LILY’S PAD IS TURNING ONE!

On August 1^st, Lily’s Pad will have officially been open for one year. If you’ve followed our previous blogs, you know the passion with which we fought to create this safe space for children to play. It was a true labor of love, and our blog posts were typically about how hard it was to wait and how many challenges we were facing getting it built. In fact, I got a little tired of writing about those things and stopped blogging all together!

But now it’s time to grab the keyboard and start telling this story again. Because it’s been a year of moments that are worth sharing.

Soon after we opened, a mom and dad stood on our playground with their arms around each other, locked in a quiet embrace, overwhelmed by the sight of their children able to play together on a playground. It had been a year since they were able to witness that pure childhood joy on their daughter’s face, having been isolated due to her cancer battle, with no safe place to play.

I truly love hearing the kids’ excited laughter as they race to “Trixie”, our frog mascot, whose picture is on our door, greeting kids. Many happy photos have been taken at that entrance, with kids beaming next to our sweet Trixie and us all waiting on the other side to say hello to those excited kiddos.

But there’s so much more.

The memory of a shy little boy with a bald head who wouldn’t leave his dad’s side when he first entered our playground. Fast forward six months later and that same little boy walks in our doors with a brilliant smile and no fear! Happily waving at his parents as he bounds off to play with our volunteers. Content for 90 minutes to let Mom and Dad sit and breathe.  Happy, safe and protected within our space.

Standing in the café and hanging tight to a mom who can’t stop crying as she looks through the windows of the playground and sees her kids at play. “It’s so clean!” “It’s so pretty!” “They are having so much fun!” It’s happy tears she’s crying, and she can’t seem to stop them from flowing. Neither can I really – that type of raw emotion is contagious.

The countless texts or emails I’ve received from parents filled with gratitude about the warm and loving place Lily’s Pad is for their families. The cute pictures they send me of their kids at play. My heart fills every time I’m blessed with one of those messages.

And I don’t think I’ll ever tire of the sight of two kids from two totally different families, battling two very different diseases, running up to each other at one of our events to grab hands and take off to play together.  The excited peal of laughter from our smallest visitors who weren’t expecting slides and toys and games behind that entry door.  The hugs.  The small hands finding their way into mine.  The sound of “Miss Dawn” being called and requests to come play. I cannot say no to a request to play – it’s my kryptonite and I’m doomed if they use it.

The.Pure.Childhood.Joy.

As we worked to build Lily’s Pad, there were days with doubts and days with fears.  Days with setbacks and days with impossible mountains.  There were construction delays and ordering mishaps.  Pushed back openings and budget constraints.  There was blood, there was sweat and there were some tears.

But in the end, WE did it TOGETHER.  Our community rallied behind this cause and pushed us up and over those hurdles.  Every cry for help we sent out was met with an answer. Every impossible cost we encountered was met with a donation.  There were heroes and there were SUPERheroes and there were even a few angels along the way.

Almost a year later, I still see Lily’s Pad as a work in progress.  Not everything has turned out the way we planned.  We’ve already regrouped and changed course and added programming that we never foresaw. Sometimes it’s hard to find volunteers for the times we need them. Sometimes our grant requests get rejected. And getting the word out to families that this resource exists has been more challenging than we anticipated. (They are an isolated population– we should have expected it!)

But, honestly, none of that matters.

Because isolated kids, medically fragile kids, kids battling disease and rare conditions, kids who have been told no, and you can’t and not today and maybe next time…are getting told YES!  Yes, you can play!  Yes, you can make friends!  Yes, you can stop stressing about your next medical procedure, your next surgery, your next blood draw, your next hospital stay and focus for just a little bit on being a kid!

I’m grateful for every kind word I get from parents who appreciate what we have done by building Lily’s Pad. But the truth is, it is I who is blessed by you and by your kids.  I’m humbled by their strength and by your ability to find light in darkness.  I’m honored to play a small part in your family’s journey.  I fall in love with your kids each and every day.

I thought building Lily’s Pad could change lives.  And I’m hoping it has. But what I didn’t fully expect, was that it would change mine.

Can’t wait to meet more amazing humans in year #2.

-Written by Dawn Garza, Executive Director of Lily’s Pad and a super fan of every Lily’s Pad kid