The
little girl who wasn't supposed to survive more than a few hours at most turned
16-years-old in May 2015. Kellisa endured 22 surgeries, countless seizures, and
too many medical appointments and tests to count or even make an educated guess
before arriving at her milestone birthday.
Left
& Middle- Blue Springs State Park
Right-
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge
Kellisa's
first wilderness experience happened on January 1, 2000, with a hike while attached to Lisa in a baby carrier at Blue Springs State Park, FL. 15 years later, to the day, we
returned to the park for our first outdoor excursion of the year. We stopped at
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge the following day on our drive back
home.
We spent a beautiful January weekend day at an animal encounter
(Left- girls petting a baby alligator) at Laura S. Walker State Park and a
boardwalk hike in the Okefenokee Swamp (Right)
Laurel's
ideal hike lasts from 1-2 miles in length. The conditions don't really bother
her as she never really complains about rain, snow, mud, or hills. Hikes are
always better if she can observe some kind of wildlife, even if it's
(non-biting) insects. Laurel can handle multiple 1–2-mile hikes in a day, but
anything longer than 2 miles at a time and she loses interest. I keep this in
mind when picking trails to hike with Laurel. It had been a while since Kellisa,
and I hiked more than a couple of miles and I was ready when we had a few
unexpected hours to ourselves on a Saturday afternoon. We headed to the beach
and hiked over 6 miles across the rugged sand to the sounds of crashing waves
and cooled by the ocean's breeze.
Guana River State Park
After
going 0 for 3 in my attempts to complete the Bataan Memorial Death March with
Kellisa, I decided against an attempt in 2015. I didn't think I was prepared
enough to have a legitimate chance to finish with Kellisa. I decided to take
the girls to south Florida for spring break. We visited a new national park-
Biscayne and spent a few days camping in one of our favorites- Everglades.
Everglades
Campsite
Biscayne
National Park
Everglades
National Park
Alligator
of the Everglades
Kindergarten
Father-Daughter Dance
Kellisa
became a Special Olympian as she competed in several events at the county and
regional levels. Egypt is giving a congratulations hug as Kellisa waits to be
given her winning ribbon.
Egypt
joined Kellisa's Baseball Team
Egypt was curious, so we spent an afternoon exploring the hospital
where she was born. We even made it all the way to the nursery, but the shades
were down for nap time.
I should
and do know better! I even had an article published about wheelchairs and the
absolute need to have first floor hotel rooms when traveling in a
wheelchair.
We flew
to Ohio late on Friday evening to meet our new niece. As I was driving to our
hotel, I told Lisa that I had made a reservation at a hotel that is close to
her brother's house, but that I didn't have any loyalty status with the chain.
I also realized that I forgot to request a first-floor room. I told Lisa that I
was too tired to fight if they didn't have a first-floor room. As I parked the
car, Lisa checked us in and of course, they did not have a first-floor room
because it was so late, so we took the third-floor room. What could go
wrong?
Like
clockwork, Egypt woke up early and wanted to go down for breakfast. As I was
staggering around the room to get ready, we started to hear an alarm. It
sounded like someone's alarm clock going off in a nearby room. Egypt and I left
Lisa to shower and Kellisa to sleep longer. We walked down the hallway, and Egypt
pressed the elevators down button. As we stood there and waited, Egypt said,
"I smell smoke".
Once Egypt
mentioned smoke, I realized that I could also smell something burning. The
elevator came and we started to get on when I had second thoughts. To be safe,
we went back to the room to get Lisa and Kellisa. We were barely in the room
when all hell broke loose. We could hear a man and woman in the hallway, both
pounding on doors and screaming, "The building is on fire"!
I know
the first and only thought should be getting out safely, but I had two more
thoughts as well. First, we need to grab the medicine for the kids. We can't be
1,000 miles from home without them. And second, we had Kellisa's Hippocampe
chair and I wasn't leaving that behind. I also grabbed our bag with all our
electronics.
In less
than a minute we were out in the hallway which was now full of smoke and
people. A police officer was yelling to get out by using the stairs. As soon as
he saw me pushing Kellisa, he offered to help. I knew I could get Kellisa (and
her chair out safely) and advised him that we were OK. I told Egypt to go, and
she ran down the stairs, out of the hotel and gathered with the crowd of hotel
guests in the grass.
I slowly
pushed Kellisa down the stairs as people were backed up and screaming.
Normally, she would have loved this activity, but she wasn't really awake yet.
I knew I could get down the stairs, but I was worried about people pushing. Not
a single person pushed, and I even heard a few offers to help. We reunited with
Egypt outside and we quickly learned that everyone was out of the hotel and
safe. I was relieved for only a few seconds. I did an inventory check of
everything I grabbed and realized that I didn't have the medicine.
The fire
was contained to two rooms, about four rooms down from us on the other side of
the hall. I knew our room was safe and if the medicine was in the room, we'd be
OK. However, I was worried that I would drop the medicine on the way out and it
could have been destroyed, ruined or even taken. I had to sweat it out for a
couple of hours before the fire chief escorted me to our room to gather our
belongings. I was relieved to find all the medicine on the edge of one of the
beds. It must have fallen out of my shorts pocket in the rush to
evacuate.
The
police and firefighters did an amazing job to put the fire out and keep
everyone safe and informed. Egypt was very scared at first and several first
responders went above and beyond to make her feel safe. Thank you!
We had to
move to another hotel, and we made sure we got a room on the first floor!
We completed one trail while in Ohio.
May 23, 2015
Our
little 2 pound and 1-ounce micro-preemie turned 16 on May 23, 2015. Lisa had a
special "Sweet 16" shirt custom made for Kellisa, and I had a weekend
planned with all of Kellisa's favorite activities. Since Maine was the only
state east of the Mississippi that Kellisa never visited, it would be our
destination for her birthday weekend.
Left column- Baltimore Airport. Top Right- Kellisa on her
2nd flight.
Bottom Right- Flying over coastal Maine.
Middle
Left- Birthday cake & ice cream
Bottom Left- Birthday dress
Top Left- Island Ferry
Bottom Left- 2nd birthday dinner on
an island
Top Right- Giant birthday cookie
Bottom
Right- Laurel "driving"
A very successful Sweet 16 Birthday weekend by all measures,
including two sisters who passed out!
Egypt turned 6 on June 8, 2015
Big gift for
Egypt was seeing Frozen on Ice in Greenville, SC
I started
feeling the pressure to travel to our remaining states to hike a trail before
Kellisa turned 18 in 2017. I wanted Egypt to complete the goal as well at the
same time, so we also had to work towards getting Egypt caught up to Kellisa's
completed list. Most of the remaining months were dedicated to travelling to
new states.
July
Virginia
West Virginia
Maryland
Delaware
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Minnesota (Repeat State)
North Dakota
Montana
August
Idaho
Wyoming
South Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas
Colorado (Repeat State)
October
Washington
Kellisa becomes a high school cheerleader
Halloween Bat Girl and a Pirate
November
We fell in love with this view and easy trail access.
December
Beach Fun
Christmas
Hey, very nice site. I came across this on Google, and I am stoked that I did. I will definitely be coming back here more often. Wish I could add to the conversation and bring a bit more to the table, but am just taking in as much info as I can at the moment. Thanks for sharing.
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Keep Posting:)