This morning, Emmett and I went to Wishes Can Happen’s annual Wish-A-Thon. I was planning to go alone for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is a very hard thing to do and I didn’t want to upset the kids or talk about Gavin’s story in front of him. There’s a silver lining to Gavin being so cognitively impaired. He’s not really aware of how fragile his health is or how many times he’s come close to losing his life. I have a very hard time talking about that in general but especially in front of him. Secondly, Gavin’s not been feeling well and someone needed to stay home with him.

Sharing our story and showing our support for Wishes Can Happen is very important to us. It’s a very good cause but I knew I was going to struggle and I simply wanted to power through it with as little emotional fallout as possible.

Emmett decided last night that he wasn’t letting me go alone. I told him that I wouldn’t wake him up because it was early and he needs his sleep, but if he was already up, he could come with me.

Our time slot was 7 AM so it was a very early morning for me after a very late night.

Mr. Emmett climbed into bed with us at some point last night so I couldn’t leave without him. He’s such a stinker and I love him for it.

Anyway, my job was to share Gavin’s story, our story and talk about his wish trip from last year. I have a very difficult time talking about this in person, especially in an environment that is already emotionally charged.

It’s hard enough to write about all Gavin has been through and continues to go through but talking face to face with someone is nearly impossible for me to do without breaking down.

All I had to do was make it through two radio interviews, the first is embedded above and the second is embedded below. True to form, I struggled to even breathe at times while I was being interviewed. I haven’t watched the video below, so I’m not sure what all it shows but I wanted to share it and help raise more awareness for Wishes Can Happen. It might help people to realize how important supporting organizations like this is.

Mr. Emmett did so well and they loved him. I’m so proud of my little wingman.

My mission was to help raise money so more kids could have wishes granted like Gavin did and more families can have a chance to make the memories they may someday need to help get through the difficult days. The idea was to share Gavin’s story and show why making a donation was so important.

I could barely make it more than a sentence at a time when talking about Gavin’s health and all he’s been through. It’s so hard to talk about these things because it’s incredibly painful to think about. I know I write about it all the time but in real life, I try not to think about these things because I need to be able to keep moving forward and this kind of pain can make that more difficult.

Everyone was so amazing and really helped me to get through telling our story.

I’ve been told I did a great job and maybe I did, I don’t really know because it’s all a blur. I cried, I know the radio hosts cried and I heard people were crying listening to it on the radio. My goal is never to make someone feel something so intensely that it brings them to tears but perhaps, in this case, it helped to put things into proper context. Maybe it helped to better convey the absolute importance of Wishes Can Happen to children like Gavina and families like mine.

You may be able to find the broadcast on iHeartRadio. Look for Mix 94.1 (Canton, Ohio) and perhaps there’s a replay from today, August 10th 2018. If not, I embedded their Facebook post below and it contains a video of our interview.

Anyway, I really struggled to get the words out at times but Emmett was so sweet and he would just hug me or pat me on the back. He would also pipe in with something profoundly Emmett and help to lighten the mood a little bit. I never want to have to rely on my kids to support me emotionally because it’s my job to support them. Having said that, I wouldn’t have made it through without Emmett. 🙂

As much as I wanted to do this alone, I’m so grateful he came.

As we were getting ready to head home,  they announced that they’d raised enough to grant 18 more wishes over the next year. The goal is to raise enough so they can grant 40 wishes. They need all of our help to do that. I imagine someone could donate at any time via their website but they only actively fundraise once a year.

It’s a very humbling experience for everyone but for me in particular, it was rough. We listened to so many other families heartbreaking stories and I could absolutely feel their emotion.

At the end of the day, we did a good thing for an amazing organization. I’m emotionally spent and it’s gonna take some time for me to emotionally recover from this but it was worth it.

We’ll do anything we can to help because it’s so important to give back, especially to an organization like Wishes Can Happen. Especially after experiencing first hand what they do for these kids and their families.

If you can donate to Wishes Can Happen, please do so. Even a single dollar is amazing. You can find information and even pictures of Emmett and me from today at their Facebook page. You can get there by clicking here.

If you donate, please do it in Gavin Gorski’s name. It’s a way he can help give back as well. ☺

Here are all the relevant links:

Wishes Can Happen: Facebook, Website

Mix 94.1: Facebook

Thank you to Wishes Can Happen, Mix 94.1, AultCare, CSE Credit Union and everyone else who’s involved in making this possible. A special thank you to everyone who’s donated in whatever capacity they are able.

You can check out the pictures from Gavin’s amazing Wish below. 🙂

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