Saturday, March 19 was an extremely exciting day for both of my girls. Jesse stayed awake till 3 am ( Yeah red blood cells… better than any overly caffeinated drink out there)
Chris awoke shortly after I did. And yes I did the flight of the bumble bee house halfway house cleaning routine. Because of leaving in the dark and returning in the dark Friday, I didn’t get a chance to clean as I would have. Luckily Mike cut the grass. Didn’t have time to weed the front (of course Mike always tells me Round Up does the trick… )
We actually didn’t wake Jesse up until the limo from Premier Limos was in the front yard. The rest of the RocSolid Foundation/ Play It Forward crew were already outside getting set up. She actually wanted to wear a dress. I don’t know where these 2 kids came from… I always refused to wear dresses as a child…
Mike went out to speak with Eric and John. I think that he was curious about how it was going to look 😉
A little after 8am, the guys came in. Eric and John asked Jesse where she would like to go for breakfast. Her response was Chick-fil-a, but we should have been taping her because her tone was duh what did you think.
When we stepped out to get in the limo, Chris was blown away!
We met Glenn, the driver/owner of Premier Limos and his son, Caleb. They are absolutely wonderful people. And I am very impressed that an 8 year old would get up early on a Saturday morning to come meet us with his dad.
Eric and Glenn were able to join us for breakfast. I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk with them. I wish the other volunteers had had a chance to come with us. I really didn’t get a chance to meet them all 🙁 But I understand that they were on an important mission.
After breakfast, Eric returned to our house to finish the build. We asked Glenn if it would be ok to pick up my aunt, mom, first cousin, and her daughter to ride with us to Harley Davidson in Williamsburg and Yorktown.
When we arrived at the hotel where they were staying, Allison was amazed by the limo. The girls really enjoyed riding together in the back. I learned that was the first time mom had ridden in a limo (It was my first time too, but then again my second cousin made the news and Jay Leno for seeing Big Foot in North Carolina in 2010). And I had to giggle when she talked with my brother James telling him that she was going to a Harley Davidson store. My mother isn’t overly thrilled that I have a motorcycle license. For her to be excited about going to a Harley Davidson store is amazing.
We first stopped at Revolutionary Harley Davidson to see a friend of Mike’s. She was really excited to see Jesse. We traveled to Hampton Roads Harley Davidson from there. I really appreciate that Glenn was willing to drive us around.
At Hampton Roads Harley Davidson, there were a ton of people there for their blood drive! Donna, the manager, introduced Jesse to everyone there over the speaker system. She had a blast walking around.
While we were there 2 fathers spoke to us about their children and success fighting cancer. One’s son fought it 33 years ago!
I was amazed by the cars in the neighborhood when we pulled back in! Even News Channel 3 and Channel 13 were there!
The girls were so excited to get out of the car. We meet the wonderful people of WePromise Foundation, who funded the build of Jesse’s playground. But Chris and Jesse couldn’t contain themselves, and took of running to the backyard. Mike (my husband) heard John from RocSolid say, “Yes! She’s running!” I really hope that tenacious spirit cares her through the darkest days of chemo, radiation, and antibody therapy.
In the backyard, there it stood! 3 stories tall with a rock wall, picnic table, slide, swings, steering wheel, and telescope! First thing Jesse wanted to do was swing. Then they asked her to go down the slide. From that point on things became a totally whirlwind for me. I was interviewed 3 times…
By the time I turned around from the interviews, most all the volunteers were gone. I did get a chance to speak with the several of the board members from We Promise. They also got the girls a gift on top of the playground! Jesse loves her Dora and Chris loves her Hungry Hippos.
Thank you everyone that helped with Jesse’s playground. I really appreciate that you would take the time to do something for us. God Bless you all.
I have included the news videos from that day (when I can, I’ll add our limo video)