#TeamSophia Spa Days
You guys rock.
You really, really do.
Last week’s blog post raised $525 for #TeamSophia The Princess Needs A New Spa, which is a huge boost towards the ultimate goal of $25,000. As a whole, the project has raised over 10% of the goal, and I feel great about our contribution to it. We’ve got another six and a half months to get there, so let’s keep on keeping on!!
For today’s post, I wanted to show you why we’re doing this, in a little more detail. To do that, I’m going to borrow from an interview my friend Betsie did on her Perfect Strangers Project blog. Betsie’s an amazing woman who works down at the Pike Street Market. She’s also a photographer and all-around creative genius (and I’m not even exaggerating, though she’ll probably roll her eyes at my word choice). For her blog, she usually interviews people she meets down in the Market, homeless people, the ones you might not see and probably wouldn’t talk to. you can check out her blog HERE. Do it. Please. :)
Here’s a young Sophia in her first little plastic tubby. You can see her tracheostomy and her beautiful blond hair.
Stacey and Betsie happened to go to high school together, and when Betsie learned about The Princess Needs A New Spa, she got on it and made this post. With her permission, I’m borrowing a couple paragraphs of her interview with Stacey so you can get a better understanding of Sophia’s needs:
Stacey and Sophia live in a basement house that has a toilet and sink (Stacey showers upstairs). “The nurses and I bathe Sophia in a freestanding, troughlike bath tub that sits on a metal stand. The water comes from a faucet, runs through a hose into the 40″ medical tub. When the bath is over tub water is drained into buckets and poured down the sink. Sophia will be outgrowing the trough and we need to have a proper tub to bathe her.”
Stacey, the single mother with a growing special needs child, says, ”The situation is dire. If the nurses can’t lift Sophia safely, I have a HUGE problem. I must install a ceiling track that runs from Sophia’s bed to the bathroom (something like a medical zipline with a sling attached to it). Since Sophia requires to be lifted for everything, the safest place for us to prepare her for bath time is on her bed. From the bed we would place her in the sling, move her along the track that runs from her bed into the bathroom. Inside the bathroom we need a ceiling lift that would lower her into a full size bath tub. It’s what I need to take Sophia into adulthood.”
Sophia’s current tubby.
Stacey and Sophia have spent most of the last five years facing down every negative thing that’s come their way, and I expect them to come through this challenge in the same gracious, loving style. But it’s a team effort. We’re not asking for a lot, If everyone who read this blog post donated the price of a latte or the cost of a movie ticket, it would add up to something pretty fabulous. The orange “Donate” button in the right sidebar will take you to a Paypal page set up specifically to benefit Sophia, and about 97% of your money will go directly to her (minus the annoying Paypal fee). And if you don’t have any extra cash right now, send up a quick prayer to the deity of your choice in support of our efforts.
Stacey says gratitude is central to her life with Sophia, and here’s her for the day: “…the miracle here is that we HAVE to build a bathroom…that means she is HERE!”
She IS here, and #TeamSophia is a pretty cool community. Thanks so much for all you do.
Liv
