How Jellyfish Wishes came about...

I told you all in bits and pieces about where the idea of Jellyfish Wishes came from, but I'm still getting asked, so I decided to write it all down here. The idea is 100% my daughters.  When she was in the hospital for some major surgery, I was scared to death the coming weeks before.  To keep myself busy from worrying (which is all I've ever done) I decided to make a little note on my personal Facebook page about collecting hand made cards for her. What I assumed would catch maybe a handful of people's attention, turned into something so much bigger.  After all the churches, organizations, classrooms, daycares, and so many individuals found out about it, she received nearly 500 cards. Some where hand made from others her age, and some were from parents. Some were filled with animals, and others were filled with bible verses.  It was a great way to teach her that sometimes we go through hard and terrible things, but others are always praying and thinking about her.  Although she was a very grumpy little girl after her surgeries, I could tell how happy all the cards made her.  They also really helped me out. Knowing how many different people were praying for her, made her Mommy feel so much better. My sister is actually making a scrapbook out of all her cards and we will be keeping it FOREVER. We cut a little piece of every card, so that we can always remember how many people were kind enough to take time out of their days to bring a little happiness to someone else's.


The way I talk about my little girl, you would think she is nearly a teenager. She acts like one sometimes too!...but she is only 5 years old.  She was born with a birth defect on her bottom, and it was not caught by doctors until she went in for her first biopsy at nearly 3 years of age.  By then, she developed so many other problems with her colon. She was on many different types of medicine, she had x-ray after x-ray after x-ray. 


 We had many hospital stays, many hospital trips, doctor changes, hospital changes, and we finally found the perfect one for her.  That was a huge relief, but then the most terrible news came when I was told she would need to have a four hour surgery and remove part of her colon because it was so stretched out.  I looked for so many ways around it, but it all came back to her colon being removed.  I finally decided to stop worrying, get busy in gathering cards for her, and letting God handle it.  It is a VERY hard thing to accept when you know in the back of your head if everyone would have listened to you from the start, and found her defect, it would have been one small simple surgery, not this many. 


When the time came for part of her colon to be removed, I remember waiting in the waiting area looking around at all the other parents who were waiting for their names to be called for their child to be out of surgery. I felt so bad for all of them.  I hope that our cards will one day ease some of their worry, which is one of my main goals.  Not only to help the children, but to help their parents.  


One hour went by and they called "Parents for Aubrey" over the intercom. When I walked to the front desk, the lady said, "DO NOT be worried, but the doctor is all done, go wait there." DO NOT be worried? Oh my gosh, I was so nervous I cannot even explain it.  I have never been that anxious in my entire life, and wondered what exactly was going on.  I sat in a room waiting for her surgeon to come out. (I swear he took super long just to torture me, haha) he came out and told me that she didn't need to have her colon removed after all. They only had to do a minor surgery, like she had had done before, and they never had to go in through her abdomen.  So of course, we all start crying because we are so happy. I know that it was our God that healed my Aubrey. What would we have done without Dr. Levitt! And I know all the prayers helped majorly. It's a story that I will always have to share, because it changed our lives and just thinking about it makes me so grateful for her and everyone who sent cards and prayers.


So like I had said before, I totally am a follower of Christ, but if you are not you are MORE than welcome to stay and help out with cards!! I will not make anyone feel bad who doesn't believe, (and I hope others will not either) but will continue to talk about our life story and status updates will include bible verses. Hope a lot of you stick around to help make others as happy as I was! EVERYONE is welcome.. as long as you NEVER send rude things in cards! (:


Aubreys Mama, Linley*