Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Raising Gracie's Star


Today we were able to complete Gracie's Make-A-Wish experience by going up to The Wishing Place, in Murray. Of the 66 Make-A-Wish chapters in the country, Utah's chapter is one of four that have a special atmosphere for Make-A-Wish kids and their families. The Wishing Place, was designed after taking into consideration input and opinions from Make-A-Wish kids.

When you walk in, if you look up you will see glass stars of all different colors hanging from the ceiling. Each star represents a Wish child and their wish and each star was raised by that wish child. The backyard has a special wishing pond, where the Wish child can get a special token to throw in and make another wish. Then on the second floor there is a special tower with a locked door, each Wish child gets their own key to unlock the door, where inside they get to leave their wish for the Wish Wizzard. Explaining it doesn't give it justice---so lucky for you we took video of Gracie's experience.






Gracie showing offer her star that she decorated. It was kind of funny because she freaked out when she got the marker on her hand.


Morgan and Gracie at the wishing pond




Entering the Wishing Tower.







Family pic in the tower.




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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Make-A-Wish

In January of this year we filled out all the paper work for Gracie to get a wish from Make-A-Wish. We debated whether to wait until she was older and could really wish for herself, but we felt that now was the right time. By May we met with Gracie's wish granters Annie and Brian, and in July her wish was granted!!!

Though Gracie would have loved going to Disney World, we decided to wish for a playset. Gracie absolutely loves to swing and what better than her own swing set so she could swing whenever she wants, for how long she wants.

Anyways, a couple weeks ago, Annie emailed me to tell me that the company they were getting the playset from were going to install it on July 8th. I was so excited because, July 8th was the day after Gracie's 3rd birthday. How exciting to have her wish granted for her birthday!

We surprised Gracie with a big party to 'unveil' the playset. We invited all of our family and friends, Annie and Brian brought a cake and balloons and we had an AMAZING time!


Annie and Brian even surprised Gracie with a special birthday present, her very own car!! I have always wanted Gracie to have her own power wheels car so that she could be able to play like others and keep up. Grace absolutley loves the car, we just have to teach her how to push the gas, but once we do, I know there is no stopping her. Now, though, she is perfectly fine just sitting in the car, listening to music.




The Make-A-Wish organization is amazing. I am so grateful that Gracie was given the opportunity to wish and find some hope and joy admist all she has to go through. I love that Gracie can go into the backyard and have fun and not be judged or looked at because of her differences. I hope that one day Jason and I will be in a position to fund another kiddo's wish
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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Gracie's 3rd Birthday!!

Thursday was Gracie's 3rd birthday!!! She was so excited to have a birthday party, which we combined with her Make-A-Wish party on Friday (I will post about that later). So Thursday we kept it kind of quiet, since Gracie doesn't eat or have a favorite meal we decided to just take them to the local carnival. Gracie loved it! We disconnected her from her oxygen tank and I took her down the big yellow slide, she is such a thrill seeker.











Turning 3 has been a bittersweet milestone....every birthday Gracie can celebrate is a miracle, but it also means that we had to say goodbye to all of our therapist who have helped Gracie get to where she is today since she aged out of Early intervention. Each therapist has made such an impact in our lives and we can only hope that we will stay in touch with them.








Developmentally Gracie is doing amazingly well and is catching up. Verbally we can understand about 95 % of what she says. Gracie is always singing, it is the cutest thing ever. Her favorite song is 5 little monkeys (I should post a video of her singing it). Gracie is walking now! Granted she isn't doing it consistently, but can take about 15 steps independently. She cruises all the time now and is so much more brave on her feet. All I wanted was for her to be walking by her 3rd birthday and she is!


Health wise Grace is doing great. She hasn't had any major illnesses and seems to be doing ok from a cardiac stand point. We go back to cardiology in September and then we will have a better idea as to how soon her next surgery will be. Gracie tires quickly and gets bluer with more activity, but she is just amazing!


In the fall Gracie will be going to school. It kills me to think of her being any where without me, especially riding the bus to and from school on her own, but I know she will love it. Since she is still so far behind she qualifies for the school district preschool, which means she'll be going 4 times a week.


We love our Gracie so much, she is such a miracle and example to us!
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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Yeah!!! I lost access to my blog for several weeks and today I tried to log in and it worked! I have so many things to blog about; the kids, our new house, Gracie's Make-A-Wish, but for now I will leave you with some pictures and a promise that there will be a new post tomorrow!



The girls on the wooden pony at the zoo.











Our beautiful blue eyed boy!


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