osk: Meeting Sunna

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Meeting Sunna

More than a year ago, I came across the story of Sunna, a little girl in Iceland with who has AHC, Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood. She fell in love with a man's face and that man happened to be an actor named Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. She had never seen any of his movies, but she loved his face. Her mom and dad cut out his photos and put them on a big collage that they had to take with them everywhere! One day, although Sunna could not speak, she let her parents know very clearly that she wanted him at their house. Her dad got him there, and now they are fast friends and Ólafur is, with Sunna, the face of AHC in Iceland. You can see them both on the page header for the AHC Association of Iceland. I was touched by this story of this special little girl because she reminded me of another certain special girl who loves some Icelandic guys.

Today we got the girls together at Sunna's home, where her family so kindly had us over for coffee and cake. Sunna's older brother is the same age as our Corbin and they have similar interests. They went down to the "teen crib" to play video games (thus giving Corbin some relief from his game withdrawal!). Pippa was instantly drawn to Sunna, and soon Sunna was feeding Pippa and helping with her drink. We adults were all teary watching them together and watching Sunna play caretaker to Pip. It really was off the charts on the sweet-o-meter!

You can learn about AHC on their website: http://www.ahc.is/ and on their FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/AHCassociationoficeland/timeline. And here is the American AHC site: http://ahckids.org

Thank you, Sunna, Viktor, Ragga, and Siggi. Your family is so special to us.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why We Are Here

Pippa was born with a Grade III brain bleed caused by a lack of oxygen. This brain injury led to her being diagnosed with cerebral palsy just before her second birthday and shortly after turning 4, she was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a rare and severe form of intractable epilepsy.

She had a wish to go to Iceland because of her love of Sigur Rós. Pippa's grandpa Barton wrote a referral to a certain large wish-granting organization and was very specific about her unusual wish from the start. This organization deemed her medically eligible and told us that her wish would be granted. We were very disappointed when a rep from our state's chapter of this organization said that her wish could not be granted because they don't send children to Iceland (and I won't even get into the details of her callous, condescending attitude).

An outraged friend channeled her upset into an online fundraiser that raised all of the money for Pippa's trip — and then some. About halfway into the fundraiser, the larger organization told us that we had been misinformed and that they could actually send Pippa to Iceland after all. (Insert exasperated sigh.) At nearly the same time, thanks to a flurry of donations, including from Sigur Rós themselves, we made the majority of our goal in one insanely wild weekend. Once the fundraiser was all done, we were able to tell them to give the money to another child as we wouldn't be needing it.

Although the whole experience started with frustration and heartache, we all believe that this is the way things were meant to be. We have gained friends in Iceland before even setting foot there, and we have been showered with so much love and generosity that has humbled us and made us beyond grateful. This blog will cover our trip in photos and in words. This is the story of how a wish came true.