I wish, I wish, I wish...

Today was an exciting day for our little man Jude.  

We had our first meeting with his wish granter from the Make-A-Wish foundation!  Our meeting was at 1pm with Miss Sarah.  Jude picked out his own "Man Clothes...like dad" for this special occasion.  He was taking this meeting very seriously, as he had just learned about it this past Friday.  It was on his mind from the moment he learned of it and has been all he has talked about all weekend long.  For those of you who know Jude, you can imagine then, that we have answered about one million questions and listened to just about as many scenarios.  The idea of a real "wish" being granted is a mighty big deal to a five year old!

This day had me reflecting on his very unique journey in life so far.  My wish has always been that we didn't need a "wish".  That my child was never in a situation in the first place, to qualify for something like this.
Like all things in life, environmental factors play a huge role in the shaping of a person.  Though I imagined more control over Jude's environmental factors, he has grown to be quite a dashing and respectable young man, considering what he has already gone through at such a young age.  No mother imagines something like cancer being a part of her child's "environment."  In our case, I feel like we have done our best to make sure that Jude understands everything at an age appropriate level, and uses all of his experiences to learn and grow.

Because of Jude's long term treatment plan, we had to adapt to a completely new and super-structured lifestyle to accommodate all of the different medications he would be taking.  This was not only a learning curve for us parents, but for Jude as well.  His life of random snack times throughout the day, late nights of playing, cuddles and movies, plans for sleepovers, etc. were over as he knew it.  We needed to change a lot of his life, which was confusing and frustrating at first, but my resilient Jude learned to adapt.  A perfect example would be the fasting!  Try explaining to a two year old that they can't eat for six more hours after they wake up STARVING from a medication that makes them ravenously hungry.  Well, for Jude, who can be quite convincing and adamant about his thoughts, (even at age two) this was no easy task.  Our best bet to survive the ordeal was to ban all talk about food.  Jude, the well behaved little boy that he is, followed that very rule through and through...but boy did he ever find every loophole there ever was or could be!  Food talk not allowed = talk about the silverware he would be using later, or which shape his napkin would be folded at dinner, or even which condiments may be needed for later.  You get the picture.  This kid had something on his mind, and found a way to speak it!

All of his experiences have helped to shape his personality into the amazing Jude that he is.  He is a planner at heart.  He needs to understand everything, in full detail, and far in advance.  He needs time to process, and luckily for us, he does so out loud a lot of the time :)  So this whole new "wish" thing is a huge deal to him.  He wracked his brain all weekend and in true five year old fashion thought of possible wishes like:  Never having to brush his teeth again, but then he thought, maybe he should wish cavities never existed instead.  Nope, that wish won't do.  Maybe he could wish for a candy shooter to shoot candy into his mouth...hmmm, but then he said he would rather invent that when he is a mad scientist.

We knew early on, the day would come when Jude was ready to start the Make-A-Wish process, and it is finally here.  We couldn't be more thrilled at the thought.

I love how gestural he is when describes things :)
I like to think he gets that from his mama...
and that she looks just as cute doing it. too!

We met our wish coordinator, Miss Sarah, at our local coffee shop, Jittery Joes.  She was so sweet and absolutely welcoming to our family.  As with most people who meet Jude for the first time, she took quite a liking to him and seemed pleased that he was well spoken and able to relay his thoughts freely.  It was a pretty smooth process for the rest of us, as Jude took center stage and told us all about himself.   Easy-peasy for us, we just sat back and watched in awe :)

Safe to say, she was absolutely smitten with this kid when his answer to her question
"What is your favorite kind of music?" was "Tuvan Throat Singing,"
followed by a ten minute explanation and demonstration.
(Thanks a lot Uncle Dan, for that initial introduction by the way!)

I have to be honest, it is always a little scary to let your kid loose to talk to someone about...well, anything!  There is always that fear in the back of my mind that he is going to say something so horrifyingly embarrassing that I will just keel over and die.  But then...every time I "let him loose" I find myself filled with such pride and admiration.  This little dude is my boy!  I am so proud of him.  Every time I think I couldn't be more surprised at how awesome he is, he becomes more awesome.  I must look like a total crazy pants, sitting there with the biggest smile, tears in my eyes, gawking at this child that is so grown up for his age, so imaginative and intelligent.   Le sigh <3

"See ya Later" hugs.  

The meeting ended on a high note.  Jude threw us all for a loop when Miss Sarah asked the big question, "If you could wish for anything, what would your wish be?"  This kid is a total rockstar because what he came up with was just so perfect for him.  Based on all the discussion we had over the weekend, he must have been cooking up this secret idea all along.  Apologies in advance:  I am going to make the readers mad when I say...
I will not share the wish, as of right now.  <boo, hiss, grr!>  Sorry.

I don't want to say his wish because, well...it is certainly unique!  True Jude Fashion right there!  The Make-A-Wish foundation is super amazing for all that they do, but I am not certain that Jude's wish is even attainable.  We are still in the process and don't even know the next steps or how it all works.  So, eventually we will know things.  And eventually, you all will know things too :)

Big thinker.  Such a handsome young man :)

In the meantime, we will be answering a never ending slew of questions regarding Jude's wish.  Mostly from Jude.  I don't mind though.  This is his time.  Cheers!