No one is ever prepared when someone in your family gets sick, especially when it’s a child. My niece Kendall is one of the sassiest 3 year olds you will ever meet, so imagine our surprise when she got really sick a few months ago and her light started to dim. What we thought would be a 1-2 day stay at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, turned into almost 2 months!

We discovered that she has a rare Autoimmune Disorder (one that’s so rare it’s often called a Snowflake disease because the symptoms fluctuate so much person to person), and her body had been fighting it for at least 6 months. She’d been getting tests done because we knew something was off and she hadn’t been her usual self, but no one expected this. Life for our family changed (her mom, Monica, is a school teacher and worked virtually while being at the hospital with her night and day) but we’ve been through so much as a family over the last few years with my brother’s illness + transplant, that rallying up the troops and going into support mode kicked in immediately. We’re a small but mighty group and resilience is in our blood.

Thankfully, the wonderful team at Le Bonheur were able to provide amazing treatment for my niece, and she’s back to being that fun, vibrant 3 year old (times 10, lol. Seriously, she plays shy sometimes but she’s a little spitfire). She still has a long road ahead (what she has is treatable, but not curable), but we are eternally thankful for the team of experts at Le Bonheur. Kendall is the strongest 3 year old I know (and amazingly, she can share her story about her stay and what the nurses did), and while she was able to come home and we will be able to (safely) celebrate the holidays as a family, not everyone is so lucky.

a true representation of our relationship. we throw sass at each other aaaaaaall day long, but she still let’s me steal kisses when no one is looking, lol. 

This is where we all come in.

Le Bonheur is currently hard at work planning their celebrations for the children who will be hospitalized during the holiday season. Each year, they help Santa by delivering presents to every patient in the hospital when they wake up on Christmas morning. This year, as with everything else, the holiday season is going to look very different due to COVID-19, but they are working hard to find innovative ways to celebrate and ensure their patients still feel the joy and magic of the holidays.

(they loved Kendall as much as we do and she was asked to take pictures for this year’s Wish List campaign!

Here is a link to their Amazon Wish List and I’m asking my community to help support the patients at Le Bonheur to make sure they have enough gifts to go around! Items purchased from Amazon will be shipped directly to the hospital, so you can participate from anywhere in the world.

We are so thankful for the level of care that Le Bonheur provides to kids from all around the world. Even in the midst of uncertainty, we know that their patients will be well taken care of, and anyway that I can help spread the word, I will.

To learn more about the different ways that you can help support Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, click here.

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