So after an early dinner that night we drove up to the local Dairy Queen (DQ) and bought Blizzards. The kids received stickers, temporary tattoos and other fun goodies from DQ they were so excited. While we were eating our Blizzards I snapped a picture of Madelynn with my phone and emailed it to the representative at Carolina's Healthcare Foundation (CHF). I thought what better way for her to see we went to DQ but a photo of Madelynn eating her Blizzard.
A few days after that email was sent I received a phone call telling me how cute Madelynn was eating her Blizzard. DQ has a photo contest would it be ok if the photo of Madelynn was entered. Thinking nothing of it I said sure.
Madelynn's picture WON!!!
I did not know what it meant at the time but I was excited nonetheless. I was informed as part of the win DQ needed some additional pictures of Madelynn. Here is one of the additional pictures that was taken.
As this journey continued I received a call from the CHF asking my permission to put Madelynn's story in their publication Show and Tell. This is a bi-annual magazine sharing all the fundraising efforts for the hospital and highlighting some of it's patients. Again I didn't thinks a whole lot about it and went on about my day. Then the magazine came out and I received a very excited call from the CHF rep that not only did they highlight Madelynn as a patient she was ON THE COVER!!!
At this point all I could say was......"OMG!!!" Two days later Madelynn received this in the mail.
I did not tell Madelynn about this magazine cover or the article about her. I let her open the mail. It was a very exciting day. All of the kids wanted to take a copy to school and things continued to snowball.
I received a call from Madelynn's gym teacher asking if she could be the face of this year's Jump Rope for Heart for her school. Because the children knew someone that was truly affected they raised double their goal. Madelynn's gym teacher called me again asking if I wanted to be interviewed for a story in a local paper praising the fundraising efforts. Check out the link here.
One night I was cleaning out some old emails and came across something that reminded me that Madelynn had won the photo contest with DQ. I emailed the rep at CHF reminding her I agreed to let them use Madelynn's picture as long as I received copies of everything and had she seen anything yet. Suddenly the snowball picked up speed. I received this in my email.
This flier and the poster below will be going out to all the DQ's NATIONALLY for the second quarter of 2014. The winning of the photo contest last Fall just became VERY REAL!!! Madelynn was stunned when she saw herself in poster form.
I wasn't sure she understood how extraordinary things really were until people came to the house who had not seen the flyer or the poster and she very excitedly comes running them.
For me I am truly speechless at how the events have unfolded and her beautiful face is everywhere. If I ever had one goal in all of this it would be to spread HOPE to those families that struggle. One day they will also be on the other side of the journey like us. One day they will be living their new normal as if it were the only normal they have ever known. We pray for those families that don't see it or believe it that soon their eyes will be opened to it.
A HUGE THANK YOU to those at Carolina's Healthcare Foundation, the Dairy Queen Foundation and the Children's Miracle Network for allowing us to spread HOPE to all of those who read Madelynn's story.
TTFN~
Chelsea
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