Nurses, medical equipment, Hawaii . . . OH MY!

Meet Sophia:

Sophia is the daughter of the woman I credit for starting my singing career.  Stacey and I met the summer after I graduated high school.  She was singing at St. James Cathedral in Seattle (where she still works) and managed to get me hired there.  Aside from a gig as singing strawberry in a parade, it was my first professional singing gig.  Stacey took me under her wing, trained me, encouraged me and was a wonderfully supportive mentor.  In addition to becoming a spiritual home for me, I met and married my husband at St James and eventually had my daughter baptised there!  I've also made very important and life-long friends there.

I can never thank Stacey enough for her kindness and generosity towards me.  But what I can do is tell you a little bit about her daughter and Stacey's quest to raise funds to take Sophia to see her grandma in Hawaii.

Sophia was born prematurely and has a number of different health challenges that require regular assistance from nurses.  She is also dependent on medical equipment that will have to travel with them to Hawaii.  As a single mom on a musician's budget, the thought of visiting family in Hawaii with a child with special needs has to be overwhelming to say the least.  (Jason and I had a difficult enough time traveling with Charlie.  I can't imagine how much more work it would be to travel with Sweet Sophia!)

Making things even more challenging is the recent development that Sophia was diagnosed with a Wilm's tumour.  She's lost her gorgeous long blond hair (though she now has an impressive collection of hats!).

So far, enough money has been raised to send half of the nursing staff they need to travel to Hawaii.  Needless to say, there is still a long way to go.  Please consider donating by following this link.  (Here!!  Click right here!!)  You will see a "donate" on the right hand side of the page.  You can also donate airline miles from carriers such as United, Alaskan and Hawaiian Air.  I'm not entirely sure how donating miles works, but contact me (or leave a comment on this post) and we can figure it out.

THANK YOU!