girl.  Chris works nights and typically gets home around 3:30 a.m., when he finally arrived home at 5:30 that morning he was really upset because they had not found her.  As he told me the story I immediately felt overwhelmed and convinced that the reason they didn’t find her is because she was an angel and she protected those boys at a time they need it most.  As soon as I said it, Chris totally agreed and we cried at the thought that he had been in the place where a miracle occurred, where an angel showed mercy on kids doing something dumb, and gave them a chance to make better choices next time.  For days after I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I needed to go talk to the boys and make sure they knew what had happened.  What if knowing would shift the focus or direction of their lives?  Chris had to remind me it would be a serious HIPPA violation to go see them in the hospital (darn HIPPA) but one day – when all the charges are behind them and they are all healed, I might have to send them an anonymous letter to make sure they know there are angels all around!

We have a wonderful group of friends and we call ourselves the Four Families which is a truly original name seeing as how we are made up of just that – four families.  Each of us has at least two children, and for all of us our oldest child is going to be a senior in high school next year.  It is an incredible group of friends and one of the amazing things is we have each been married for over fifteen years and love our spouses as much (if not more) than the days we each got married.  Since sometime in 2008 we have been rotating houses and picking fun themes for our get togethers (and the kids are always a part of the fun – although the older they get, the less often they are all with us).  We have covered all the typical dinner themes – mexican, italian, appetizer meals, homemade pizzas, everything you can imagine on the grill and even a low country boil at the beach.  This past weekend we had a Memorial Day picnic themed get together and while we were not all there it was a blast.  After dinner the adults gravitated to the trampoline and because the stars were out and it was a clear night, we ended up laying there in a circle, with our loved one at our side and chatting the night away.  We started talking about fun games we all used to play in the car growing up and before we knew it we were having our own game of “Going on a Picnic”.  In this game you take turns naming random things you would bring on a picnic and you have to follow the alphabet.  Each person in succession names everything that came before them and then adds their item.  Let’s see if I can remember how it went:  I’m going on a picnic and I’m going to bring: artichoke salad, beer, celery, doughnuts, eggplant parmesan, funnel cakes, gorgonzola pipe cakes (pretty sure Scott made this up), hi-c, ice, ju-ju fruit, kalamata olives, lemon squares, moon pies, neapolitin ice cream, oranges, papaya, quinoa, raisins, shiitake mushrooms, t-bone steak, unicorn – fried (again Scott), Vicks vapor rub, Wellington – beef, X-lax, yellow rice and Zebra!  By the time Scott and I were done duking it out for bragging rights several of the others were nearly snoring – we are getting old, but not too old for games!!

This past weekend we were blessed to be a part of something fantastic!  We are brand new wish granters for the Make-A-Wish foundation.  We went through our day long training during the summer of 2011 and started working with Ivan’s family that December.  Ivan can’t do on his own, the things most of us take for granted – eating, walking, bathing, getting dressed…  He relies on his family and teachers for everything.  He has cerebral palsy.  Working with his family to try to find a wish that would make him happy was challenging because he wasn’t able to be a part of that process – when we normally meet with children we have them draw pictures or talk about their favorite celebrities or where they would most like to go.  We couldn’t do that with Ivan, but his family knew what makes him happy – country music!  It was so awesome to see Ivan light up with a giant smile when his sister Kayla started playing country music on her cd player that first time we went to visit.  We spent some time with our co-wish granter Eugene and the Make-A-Wish folks in Orlando trying to identify a way to bring country music to Ivan. With the help of his Mom Ericka, we finally landed on the idea of season passes to Wild Adventures and to send them there for the official wish day when a country music band would be performing in concert. 

With the wish determined, we started to plan the send off party.  The send off party is an event that Make-A-Wish wants the wish granters to plan for each child.  It is where/when we present the family with all the things they will need for their adventure.  We decided to stay with the country theme and use that idea for decorations and the cake.  We used one of the rooms at Ivan’s grandmother’s church for the party and it turned out great!  I am so pleased when I look at the pictures.

Normally, a wish granters job is pretty much complete after the send off party but Chris and I offered to drive ourselves to Valdosta and pay for our own tickets if the family thought that we could be of assistance on the day of their visit and the concert.  They took us up on our offer and so we had an unusual and amazing opportunity to see the wish happen for Ivan.  We rode rides with the family (including the water ride that we took Ivan and his brother and sister on), we were with them when they fed the giraffes, and hopefully we provided some relief to the family as they made their way through the park. 

I have to say that I was so inspired by the calm and happy spirit that Ericka brought to her family throughout that long and hot day.  She was so amazing – and it wasn’t as if Ivan was the only person she had to worry over.  She showed love and individual attention to each of her children and never appeared to get flustered.  It is truly an honor to have spent the day with her family and I hope the wish was something they will never forget.

Here are pictures of the send off party:

Amazing how some hay and a cowboy hat can transform a room!

The sign says “Cowboy Cakes”. I got these ideas from Pinterest 🙂

Kayla was so sweet. She got up to the mic and talked about how much she loves Ivan and then she sang a song with Ray Wiley.

 Here are photos of wish- day at Wild Adventures

Kayla took me for a wild ride on the bumper cars!

What a great picture!

This was how happy Ivan would get after Chris would put chap-stick on his lips. It was so sweet!

We took a turn watching Ivan and William so that Ericka and Chris could take the kids on a ride – it was great fun!

The family in front of the stage before the concert!