The icing on the cake

Being the parent of a medically fragile child is hard. In my opinion, being the sibling of a medically fragile child is sometimes even harder. The family of a medically fragile child walks a fine line between sanity and falling off the edge of a cliff. Living in constant survival mode doesn't leave much room for unplanned events. So, when the medically fragile child gets sick unexpectedly, the whole family has to stop what they are doing and rush to the child's side. Oftentimes, when that happens, the healthy child gets left in the dust wondering where everyone went. It's a rough place to be. It literally brings tears to my eyes to think of Sierra standing in that place. And yet, we're guilty of putting her there, time and time again. So is the way life goes with a medically fragile child, I'm afraid. So to have an opportunity to make that healthy child feel special, like the most important person in the world, as if the whole world has stopped just for her, well that opportunity is priceless. Thank you, thank you, thank you Icing Smiles for giving us that opportunity.

In the past year, our sweet Sierra has had to deal with missing me, who had primary hospital duty, being shuffled between different relatives and friends, spending long days in a hospital icu room for a stretch and essentially having her whole world turned upside down. Even when I was home, I often wasn't mentally "there," constantly torn between the two halves of my heart, separated by a half a city. But through it all, she has been such a trooper this past year and has simply exemplified what every parent would want in an older loving sibling. After everything she had been through this year, we really wanted to make her birthday special and truly have the focus be all about HER. We were so excited that Icing Smiles was able to help us do this. Icing Smiles is a non profit organization that provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by critical illness of a child. Their goal is to create a custom cake for the ill child or their sibling that will provide a temporary escape from worry and create a positive memory during a difficult time.

Icing Smiles connected us with Jennifer Hernandez (http://www.temeculacakes.com/). Well, Jennifer truly went above and beyond. She made us, without a doubt, the most amazing cake I have ever seen. All I told her was that the party was a princess theme. She showed up (after a 2 hour drive - she drove all the way from Temecula!) and set it up in our dining room. I walked out to see a Rapunzel cake as tall as Sierra!!! I was so touched and couldn't stop crying. I mean, I cried at Bodie's cake (also from Icing Smiles, although a different local baker), but I was full on bawling this time around. To think that someone would have done this for our sweet Sierra was just too much for me.

Sierra LOVED the cake and was so excited to show it off to all of her friends! Every single person who walked in stopped short when they saw the cake and remarked about how amazing it was. And not only was it beautiful, but it was absolutely delicious as well (the top layer and bottom 2 layers were cake and the tower was made out of rice krispy treats)!

THANK YOU Icing Smiles and THANK YOU Jennifer. You have touched Sierra, and our family, in a way that we will never forget. God Bless You.