Archives for February 2012

I have spent a lot of time during the past few weeks on the new Little Miss Hannah Foundation website.   Talk about a labor of love!

The hardest part for me was writing Hannah’s story.

I want everyone who wants to learn about the LMHF to learn about who Hannah was, why she was so special, and how she was able to steal my heart completely.

It was so hard for me to “summarize” Hannah’s life into one page.   It was emotionally difficult enough having to write it all down in the first place, but then I had to edit and cut out parts of her story that were so important to our family, to me.

Her life was so much more than just the one page that I was limited to.   She is worth so much more than one page.  But reality is, if someone wants to learn about Hannah, they aren’t going to want to read an entire book.   (Insert my friends saying, “Hey you should write another book!”).

I like talking about Hannah.  I like hearing her name being said.   Rephrase that, I LOVE hearing her name being said.   It is one of the only connection that I have left to remind me that Hannah is not being forgotten.

Read Hannah’s Story.

We went to a superbowl party at a friend’s house today.  It was great to get out and socialize again, and Ethan and Abby had such a good time with the other kids.

They had a betting pool for the game with 100 squares.   After everyone chose their squares, there were only 7 left that were blank.   They decided those squares would be given to Hannah, specifically for our Little Miss Hannah Foundation.   There was a winner after each quarter.

Hannah won not only the third quarter pool but she won for the final score as well!   What are the odds?   Only 7 squares out of 100, and she won two for two of them!!

Because of her, we are going to be ordering LMHF business cards sooner than later.   One step closer, baby girl!

Maybe Hannah was up there messing around with Tom Brady and the Patriots in those last minutes because she knew she was currently winning the pool?     There has to be some explanation, right?

Anyone who knows us knows that our Make-A-Wish to Disney World last April was the best time of our family’s life with Hannah.   I’m disappointed that I never had the chance to really blog about it, but I am so glad that we have over 800 pictures from the trip.

It was Disney World.  It was Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Hannah’s absolute favorite characters are Mickey and Minnie. It was being able to stay at Give Kids the World.  They made all three kids feel like the most important kids on earth.   It gave us time to just have fun and be a family.  We had very few worries and were able to just relax (with the exception of Hannah overheating and needing a first-aid break one day).  It brought some very special people into our lives.

It all began with meeting our wish granters back in early March last year.   We have kept in touch with two of our three coordinators over the year.

Today, the 2nd month anniversary of Hannah’s passing, was the annual Make-A-Wish run here in Las Vegas.   One of our wish granters whom we became friends with told me that she was going to participating in the run and asked if she could put Hannah on her shirt, specifically one with her in her Minnie Mouse costume.

I was so touched, incredibly touched.   Even though we weren’t able to do the run this year (Ethan and my mother-in-law did it last year), Hannah was still there.   Running in and on the heart of someone who volunteers to help change children’s lives by granting their wish.

Next year, we are going to do the run as a family, and we are going to create our own team – the Little Miss Hannah team.

It is so hard to explain to people HOW much this trip meant to me.   It was one of the last times we had pure joy with Hannah before her condition really started to deteriorate.  I was naive at the time, but looking at pictures of Hannah soon after the trip, I see it now.

But most importantly, it gave all of us, especially Ethan and Abigail, memories that we could not have ever provided.   Memories of nothing but fun with Hannah and amazing opportunities, I mean, the kids were treated like royalty and still talk about it to this day!

When we made the decision to place Hannah in hospice, after the meeting with the social worker to break the news to them that we were bringing Hannah home to … well, you know… the social worker asked the kids to stay with her while Daddy and I took a walk.   She had each of them draw a picture of something they think about that reminds them of the good times with Hannah.

They weren’t sitting near each other nor did they talk about it beforehand.   But both of them drew a picture about the Make-A-Wish trip.  I still have those pictures they drew and colored in Hannah’s memory box.

Thank you, Make a Wish of Southern Nevada.  You gave us a tremendous gift.   Not just the gift of an amazing trip, but the gift of priceless memories to last us our lifetime.