Loaded Question

Alexis was watching t.v. in my room with me while Austin was napping today when she suddenly turned to me and out of the blue asked, "Nat-Nat, do dreams really come true?"

I felt all of the air leave my lungs as I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked back tears and told her the only thing that came to mind... "Yes, baby girl. Some dreams really do come true..."

She seemed satisfied with that answer as she smiled and turned back to the television.

Lord, give me her faith, Please.

Pictures of Dempsey Racing T-Shirt

My Dempsey Racing t-shirt arrived in the mail today! A VERY welcome surprise after a hectic final day of VBS!

Front of the shirt. Dempsey Racing's # 40 is on one sleeve and their sponsor, El Grado Tequila is on the other.

Back of the shirt

Order yours HERE!

Dempsey Racing Online Store

Yay!!! I can now wear some official Dempsey Racing apparel!!! And the name McDreamy WON'T be attached!

Dempsey racing t-shirts are now available to buy online! I'm told I was the FIRST to order! *blush* :) Right now there's only shirts to buy, but I think hats may be in the works as well. *crossing fingers*

Currently they only ship in the US but I think they will be shipping internationally very soon.

I'm VERY excited about being able to show off my Dempsey Racing pride and of course, have another way to support Patrick! Hopefully I'll have the shirt before we leave for Colorado on vacation so I can wear it while we're there! After THIS RECENT ENTRY I needed something to lift my spirits, this did the trick!

I added the link to the store under the "sites worth visiting" section so you can visit any time! But I'll give it to you now as well!

And another HUGE thanks to Jim for getting this up and going for all of us Dempsey Racing fans! You rock my wheels, Jim!

DEMPSEY RACING ONLINE STORE

Kyle's Story

I talk quite often about Kyle Sherrill and how his story has inspired me. I have yet to meet Kyle in person, but this precious little boy will forever hold a piece of my heart in a way no one else will. He is a living reminder of the power of God. Of how big He is and how prayer changes things!

Below is a link to a video with a condensed version of Kyle's story. Please watch. You will understand why this little guy is such a miracle and hopefully come away with a renewed belief in the power of prayer!

KYLE'S STORY

Prayer Requests...

A couple of prayer requests....

1) Vacation Bible School kicks off tomorrow (Monday) and goes through Friday. Currently we have 136 kid pre-registered (Alexis and Austin being two of them). I'll be helping with registration and record keeping all week and am sure that number will rise as kids show up tomorrow morning. SO many people have worked SO hard to make this coming week a success. Please be in prayer for all of the kids that will be attending that God will move in their lives in a special way this week. Also, please be in prayer for the workers as well, that God will work through us and through the activities the teachers have planned.

2) Some friends of mine have been waiting to travel to China to adopt their little girl. Well, they are in China RIGHT NOW and it is currently 9:33 a.m. Monday morning there so it is GOTCHA DAY for them! Meaning they FINALLY get to see and hold little Ruthie for the FIRST TIME!!! She will be theirs TODAY!!! Just typing that brings tears to my eyes. PLEASE be in prayer for Trent and Ginny as they are probably beside themselves right now waiting to see their daughter. Pray that Ruthie handles everything well as she meets her family. What a beautiful day it will be for them!

Thanks so much for praying, everybody!

I hope you like the new profile song. Listening to the lyrics, I thought it was fitting for me personally.

Is the Dream Too Big?

So, I know I said I was "Dreaming in Silence" (see a few posts below) but I just can't tonight. This is a difficult dream to give up on and I need some place to..... do whatever it is writing does that makes me feel better. Isn't that what a blog is for in the first place? So, if you're getting tired of all the ramblings about me wanting to meet Patrick, just skip this entry, okay?

I can't sleep tonight. Perhaps it's the stop I made to Starbucks after dinner tonight that's helping me not sleep, but whatever the cause, sleep isn't coming right now but other thoughts are.

I keep thinking how totally unrealistic my dream to meet Patrick is. I mean, let's look at the facts here, shall we?

* Most of the people if not ALL of the people I've read about that have met Patrick seems to have been at "right place at the right time." I can't simply look up his race schedule and say, "hey, let's go to that race! First off, he doesn't attend every race due to GA (I'd probably show up to the ONE race he wasn't attending) and second. I can't drive so that means my parents would have to get me there. There would have to be something MAJOR to convince them to do that...Oh yeah, third...Money. I've saved for three years and the amount I have probably wouldn't even cover plane tickets.

* Then there are those that get those set tours of GA...Good night nurse, talk about a DREAM...I get that they're probably not all they're cracked up to be, but who cares....Patrick Dempsey AND Ellen Pompeo and the chance to meet BOTH...Wow! Not to mention Chandra Wilson...She ROCKS!

