“Every night I lie in bed The brightest colors fill my head A million dreams are keeping me awake I think of what the world could be A vision of the one I see A million dreams is all it’s gonna take A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make” – “A Million Dreams” … Continue reading THE Miracle Kingdom (17)
"It is easy to...wring our hands and bemoan all of the bad things that happen in this world. It is much harder to...pick up the shovel and go to work. It is my experience that miracles are real and living things. They are built with sweat and toil and hard work from the foundation up … Continue reading The Night When Christmas Came Early (16)
She had no memories of the horror that had been. Only of the pleasures that had not. Like a battered soldier who thanks God that his life is still in tact, but then shakily stands to take in the carnage of the bloody battlefield, Mercy surveyed the damage and wept. That is the backhanded slap of epilepsy: the soft blessing of release and protective amnesia super glued to the stinging pain of what has been lost on the field.
"Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy." -Placard at the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World THE WORLD OF YESTERDAY We were four days into our daughter's Wish Trip and on our final day at a Disney Park. Up until this point, Pierson had been positively reluctant to meet any … Continue reading A Magical Kingdom, Part 2 (14)
"When your child has epilepsy, there are many many times when what you plan, what you've hoped for, what you intend to do on any certain day is lost to seizures, their side effects or the side effects of medicine...it is...learning to live with the constant expectation that every plan on your calendar is always tentative. Always. That's why, watching our daughter chat it up with Tink on our first morning in the Magic Kingdom meant more to us than meeting any president elect could have ever meant that day. A plan for a child with uncontrolled epilepsy to meet her favorite Disney pal: flitterifically flawless."
"Life can hand us no evil mistakes, including epilepsy, which [God] can't transform into beautiful art."
"There is something that exists within the human soul that awakens when suffering is great...It is like a mechanism that comes awake and helps us fight...There is something inside all of us that hangs on to life, that refuses to let it go." -Henri Landwirth, Founder of Give Kids the World Village, Gift of Life I don't … Continue reading Hurray for Hollywood! (11)
"Our partners' help is not limited help...They always find ways to support us...No corporate supporter has ever left Give Kids the World." "No one can know the goodness that is set in motion by your participation and support...Every act of kindness, every service and dollar donated, sets off its own series of unseen ripples." - Henri … Continue reading Sea World (10)
"When you are told that your child is sick, shock is the first reaction...Next comes numbness. Right on top of that is anger and fear. One day, your biggest worry is the car payment, and the next day your child is fighting for her life. It is an awful, helpless feeling. The last year and … Continue reading Our Star Amongst Thousands (9)
"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26 ESV We re-entered Epcot in the evening with a beautiful fairy. (Pixie dust had transformed Mercy into Tinker Bell at the … Continue reading Epcot, Take Two (8)
Wishes For Mercy 