The house is buzzing tonight and not in a “crap we may have to go to the hospital” kind of way. We just found out that my girls qualify for the Make A Wish Foundation meaning they get to make one wish each come true and the skies are literally the limit! Typically a child will choose one of three types of wishes. The first is a gift of sorts, something that they really have been wanting like a computer or a room makeover. The second might be to meet someone famous and the third is an all expenses paid week long trip.
We aren’t the fam jammer who takes yearly vacations. In fact, we’ve never taken one, ever. My daughters have never left planet Alberta so anywhere would be a fantastical treat. They’ve talked about Disneyland for years and Lindsey’s always wanted to see Hawaii so she can ‘swim with the dolphins’. Lexis for some reason has always wanted to go to Australia, though she’s ‘scared of their spiders’.
When the notion of meeting somebody famous was brought up by yours truly Lexis smiled real big and said “Justin Bieber but he’s hard to find”. This comment involving not finding him originates back in 2015 when we lived in Sylvan Lake and word leaked that the Biebs was spotted in town, all over the news. So we all walked down Lakeshore Drive looking for Justin and to no avail. An hour or so later he was spotted again but not by little Lexis. Even though it’s friggin J Biebo, the thought of her meeting him has made me cry tonight. Wow, that’s gotta be my most embarrassing confession I’ve ever confessed. Moving on.
I never once thought my daughters would be up for this Make A Wish. You always see the terminal child with cancer getting this sweet blessing. With my girls, the full diagnosis is not there so whether they are terminally ill or not, neither disqualifies one from the program. This might not be their dying wish granted but it most definitely is something magical that they know nothing of, as if flying somewhere beautiful and warm is only in TV land.
And that’s one of the greatest gifts of being a parent which is to see things through their young, naive eyes and to experience the newness alongside them. I’ve been to Disney though many, many moons ago so it’ll definitely feel new. Can’t say I’ve ever hung out with the likes of Justin Biebio but hey, life takes you weird places sometimes. Of course I’m opting for Hawaii and Australia but I’m the passenger this time. They call the shots.
For now, it’s a huge blast of adrenaline into the carotid artery and anticipatory excitements abound. It’s kind of like my girls went on The Price Is Right and won two gigantic prizes though, in reality, they have lived 16 years of lifetimes of countless infections, needle pokes in the thousands, various hospitalizations, ingested thousands of pills, hundreds of infusions, delays in every area of their lives and are alive to tell you their outstanding joy in being gifted these wishes. They are my loves and this reward is a gift from above.