* But then there comes to mind another question: What makes me SO special that Patrick would even WANT to meet me? Okay, I know how totally negative that sounds, but hear me out: He's got SO many fans, SO many people want to meet him, I'm just one in a sea of faces out there. What is it about me that would make him say, "Yeah, I want to hear your story..."

* I live in Texas. In a small city. This kind of stuff doesn't happen to me...Granted, I've never had something I wanted this badly either.

People say, "Dream Big" and I doubt when they say that they're thinking, "dream of meeting a celebrity..." they're thinking, "dream of becoming something." "dream of finding that cure for Cancer or a solution for homelessness" "Dream BIG THINGS" I know plenty of people that don't think this is big enough, but to ME...It IS big because for this to happen...It's going to take something big happening....It would take a medium sized miracle.

Everyone is told when they are little... "You can be anything you want to be and do anything you want to do." I believed that. When you're young, you believe that. Then you get older and the world becomes a world of "can't."

"You can't have that job because you're not qualified."
"You can't do that because you're not strong enough."
"You can't meet Patrick Dempsey because your disability won't let you..."

So, for me...Meeting Patrick Dempsey IS dreaming big because the reality of the situation screams at me. The odds don't look good and I know that, but I want that faith back I had as a little girl....That anything IS possible and that dreams DO come true!

I know people right now who are making plans to go to a race of Patrick's in a few months with plans on saying hi and getting his autograph and picture...They can do it. They're not dependent on others for certain things, I am and it makes me HATE the fact that BECAUSE I have CP, I can't just go...There are plans that would have to be made for me...Where do the disabled sit? How would I get there? Can I afford it? Could I even get TOO Patrick in a wheelchair with throngs of people wanting to meet him all around me?

These are things I think about when I think about wanting to meet him. And it makes the dream deflate a little more every time because it just seems like there's no way it will ever happen.

But...I still hope. I still pray. I still ask for God to make it possible. I HAVE to believe that it CAN and that it WILL happen. I have to believe in miracles!

A Hairy Situation

I had a hair appointment today and the place I go to get my hair cut is probably the least handicapped accessible place in town. Steps going inside as well as steps inside the actual salon. However, I go there because I REALLY like the girl that does my hair. She's great and goes out of her way to help me out as she is well aware of how hard it is for me to navigate around that place.

I was in desperate need of a cut and Kimberly had an appointment today so I sent Windy a message asking her directly if she could fit me in with Kimberly. She said that was fine so this afternoon Kimberly, Lexi, and myself headed downtown. We got to the salon twenty minutes before our appointment and made the block three times trying to find a parking space close to the salon (all of the handicapped spaces were taken. Surprise, surprise).

We found a space that someone was pulling out of at the front of the building close to the door. There was a car in front of us with her blinker on like she was waiting for this car to pull out...She was having a conversation with someone in the parking lot. When she noticed that Kimberly had stopped and turned her blinker on, the lady motioned to us that SHE was getting that spot and yelled out the window... "The spot is taken!" I had to remember I had my five year old niece in the car and said to Kimberly, "Geez! She can have the spot!" While my sister passed her and I'm sure gave her quite a look.

We finally found a parking spot across the street from the salon and I had to walk a bit more than I should have had to in order to get there, but we did. As Kimberly was getting her hair done, we told Windy about the experience, she seemed just as frustrated by it as we were. And to top it all off...When it came time for Lexi to get her hair cut, that SAME rude client's had the booster chair Lexi needed! Seems her son was getting a hair cut as well.

I came home tonight having really forgotten about the whole situation. I logged into my Facebook account a few minutes ago and Windy had posted about the situation on her page. I was stunned. Apparently it stuck with her in a way I didn't realize, I thought she probably would have forgotten about it soon after we left, but that wasn't the case.

It's sad that I'm kind of used to this stuff happening...People parking in a handicapped space, putting the blue tag on the rear view mirror, and then watching them jog into the store...Or worse, someone parking there with NO tags AT ALL! It's just something I've gotten used to. Some people are just going to do stuff like that. I've lived with this disability my entire life...Seeing things like this just comes with the territory. Does it make me mad? You bet! It's absolutely not right. My family and I are used to it. Many times we DO speak up to the person. Other times, we simply say to each other that we hope they never REALLY need those tags.

Seeing this tonight made me grateful. I'm really appreciative of Windy and the support she showed me in her post (though she never mentioned me by name) It's nice to see other people saying that it's not right and being angry about it. It's one thing for ME or my family to be upset about it...Of course...I SHOULD be, I'm the disabled one, people would EXPECT me to be angry. But it's another thing to see others NOT disabled speak up on the issue...That is NOT something most would expect.

Stuff like this is indeed part of my life. It's frustrating, yes. And I'm appreciative of the fact that others get as angry about it as I do. At the end of the day, I do what I can to handle situations like this, and then I (literally) roll on! :)