Our Little Blaze Was Honored Tonight...

Tonight, was such an amazing night! A night filled with wonderful people, amazing stories, music, food, smiles, and a whole lot of happy tears. Tonight 10 little superheroes were honored and one of those was my little Blaze. Mt Paran Church and Nextlvl sports sure blessed us with a night that we will never ever forget. We were contacted a few weeks ago by Nextlvl sports letting us know that our son had been nominated for their heroes heart honor. "Your child has been nominated to participate in the Heroes Heart Program which honors children with special needs for the joy they bring to every heart they meet, and for the impact their life has on bringing awareness to the community regarding their diagnosis. Your family has shown faith, courage, and a "never give up" spirit that is truly inspirational. We truly cannot wait to meet you! God bless & Happy Holidays! The Nextlvl Family" How sweet is that? It was truly a blessing just being there and meeting these other families and hearing some of their stories. Congratulations Blaze! We are so proud of you! Just keep on letting your little light shine for 
God! 




This is one of the songs played over dinner. We had the joy of meeting Hunter and his mom tonight! I think everyone was crying when she shared her story and sang this song.

 

 This is the poem our Parent2Parent mentor read tonight at the dinner...

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

It truly was an amazing and emotional night and something we will never forget. We are so proud of our son and all of his accomplishments! He is a gift from God! His life has taught me how to live.  He truly is our angel without wings.