At just one month old, Rowan’s parents rushed her to the hospital with what they thought was a severe infection. However, after multiple tests, Rowan was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Her parents endured endless sleepless nights as they watched their baby girl spend 179 days in the hospital experiencing NINE lumbar punctures, FOUR bone marrow biopsies, IV chemotherapies, blood products, and antibiotics. When she stabilized, our wish team met Rowan and her devoted parents who describe her as a joy; a little girl who loves to explore outside and who has also become a big sister! Prior to Rowan’s scary stint in the hospital and treatments, her family would travel to a cabin each Summer to get away for a weekend and reconnect with extended family members. After her diagnosis and treatment, they needed to cancel this getaway each year, and so the wish to re-establish this annual trip was born. Wishes & More was proud to make all the arrangements for this family to meet at a cabin in Villard, MN just in time to celebrate Rowan’s 2nd anniversary of finishing up her chemo treatments.
Mom sent in this abbreviated journal from their 3-day getaway – Rowan had an amazing time and we can only imagine how much her extended family members enjoyed seeing her excitement as well.
On Sunday, we surprised Rowan by letting her drive up with my parents (and no pesky little brother). We got there and she explored the cabin, and went fishing for the first time with my brother. That’s when she caught the bass (my brother did most of the work, but we’re not telling her that). And then we had dinner and she went to bed.
Monday morning she walked around the cabin asking where her grandparents, aunts, and uncles were so they all graciously got out of bed really early to have her special eggs in a basket breakfast. She then forced my parents to do two search and find books no less than 15 times. Her brother got sleepy, so he snoozed on my sister in law, while me and Derrick took her on a wagon walk to the hobby farm near the cabin. She was very excited to see bunnies, goats, sheep, a donkey, and a cat. We went home, had lunch and a nap. When she woke up she went fishing on the dock again for almost an hour and a half. She was very excited that the fish kept eating the corn off of her hook and proud of how careful she was being on the dock. We then went back upstairs for dinner and more search and finds before bed.
On Tuesday (her all day picnic celebration) she woke up and had some breakfast with the family. Then we went on the huge deck and she picked out everybody’s face painting decal. We painted our faces. She also let her Aunt do her hair special (pig tails), she got dressed up in her Belle dress. We gave her the tiara, her crown, and long silk gloves. We sang Eye of the Tiger (her favorite song) and danced. We brought out the piñata which she was super excited to find had goodies in it. She got a temporary Belle tattoo and instantly regretted it, so she’s never allowed to get a real one. Then lunch and a nap. When she woke up we did a family walk to the hobby farm so she could show everybody the animals. We slowly walked back in the wagon so that the family could get ahead and ambush us with bubble guns. We had a family bubble fight and came back in to do pin the tail on the donkey. She really enjoyed that. She then wanted to fish AGAIN. And she almost caught one on her little pole. She then had her first taste of pop (Ginger ale, uh oh we created a monster). She then played with toys and did more search and find books while we made dinner. When we put the kids to bed we listened to Rowan sing the entire first verse and chorus to Eye of the Tiger to her brother. Including the BOMP. BOMP BOMP BOMP. BOMP BOMP BAA.
On Wednesday we packed up and headed home. When we got home after lunch she asked if we were going to back to the cabin. So I think she had an amazing time.
Special thanks to the Wright Hennepin Operation Round Up for sponsoring Rowan’s wish come true!
