(written by Sunny)
In order to set up this story we're going to need to step back in time to Tuesday, February 17th, the day Lindsie first found out she had cancer. With Dr. Getz telling Lindsie and Josh how important their trip to Disneyland would be it got a few of us thinking how fun it would be to spend that week with them. Matt and Amber Buhrley had season passes that were going to expire the very week Lindsie and Josh were going to be in Disneyland. They started talking about making the trip and by Wednesday they had a plan in place to start driving on Thursday. I had been mentioning to Joe for a few days how much I wished we could make it work, but we had planned a trip to San Diego for Spring Break and there was no way we could do both. Wednesday night I couldn't sleep and finally at 3:00am I woke Joe and told him I just couldn't feel settled about not making the trip to Disneyland to be with the McDaniels. We decided right then we would make it work no matter what- and we weren't going to tell Lindsie and Josh.
When Thursday the 19th rolled around I was busy researching hotels and everything else for our surprise trip. When Lindsie got the news that day about the cancer having spread to her bones I was so glad Joe and I had made the choice to go. That night at Josh's surprise party we started telling our friends in hushed tones what we were planning and one by one the other families said they were going too. And just like that the McDaniel family Disneyland trip went from 5 people to 31. Not everyone could go on such short notice, but 26 of us were able to swing it somehow.
It might seem crazy that that many people would plan a trip of this size in 24 hours, but if you know Lindsie you know that nothing that happens with that girl is ordinary. Lindsie is the kind of person who draws people to her. As much as we all love each other, we all know that in this group Lindsie is the sun and we orbit around her. She is the life of the party, the brains behind every crazy scheme, and everybody's best friend. She's the glue that holds us together and the truth is we needed her that week. There's no way we could have sat at home and held it together without Lindsie, so we went to her.
On Friday morning Julia Smith managed to design a t-shirt to commemorate our trip, find a load of matching shirts in various sizes, find a screen printer willing to print them all that same day, and have them dropped off to that printer by noon. I still have no idea how she did it. The silhouettes on the shirt represent each person who went on the trip. Lindsie and Josh are in the middle with their kids and the other families surround them. The hashtag is one we've used for a couple of years to describe the relationship we have with each other. It couldn't have been more perfect. Lindsie is usually the one in charge of stuff like this, so it felt amazing to know that something this awesome was created just for her.
I love how Lindsie is the Sunshine! This is true! We love and adore her and her sweet family!
ReplyDeleteYou are all an amazing Star!!