With Memorial Day upon us, we are incorporating a tribute to a wish child’s father within this wish story. Let’s begin by meeting Adelynn! This delightful, little four-year-old has managed to remain spunky, bright, and bubbly despite her remarkable challenges in dealing with serious neurological disorders and a chronic lung disease. As a result, she has spent many days receiving treatment in and out of the hospital. But in her first two years of life, she also spent much time in the hospital and in doctor’s offices with her mom as they stood by her loving father. Her dad, Trent, proudly served as an Army Medic in Afghanistan and South Korea and as a result of his service, he was injured and ended his term with an honorable and medical discharge. His injury progressed to requiring an initial amputation that was just the beginning of additional amputations. Throughout it all, his joy was Adelynn and her mother, and his Patriot heart stopped as a direct result of a post-surgical stroke. At only two years old, our resilient red-headed charmer suffered the loss of her adoring daddy, and her Mom was left alone in Colorado to handle it all. She knew her best option was to return to MN to have family close by to assist her with loving and raising Adelynn. That was over two years ago, and just two months ago, we had the pleasure of meeting Adelynn.
Our volunteer Wish Wizards learned right away that Adelynn’s number one wish was to go on a plane to Disney World! She likes Ariel, “because she has red hair just like ME!” but her favorite princess is Rapunzel and because she is a self-declared daredevil, she really wanted to experience a plane ride and all of the rides at the parks! Mom shared, “Adelynn is insistent on playing ‘airplane to Disney’ right now, including turning our living room into an airplane, drawing maps, and making tickets for all her stuffed animals! I think her brain might just explode if she had to wait a long time!” No way were we going to make her wait so our staff kicked into high gear, and she was off on her wish. Disney and Give Kids the World were beyond their expectations and every day was a dream.
Memorial day is intended to be a somber remembrance of those who gave their life in service to our country and I’m asking you to join us for a moment in honoring each of those servicemen. At the same time, I want to give you the opportunity to share the joy of a wish. We support the entire family through our support of our wish kids, by learning their story and how we can help. We thank all the wish contributors who made Adelynn’s wish extra special – MiniSota Play Cafe in Maple Grove for providing the send-off party, Whimsical Wigs for giving her a Rapunzel wig, Nothing Bundt Cakes for donating bundtini treats, Emily of Emily’s Wonderlab (Adelynn’s favorite!) for sending a personalized video message and of course, Give Kids The World for helping us bring magic to all of our Wish Kids visiting Florida Parks!
Wishes & More is an organization representing the collection of all who support us and we also want to take this moment to thank you and have your heart warmed knowing that Adelynn’s daddy would be very happy knowing that her wish came true.
