Knowles Family Blessing Trip

Now that we've officially "kicked-off" Blessing Trips, I'm incredibly excited to announce that fundraising for the very first Blessing Trip has already begun!

The Knowles Family is a family that I actually know personally, and I'm so thrilled that they will be the very first recipients of the trip of a lifetime through our new nonprofit. 

Regina and Izzy

Regina is a hard-working single mom of a beautiful 8 year-old girl that has faced some overwhelming challenges throughout these past several months. After years of struggle trying to provide for herself and her daughter, she landed a fantastic supervisor position with a retail company. Things had been looking up and she was working hard to provide the life that she'd always wanted. Then this past December, out of the blue, she suffered a debilitating stroke at the young age of 32. 

Since then, she's been faced with an uphill battle for recovery, as well as medical bills that continue to pile up. But, being the tenacious, determined and incredible person that she is she's thrown her whole self into her recovery and is even back and work trying to overcome her debt situation and regain the life that she fought so hard to have.

While we can't change what happened last December, nor can we erase the memories of pain and struggle from her and her family's minds, we hope that we can provide a bit of respite and joy. Help replace the painful and sad memories with happy ones to serve as anchors in their memories so they can call upon them and help power them through the continued struggle ahead. 

When I contacted Regina about the idea of being our inaugural trip, she was humbled and thrilled! I immediately felt led to suggest Disney as that holds a special place in me and my families heart. We have set the dates for end of Sept. 2017 and are aiming to raise $4,000 to cover the entire cost of the trip for Regina, her daughter Izzy and her mother Terri, who has stood by Regina's side through everything and helped her more then she can put into words.

None of them have ever been to Disney before and while it's always been a dream, it's never quite been within their reach. 

Please visit the YouCaring crowd funding site to make a donation online, or email me about airline mile donations or other ways you might be able to get involved.

And read Regina's full story, written in her own words, below:

I have been looking for the words to describe my current situation in the most eloquent way, unfortunately that's not as easy as it used to be. To give you a little back story I'm a 33 year-old single mom of a wonderful eight year-old girl named Izabelle. When Izzy was born I lived in low income housing, survived off of WIC, food stamps, and the little money I brought in from my job. I'm truly an example of the American story because by the time Izabelle was 5 I was off food stamps and finally becoming able to maintain a livable life.

That being said you must know two things about me; 1) I will fight for what I believe letting nothing get in my way and 2) no matter how dire the circumstance I maintain a positive attitude. So life seemed to be turning around for me, I had a great job, just got an apartment without a consigner, my ducks were really starting to line up.

Unfortunately Murphy's Law typically is the story of my life! On Dec.1st, I got my daughter after school and after an exhausting Black Friday weekend at work joined my mother and grandmother for a trip to the Amish store. On the way back we had lunch and even did a little Christmas shopping. I was going to take Izabelle to $5 movie night, but since I had recently purchased a new movie, we decided to save money and have dinner at my Mom’s house instead. After dinner I started to wash the dishes when I felt a numbing sensation creeping up my arm. I went to yell for help but I couldn't speak. My daughter was sitting in front of me as this was happening.

As the numbing rushed down my entire right side I realized from my previous CNA training that I was having a stroke and tried to lower myself safely to the ground. I started pounding on the cupboards and tried to scream to get my family's attention. The only words I could say were “I can't talk,” and even though I was screaming it at the top of my lungs in my head it came out as a faint whisper. My mother couldn't guess what I was trying to tell her so when my stepdad said call 911 I gave them a big thumbs up.

I was trying desperately to think of a way to communicate. It was so frustrating wanting to tell them what was going on in my head. A police officer got there first. Unfortunately the oxygen was broken and no one could understand me. I started pointing and pointing to my phone, once again my stepdad figured it out. I used my right numb hand to prop the phone and opened apple notes. I used predictive text struggling to get the first few letters to type out “Stroke like symptoms.”

It was then I could tell them I wasn’t in pain. I felt like I finally had a means to communicate. I really couldn’t comprehend the gravity of the situation and texted work that I would be later. I couldn’t stop crying and was consumed with worry over work, anxiety about what would happen with my daughter, and if the doctors would be able to fix me. When I got to the UW Madison Hospital and MRI found that at 32 years-old, in excellent health, I had had a stroke.

There were tests, doctors, therapists and nurses in and out of my room. My family was so terrified and I could see it in their faces. Being who I am I decided I was going to get back to my normal life as quickly as possible. I started joking and making extremely light of my situation, but again I was so worried about everyone else and how my stroke affected them that I had little time to let reality sink it and truly accept the fact that I could have died.

After multiple tests a few things were determined: I was very anemic, I have Prothrombin gene mutation, and a rather large PFO. I pushed myself enough to get out of the hospital to get released in just over 3 days. In order to be released I had to be mostly independent. So I started eating with my affected right hand, I opened bottles, showered, everything I could do to try and force the feeling back. I couldn't really walk, so I decided I'd sit on the edge of the bed and kinda dance my feet around. Eventually they had to turn my alarm off because I was dancing around the room.

My speech was the hardest pill for me to swallow. I took great pride in being someone who was articulate and now to me, my words sounded like garbage. I decided that if I kept up with someone it would speed my speech up. I didn't care how bad it sounded I turned on Beyoncé and just sang! I pushed harder than I had ever pushed myself in my entire life, but I had it in my head I was going to have a normal life within a month.

A few weeks later I was told by my neurologist that this was going to be a much longer road than that was expected. That day I called my sales manager and it was the first time I really cried and felt bad for myself! She said three months minimum and I felt absolutely crushed. More doctor appointments that week determined I need surgery to close my PFO to prevent future strokes.

I also have to see a spew of specialist doctors to come up with a plan to get me back on track healthwise. Currently bills are piling so high I can't bring myself to open them. I pushed myself back to work in early February so I could start to gain some financial control. My comfortable life I was on track to living now seems like just a dream.

Izabelle is currently staying with my parents until I have my heart surgery to keep her in a routine and life as normal as I can for her. I'm trying to stay positive and focus on one thing at a time but the fact that I could have died is tearing me up!

Out of the blue Jessie messaged me on Facebook asking me when the last time Izabelle and I had gone on vacation. I couldn't remember, just that it was to visit my grandmother who had been getting sick. Jessie had told me about what she was doing by starting the new nonprofit “Blessing Trips” and I thought it was an absolutely wonderful idea! I wanted to help for sure!

I was so surprised and humbled when she asked if we would be her first family and that she'd like to send us to Disney World in the Fall. You see as a little girl, I always wanted to go but my parents couldn't afford it. Now I'm a mother in a situation where I know I will never be able to afford to take my daughter either! After all the craziness we have been through in these past few month, I can’t even fathom how we could possibly be able to to take an actual break, but it is so needed.

What Jessie is trying to do for us is truly a blessing! I don't know how I would have felt if I would have left the world that night, all I know is I plan on spending the rest of my life making the best of my life, putting more value in people and time vs. money and things. We can never get time back and I intend to fill the rest of mine with beautiful memories!