Claire's wish to be a princess

With a single phase, our world completely collapsed when our three year old Claire was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in October of 2016. After the initial meeting with Claire’s doctors, we met with a social worker who passed us an informational sheet about Make-A-Wish and neither of us gave it a second thought—Claire’s cancer wasn’t terminal. It was almost a year later, and with much coaxing on our social worker’s part, before we decided to submit her name for a Wish.

When we finally walked into the offices at Make-A-Wish, life was just slowly starting to resemble something that could pass as “normal.” I remember Claire taking the seat at the head of that long conference table and thinking how small she looked in that big chair. Our Make-A-Wish contact asked Claire what her dream was—“To be a Disney princess!” Welp friends, we were Disney World bound 6 months later laden down with all the things a 5 year old could need or want for our trip to the Sunshine State. That week was everything that dreams are made of—love, laughter, joy, hope and a sprinkling of pixie dust.

Every detail was thoughtful from the, “Welcome home,” greeting as we pulled up to Give Kids the World, to characters seeing Claire’s Wish pin and holding off on taking breaks to give our sweet girl a giant hug and sign her autograph book. We watched the fairy godmother at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique make Claire’s dream to be a princess come alive. We couldn’t have imagined a better way to celebrate the warrior we are blessed to call our own.

We have recalled Claire’s Wish Trip many times over the years and remember how we finally celebrated all the hard things she had to endure during that 26 month treatment. With a bit of distance and a blessedly clean bill of health, I often wonder how anything could top that magical time. And it was PURE magic. We saw the light come back, and watched as the little girl we thought we had lost came out of the shell that often comes with survival. The humbling part was that we didn’t see just how much we had all been fighting until that week in paradise. Make-A-Wish helped give all of us that final push we needed to get through the remainder of her treatment and for that we are forever grateful. The darkness of a cancer journey is unlike anything we have experienced before, but it proved that there is still goodness in the world, and Make-A-Wish is a part of that goodness.

We have been humbled, cried, and known deep sorrow. BUT, we have learned resilience and experienced support and care in the midst of chaos. As Claire enters her teenage years we are recalling this a lot, and it has helped her navigate this season of life. I’m sad to say though, we’re not always patient waiting in line—Genie passes don’t actually work in the real world. 😉