A Wish Come True

December 1, 2023: Wish Day!  After months of happy anticipation, the Wish Wizard is granting Annika’s wish to go to Hawaii today.  Looking back, it’s hard to fathom all that has happened over the past year.  12 months ago, I never would have imagined that our family would gather together for a Make-a-Wish trip.  Even if I had imagined it, I never could have imagined that it might actually be a joyful moment.  Yes, Annika has been terribly ill, and yes, we still have a challenging road ahead of us.  But this week is a celebration.  We are celebrating Annika’s strength, her courage, and the miracle of life.

Even though this week is all about Annie, I’m so glad that all of our other kids are here with us.  They too have walked this difficult road alongside their sister, showing compassion, love, and unparalleled strength.  Uncomplaining, they made space for the demands of her broken heart, even when it felt unfair and they had needs of their own.  I think this poem, written by Brooklyn in her freshman English class, gives a small glimpse into how difficult this has been for them as well.

Strong

My dad’s
voice 

It’s not
beating 

My mom’s
scream 

We’re all
leaving 

A small
room 

Scared
siblings 

Whispered
prayers 

Please 

Please

Tears fall like the silent snow
As my little sister codes 

Minutes feel like days
but I’m just grateful
for every minute that she stays,
her fragile life not gone… yet 

“Can we help?” The nurses try
We’re okay,
just tell me she’ll be okay
but don’t lie

I wish their silence would stop my heart too

I drive the one mile
my sister flies
Helicopter blades
whip in the sky
while my mom’s
in the passenger side 

My mind is stunned, blurred
but it’s clearer than hers
How can you think
when your daughter’s not hurt
but still broken 

Waiting interrupted by a buzzing phone
Aunts, uncles, grandparents all anxious
but I can only tell them how no one knows
and hang up before my voice breaks 

I call my brand-new boyfriend for comfort
but he’s sobbing on the side of the road
and I’m reassuring him she’ll be fine
while he adds himself to my emotional load

This is all wrong
I’m not the one who’s supposed to be strong

Help me be strong
Except no, don’t,
not one prayer for me
Help her be strong
I’ll be fine, please just help her

This is all wrong
I’m not the one who’s supposed to be strong

Brooklyn, Talia, and Eli, we see you.  We love you.   Thank you for carrying your sister. (And her backpack.)

There have been so many miracles getting us here.  Obviously there are the big ones, like the fact that Annika survived. Not a day goes by without our feeling grateful for the compassionate and skilled providers that saved our daughter.   We are likewise overwhelmed when we think of the generosity of the many people who donate to Make-for-a-Wish and grant wishes to children like Annie.  This year Make-a-Wish Utah is one of the organizations featured in our local Giving Machines.  It’s humbling to be the recipient of a gift from the Giving Machine we have given to in the past.  We are so grateful.  Annika’s Wish feels like a balm of comfort at just the right time, bringing healing as we approach the difficult one-year mark of her cardiac arrest.

But there are lots of little miracles that have gotten us here too!  We feel blessed that Brooklyn is included as a family member with Make-a-Wish.  Siblings are comped participants through age eighteen, but not beyond.  We timed this wish just right, two weeks before Brooklyn’s nineteenth birthday.  A tender mercy there!

We feel blessed to have a decent flight home.  Earlier this week I called the airline to ask about our luggage allowance.  While on the phone, I realized that we were booked for a completely different flight than the one printed in our Make-a-Wish itinerary.  Instead of leaving at eight in the morning, it was departing as a red-eye at 11:30 pm the night before.  With two long layovers, the overall flight time would be more than nineteen hours.  In a panic, I contacted Make-a-Wish, and they were able to get us booked on a red-eye flight for the following evening with only one short layover.  In the end, this change gives us another full day in Hawaii.  I figure God just really wanted us to have the extra time as a family.  Mostly, I feel so grateful that we discovered the error when we did.  Our group took six of eight remaining seats on the new flight.  It would have been so easy to show up at the airport thinking we were two hours early, only to discover the flight departed six hours prior.  While it would have made more sense to look up the baggage allowance online, I’m so grateful that I called instead.  A lucky break?  Perhaps.  But I see it a little divine orchestration.

A few more hiccups since: they entered my birthdate wrong when issuing the ticket, so I had to go back to the ticket counter after waiting through a super long line in security.  Meanwhile, Jason and the kids had their hands full with all of the carry on luggage and backpacks.  Eli was managing two roller bags on the escalator when one of them got away from him and went crashing all the way to the bottom.  Oops!  At least no one was injured.

Then, our flight to Phoenix was delayed thrice—once because flights were backed up at the Phoenix airport, once because they had to de-ice our plane (it started to snow while taxiing on the runway), and once more because another plane had to make an emergency landing.  But hey, on the positive side, our flight attendant was Lehi, the father of one of Talia’s friends.  We really enjoyed getting to chat, plus he taught us that if you dip Biscoff cookies into orange juice, it tastes like key lime pie.  Try it some time—he’s right!

The first flight was delayed enough that we missed our connection to Honolulu.  But hey, they were able to rebook all four of us on another flight four hours later—another blessing on a full flight.  In the meantime, we were able to eat some really delicious Mexican food at the airport—best shrimp I’ve had in a long time!  Then Talia sent us on a scavenger hunt through the airport that included taking a picture with a dog and finding Chic-Fil-A.  Check and check.  All things considered, it was a pretty fun flight delay.

And so, as we fly across the ocean on our way to Honolulu, we are mindful of the miracles that brought us here. With the craziness of December present, hug your loved ones close and enjoy the gift of being together.