Calling all Angels!

You don’t have to be angelic to be one of Adahlia’s Angels…

… you just have to be UNSTOPPABLE.

Are you an Angel?

Okay, so this isn’t a photo of me being an angel. (In this picture, I’m a dragon.)

In reality, I’m neither an angel nor a dragon. I’m a real person, like you.

But real people can choose to be great and noble beings, can we not?

This is a photo of our theme for Trunk or Treat at Adahlia’s school this past fall. In this image, I’m Sisu - Raya’s loyal dragon who helps her save the world in Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know Sisu acts as a guiding and protective angel to Raya. And that got me thinking...

What does it mean to be an Angel, anyway?

Sisu isn’t perfect. No angels are. Angels have quirks. Angels have imperfections.

What makes an angel an angel is their presence. Their unstoppable faith and support.

What kinds of Angels are on our team?

Well, to answer this, let me explain something about how Adahlia and I like to dress up for Halloween:

She decides a theme ad I support it.

When she was two years old, she wanted to be an astronaut, so I jumped on board to be her spaceship. (Her dad decided to be an alien.)

What is an astronaut without her trusty ship and a universe of unknowns to explore?

Looking back, that might have been my favorite year. She made one heck of a cute astronaut!

The next year, she decided to be a scuba diver, so I became a long-armed squid. (Thank you, Octonauts, for teaching us about fantastic sea creatures we never knew existed!)

I had thought Adahlia liked that squid. After all, she provided her input when I constructed it. But, as I carefully stepped into my costume, I discovered (too-late!) that Adahlia was actually terrified of it. Oops! Like a responsible scuba diver, she kept herself a safe distance from my tentacles during our city’s parade.

(One little girl actually recognized what I was! But someone else asked if I was a toilet.)

It may not have been our most “successful” costuming, but we still rocked it and kept to the overarching theme of our lives.

Have you picked up on it yet?

In our family, we celebrate adventure, courage, and support.

It takes ALL kinds of Angels to support a dangerous adventure.

You’ve got to have the sidekicks (like Sisu) and support structures (like a spaceship).

You’ve got to have feared enemies who become friends (like the long-armed squid).

You can’t have a true adventure without all those players and pieces.

Why?

Because true adventures are both perilous and transformative.

And no hero or heroine triumphs alone.

The support system makes the adventure possible.

Combined, they overcome obstacles and win the day.

Together, they make magic happen.

Fairies and angels and friends, oh my!

Ever since she was very little, Adahlia has had angels by her side.

They pushed me to insist that a pediatrician examine her that same day when no one believed that anything was wrong (and it turned out she was a hair’s breadth from death).

Later, as a toddler, Adahlia would say that “her fairies” would help her win at Crazy 8s (it was uncanny how often she won that card game, even when I wasn’t playing in her favor).

And she called on “her angels” for comfort when she faced bullies and loneliness after relocating across state lines and starting over in a new city and new school.

I believe that Adahlia is beloved in heaven.

But Adahlia’s Angels aren’t just invisible beings.

Adahlia’s Angels are very much human, too.

Adahlia’s Angels are all sorts of people.

They are her doctors. Her nurses. Her family, her teammates, her classmates, and friends. Her teachers, her coaches, her instructors, and pets.

Her angels are the extraordinary people who helped us out with medical bills, medical equipment, and living expenses when things got tight and scary.

The man whose company bought the glass art depiction of Adahlia’s drawing of Rose, her healing animal, for $800 at a charity auction for Children’s Cancer Research, and then gave the glass cheetah to Adahlia is one of her angels…

…and so is the waitress who regularly tops Adahlia’s hot cocoa not only with whipped cream, but also with a mountain of mini marshmallows.

Our angels are the folks who work the phones of the insurance companies and make tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills disappear like magic.

They are the founders of the DBA Foundation, the Friends of DBA, the members of our DBA Family, and the small but highly dedicated group of researchers who haven’t given up and won’t give up until they find a cure for rare kids like Adahlia.

They are the counselors and support staff at Camp Kemo and Camp Sunshine.

They are our friends who read this blog and support us on social media.

They are the strangers and acquaintances who add us to their prayer lists.

And the young woman in the Netherlands who signed up to “Be the Match” without knowing that within a few years her phone would ring, and she’d be asked if she’d like to save the life of someone an ocean away...

… the life of my child, just nine years old at the time.

We honor you.

All of you and more.

You’re all Adahlia’s Angels.

Because you have unstoppable faith, unstoppable love, and unstoppable courage.

An opportunity to show your colors

Some angels like to hide from sight.

And that’s perfectly fine.

We love our angels in the shadows. We know you are there.

And it is important to have many, many kinds of angels in these sorts of battles.

For those who like to proclaim who and what they stand for, we have designed some support bracelets in honor of Adahlia’s journey and to show that you care and support her as she faces the challenges of bone marrow transplant.

(And I’m sure we’ll come up with more fun stuff!)

The sale of these bracelets will benefit the DBA Foundation to fund research.

Take a picture with your bracelet and #adahliasangels, @adahliasadventures, or #cureDBA.

Every month, we’ll hold a drawing for an original 11x8 canvas acrylic painting by Adahlia, made just for our unstoppable friends!